General Bad Behavior

A couple weeks ago, my wife sent the kids to bed early for breaking a lamp during a friendly game of indoor soccer. Let me tell you, that was the best move ever. My wife & I got some much-needed alone time, and it turned into an evening of re-connection and romance. A couple of nights later, a little light went on for me, and I sent the kids to bed early again. Same thing the next night. And the next night... Last night, we held a family meeting in which I declared that due to their general bad behavior, the kids would be going to bed at 7:00 pm for the forseeable future, subject to change at the sole discretion of the parental units. That leaves time for 20 minutes of play, 2 hours of homework, and a family dinner after school.

Even though my wife & I have set 3 new records for post-honeymoon intimacy in the past 2 weeks*, my wife is expressing some concerns about the kids' quality of life. What do you think?

* most in a 13-day time period (6); most in a 10-day time period (5); most times on the living room couch (1)

I think those are some formidable records. More importantly, I don't see anything un-healthy with robbing your kids of a little post-dinner playtime. The truth is I'm kind of jealous. Since my wife, Julia, and I don't get along very well, I'll often try to keep the kids awake as long as possible in order to avoid coming in contact with the little lady. I often have to institute house rules like "First one to doze off loses a battleship" or "Last person awake gets to kick their brother/sister in the stomach". Pretty effective.

posted by Lawrence A. Fing @ 12:00 PM