Sunday, March 27, 2011

Puttin' my braggin' pants on

That is what I am doing right now. I spend a lot of time on this blog airing my distress, outrage, boredom, mayhem and muck that comes with daily life. I love to read sappy blogs but I generally don't want to write one.

Today is an exception to that. Today all is right in the world and I am one proud mama. Let the bragging begin.

You see my boys want beyblades. They need beyblades. ALL their friends have beyblades. We take special trips to the store just to drool over beyblades.

But at our house you can get toys in one of 3 ways:
1. You earn them (we have a mallar system and it's rare to earn toys, usually just video game time etc...)
2. You receive them as a present (only for birthdays and christmas)
3. They are a really good deal. (I am a sucker for a good deal)

Unfortunately beyblades cost approx. $10 a piece. This does not count as a good deal and we are several months away from any holiday. So everytime our sons drool my husband and I explain that we will not be purchasing this toy.

Today they begged to go view the beyblades at Walmart. We complied and they quietly discussed amongst themselves the various attributes and cool colors of the beyblades they would buy someday.

We got home and I was ready for a break. I set them loose with the detailed instruction to play....QUIETLY....without me. I heard them laughing and scheming most of the time, every once in awhile things would get quiet and I would get concerned. Not concerned enough to get off my butt and check on them, but you know, concerned.

It got close to the time when we needed to leave for an evening event and I went to check on them. They had played quietly for over 2 hours and I was beyond curious at how they had spent their time and how much work it would take to clean up. With much trepidation I set forth to discover their mayhem.

I found them all seated on the dining room floor playing beyblades. But not with store bought toys (they didn't steal!). Nope. My ingenious sons had created them out of the spout tops of water bottles and out of legos and had them spinning all over the room. They had all been named and they boys had figured out which were better at different types of battles. I have never been so happy in my life to have denied my child a toy. The creativity, hard work and genuine fun times that came out of their deprivation was outstanding.

My husband and I stood there smiling at their play and I asked who's idea it was. You guessed it, it was my oldest. He is the one who causes me the most ulcers and tears but he also constantly amazes me with his ability to create, problem solve and lead others. His strengths just shine out of him when he is having a good day. I am so proud of all of my boys, I included a picture below of a few of their creations. It doesn't do them justice, I should have taken a video of them in action, it's seriously impressive. The colorful detailed lego ones are mostly do to my middle son who has an eye and talent for that sort of thing. He creates many things of beauty and you can always see the effort he has put forth in his work.

So, long story short, my kids rock! Also, next time your kids beg for a toy, deprive them and force the creativity out of them whether they like it or not. Unless it's Legos, cause legos are awesome and may be needed to substitute for the denied toy :)

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