Mother May I?

This kid?  This one right here?

That kid insisted (INSISTED!) that his friend's mother call me last week while he was visiting to make SURE it was okay that he play video games. 

He'd used up his weekly tokens and didn't know if he was allowed "bonus" tokens whilst visiting friends.

Have you ever heard of such a thing?  Wouldn't most children play WITH RECKLESS ABANDON at a friend's house if given the opportunity? 

Well, as you can see, my kid is *not* Most Children.  He likes rules.  He likes parameters. 

He's a very easy child to raise, as you might imagine.  Oh, he has his quirks, but in the rules department, he's pretty much a non-breaker.    He rarely leaves the seat up.  He never ever gets a snack without asking first.  Never takes food out of the kitchen.  He wears his helmet when riding his bike.  HE FLOSSES, for goodness sake!

But this never-breaking-rules thing has given me some problems during the last 4 days of The Black Plague.  Normally, we don't let him watch much television.  But, when you're sick, all bets are off.  We even offered to let him play video games (with no timer, even!), but his heart wasn't in it.  I suppose jabbing his fingertips on that little  controller was more energy than his limp little self could muster.  So we said "watch television, kiddo!", "knock yourself out!".

But he just can't grasp the concept.

Which means that, every half hour, he hobbles his weak little body down the stairs to ask if he can watch another episode of his cartoon.  Poor baby.  He's too sick to comprehend this  momentary change in The Rules.

So today, I've set myself a timer.  Every 30 minutes I make sure I'm upstairs near him when his show ends.  That way I can start the next one for him while he lays there marinating in his germs.

It's pitiful.  And also very sweet.  He's such a good boy.

Perhaps if I told him the new Rule is: "you must feel better!", he'd, you know, GET BETTER ALREADY!