Time to start the balancing act

It's that time of year again. School's in!

Time to start "helping" my kids balance game-time with school-work and other activities like Karate and gymnastics, as well as refereeing disputes over who's turn it is to play. During the summer, I give them fairly free reign over a lot of their day. There are chunks of the day where they get to decide when to play games, when to watch TV, when to play with friends etc. But now that the free hours in the day are severely limited, announcing I need them to come with me to do the grocery shopping because they're no old enough to stay home alone goes over like an /afk by the healer during a final Boss kill.

The beginning of our week is jammed with school followed almost immediately by a sport followed by homework time followed by dinner. That usually leaves about an hour of "free" time, followed by pleas of "just a few more minutes" or "I'll shower tomorrow!" or "but SHE hogged all the time on the Wii, I didn't get my turn yet!" Yeah, life's SO fun during those times.

Not to mention that I have to watch my own play-time. After all, the laundry can only be put off so long, because now we actually have to leave the house in those clothes, so they'd better be clean. Plus there will be the "I need help with my math homework" and the "I can't find my yellow t-shirt and I need it for gym tomorrow."

By Friday, I think we're already to do something more fun, so Friday nights are usually Game Nights here. Far from the Parker Brothers version of game night, we are usually all playing a computer or console game, sometimes with each other, sometimes not. The boys are usually teamed up with others via the net for Friday Night Fights, while the girls are often play Warcraft together. Sometimes we challenge each other to a game of Wii bowling.  There's always pizza, the age-appropirate beverage, and snacks. Sounds fun to me!