Let the Battle Commence

I came down this morning to last night's reminder, of a Nerf battle. When the boys were little, Nerf battles were an every day occassion. One of mine would put a Nerf toy on every birthday list, and I was 'Mum of the Year' if I just bought a packet of the foam bullets for no reason. We have a drawer of them under one of the beds, and every de-clutter of the house that I try to do, I suggest we lose one or two of them, and I am met with strong oppostition from every child in the house. 

We started out saying they were to 'freeze' people, 'stun' them maybe, because I wasn't too comfortable with the play shooting, for all kinds of good reasons. Then we moved on to asking them to use different words in front of the little ones, in order to protect their understanding. What actually happened, is the little ones just ended up with quite a vast vocabulary for words they shouldn't know. 

Last night, the Nerfs were out. Quite cleverly, the use of a screen-ban was utilized well; either the one on the screen ban convinced the one not on a screen ban, to play with them somewhow, or the one not on a screen ban manipulated the one on the screen ban, because "what else were they going to do?" 

Annoyingly for me, this happened already past the girls' bedtime and moving to the next kids' bedtime. The earlier I get at least three into bed, the more chance I have, to chill a bit, reset for tomorrow. I suggested it was a bit too late as the girls were meant to be heading to bed, and the boys played me beautifully;

"But mum, we're having family fun. You love family fun. Plus we are including the girls, they are the ball girls. C'mon, you know you want to lean in mum." 

Mmm...they make a good point. Well, they can rest assured that they played me, and I can confidently say that I wasn't played, and that I made my own choice. (One of us is right I'm sure). The girls were very happy to be included in the crazy late night hype, even though they just ended up running around after their big brothers, being bossed around, without actually being part of the battle, 

So this morning's find was a nice reminder. I'm glad I did lean in, and I wasn't stressy mum, or too-tired mum, even though there was of course, far too much excitement in the house, to then actually go off to sleep, which I knew there would be. It was definitely worth grabbing the moment, an opportunity for sibling goodness can be a rare find.

"Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers". Galatians 6v10