After the kids and I finished up school yesterday I heard Meredith ask Kenny if he wanted to play Air Hockey in the kitchen. Naturally, that got my attention.
Air Hockey IN the kitchen?
In my mind Air Hockey involved two disc-like pucks (which we do not have), an additional slender disc (another missing ingredient), and a long, enclosed, slick, surface area.
Their game involved a rubber ball, the tile floor, and I kid you not, two pink fuzzy slippers.
Air Hockey has taken on new dimensions in OMSHville.
Me: “And the pink fuzzy slippers…what are they for?”
Meredith: “To catch the ball.”
Right.
I should have known.
Pink, fuzzy slippers make for a great mitt apparently – even to a boy wearing a monster truck hoodie and torn up, dirty jeans.
Still, look how nicely he points his toes.
Shhhhhhh don’t tell his daddy.
As most of their home-made games go, this one morphed.
The pink fuzzy mittens were tossed and a new game began.
Me: “What is this one called?”
Kenny: “Kickball.”
Riiiight.
Even though there was a rather hard rubber ball being tossed about my kitchen I didn’t flinch. Yesterday, it was flailing body parts – they figured out fleece pants slide and so Meredith borrowed a pair of Kenny’s pj bottoms (yes, she can still wear his pants, albeit they’re a bit too short) and they threw themselves across the tile – sliding to the back door.
I had to leave the room.
On my way out I said, “If anyone gets hurt – and someone will – I don’t want to know or hear about it.”
An hour later they were playing in the chicken coop. Emelie and I heard a horrible scream and went running out to find Meredith holding her leg and pointing at Kenny. He looked innocent enough with the brick in one hand, right?
“What in the world is going on?” I yelled.
After many interruptions and a few more tears I lost all compassion.
They were playing a made-up game where one person held a shield (garbage can lid) and the other person threw bricks at it.
BRICKS.
I didn’t get a photo of that one, sorry.
31 Comments
tHeSocKmOnKeY
Indoor Air Hockey, indoor Kickball, Bricks ‘n Shields ® AND a chicken coop hideout? Clearly, your house is ‘The’ place to be!
Sandra in Phx
Wow, you are the best mom ever!
My kids do things like this too and then they wonder why I just look at them when they get hurt. We call that “natural consequences” in our house:)
Alison
Try hearing from the other room, “See if this hurts” and going in to find your kids hitting each other with an aluminum baseball bat! (They are 8 and 3) You lose sympathy really quick.
Laura
I thought my Dad overreacted when it came to disciplining me and my brothers. That is until one day when we started talking about the games we used to play. One of them involved a BB gun (!) a metal pipe and a scoop shovel. I have a tiny little scar on my forehead from that particular game.
Tanna
LOL, At least they were doing it to each other and not the neighbor child! My oldest son talked the younger one into playing army with bats?? My youngest son whacked the little girl next door right across the leg. Oooops. And boy can she scream.
Barchbo
I am sorry to say that Mer and Kenny did not invent kitchen air hockey. We didn’t use slippers, though. And I was too wimpy to indulge in a game of Bricks & Shields…though I probably could have been persuaded with adequate biblical support! :)
As always, I think how much fun your kids are having while they grow up. What a blessing, and they’ll have such great memories. I am getting misty-eyed for “Punchball” as I write this (Don’t ask.)
Mrs. Wilson
The first games sounded fun, but the last one? SCARY!!! And? Ouch!
Mandy
Reminds me of the time my two youngest thought it would be sooooo fun to ride down the stairs on their sleds. Not fun for mommy.
Mandy
PS. I am a little jealous your kitchen floor is so clean.
Elda
Ah yes, the imaginary games. They are not for the weak, that’s for sure. My kids have been known to slide down stairs in cardboard boxes, slide on the kitchen floor with socks, ride the skateboard all at the same time and even climb the roof of the pick-up truck. Good times, good times. Don’t even ask me how many splinters I’ve pulled, bruises I’ve iced down or cuts I’ve bandaged. I’ve lost count.
I’m too much of a nervous wreck to ever consider taking pictures. Thanks for being so brave in taking the pictures and then sharing with us.
Heather (formerly MMM)
OK, seriously, that made me LOL! Bricks?!?!
LauraB
One day when mom was working my brother and I discovered that if you put baby powder on the linoleum that you could slide REALLY fast.
We had it mopped up before she came home but I often wondered what she thought about that lingering scent of baby powder in the kitchen.
Jenni
When I was in either 3rd or 4th grade and my brother was in 5th or 6th, we learned about the first rule of physics, an object in motion stays in motion.
My brother tied a rope to the back of his skateboard and the hitch on my dad’s truck. Then he convinced me to sit on the skateboard. And then I rolled down the slightly steep driveway. Until the rope got tight. Then I landed face first on the driveway.
I learned not to trust my brother. And not to participate in his “games”.
SparklieSunShine
Oh my goodness! I’m glad neither of them got seriously hurt. The games kids think up.
Sherilyn
I don’t know if it’s a good thing that they can entertain themselves or not!
mamalang
We always hurt the ones we love, huh? Mine come up with the funniest things to do as well. I try to let them, but sometimes I have to step in and advise about safety. Good luck there!
Kate
K, that made me laugh!
And it reminds me of a story my husband tells of a game he and his brother played. One person would stand at the top of the stairs and throw steel-tipped darts at the other person as they ran by the bottom of the stairs. I forget who was the thrower and who was the target but someone got a dart sunk to the hilt in their thigh.
Emily
My brothers and I totally played this game when we were kids! Except, we played it in a long hallway with a rubber ball and rulers instead of slippers, and we called it rulerball. It morphed over time and was the best game ever.
heatheribabble
Hah, that reminds me of a story my mom tells. They (her and her brothers) used to play a game in which they would shoot at eachother with BBGuns. The object? Well, not to get hit of course! She said they only ever hurt a little bit and no permanent damage was done. Luckily I think that crazy gene skipped me ;)
jen
Bwahahaha…oh, I mean, I’m really sorry about the brick thing! Ouch!
I am just really, really glad to hear that I’m not the only one – not the only one with kids who play games like this and not the only one to loose sympathy at such a times as this!
cc
Would it make you feel any better if I told you that once when fighting with the bigger older neighbor boy, I put my gumball machine in a purse and hit him over the head with it? Oh, and it was FULL of marbles.
Gayle
Yipes! It is amazing that kids don’t see the potential problems with the games they think up!
GoingLikeSixty
Reminds me of Poltergeist – where she puts a football helmet on the kid and he slides across the floor!
“they’re heeeeeerrrrreeeee.”
sarah seale
heather your kids are so crazy. BRICKS ha i wished i could have been there to hear them explain that! so funny of course Jessie and i made Jackson do forward flips til his feet went through a window… he was little and he rolled well!
Amber (BGH) Classic Housewife / Modern World
OH. MY.
My kids come up with some crazy things but I haven’t found them with bricks yet. (Give them time, give them time..)
Just yesterday they had on socks and sweat pants so they could run and belly slide in the kitchen – like indoor slip and slide without the water. ????
Mr. OMSH
How come nobody told me about the sissy-toe pointing throw?
That boy is about to go through Drill Sergeant Re-Training.
allison
Your kitchen is too darn clean!
Pamela
Bricks and Shields? Is that the new Chutes and Ladders?
cjwsbg
I am very impressed that your floor is clean enough to play on! I enjoy your blog! My two boys are 5 and 3 and we are working on keeping food of the floor!
*one-day*
Have a great day!
katie
When my brother and I were little our favorite games were:
sliding down the stairs on our bottoms on a slippery teal sleeping bag (I’m surprised both our tailbones aren’t broken)
making fires outdoors, roasting and EATING anything we felt like (wild onions, chicken eggs, etc.)
playing “stairs chicken” – we took turns jumping off the bottom stair, then the second, then the third, etc. you had to jump high and far to make it safely to the floor. The most I ever got was eight stairs before we gave that one up.
Mel
My sister and I used to have a ten pin bowling set – consisting of 10 large pins and a rubber ball. We would set it up at one end of the passage way and stand at the other and roll the ball.
Harmless enough until we worked out that the floor was tiled…and we were wearing polarfleece tops and pants…hey, I know! Why don’t we play HUMAN bowling? We took in turns sliding each other down the passage way in to the pins. Behind the pins was a thick wooden door – which I crashed head first into and put a hole through!
Did that deter us? Nope – we just decided to wear helmets!
Another one we used to play was rooftop tramplining! We had a trampoline set up in the backyard, and used to spend hours on it. One day my sister noticed that the new balcony roof was close enough to the trampoline to act as a springboard! She climbed up, and jumped off the roof, on to the trampoline – and straight off the back of the trampoline landing in the lemon tree!
She now has 2 little girls – 3 and 1. The 3 year old wants a trampoline! my sister decided on one with no springs, and a very high net all the way around!