Creativity, Cardboard and Connor

            The other day Connor asked if we had a pizza box in the house, 
I said " No, why?" He answered, " Well on Total Drama World Tour, they made a laptop out of a pizza box." I felt so bad I was tempted to pull into the cheapo pizza joint and buy a 5$ pizza just to get the box, I mean a 5$ laptop is surely worth it right? Then my little guy said," Wait we have boxes in the basement, I can use one of those!"

             Once we got home, I went downstairs ( this was a total busy night as Brian and I had scored like 3-4 lbs of Morels- another post- as I have lots-o-cool pics of them cooking and now in the process of dehydrating), found an approved box by Connor and started to cut away the parts he deemed unnecessary

The best part of the exchange between us was when he stated that he did NOT want a laptop like mine, he wanted one like Daddy's an "Apple or Pear whatever that fruit was on the back." Despite his obvious smackdown on my laptop, I was a good mom and helped him. Here is a semi-ok pic of his " Screen Saver" it is Mario World...

              When I posted pics on my Facebook page- I was encouraged to find I wasn't the only mom who has a kid who does this, that being creative is more important than being wealthy enough to provide a 7 yr old with a laptop. Many of my other MommyFriends posted that their kids usually had more cardboard technology than they had read technology. Whew- so I wasn't being a "Third world loser mom' after all. He now faithfully checks his email, so far no scammers from India wanting him to open a bank account have tricked him- He usually only gets email from his buddy Mason. Oh and he checks his Netflix account and You tube videos alot...

                Brian and I whole heartily believe that making the kids work for their most wanted prized possessions makes them appreciate them even more. Max unfortunately was the first to learn if he wanted that 100 dollar GameCube, he was going to have to earn half of the money to buy it, same went for the Wii and the PS3... the sad part was that by the time he wanted the PS3 - Brian and I both knew the time would come that Max would appear out of his room with the 150 bucks and throw it down and announce," Here is my half I would like the PS3 now" ... don't get me wrong, Max doesn't ask for much of anything EVER.... the game systems seem to emerge near his birthday- and we try to get it- as long as he works for some of it. Which he does- anytime he makes anykind of money doing chores or stuff for Pap- the money goes into a hiding place that noone one knows about and then emerges when he needs to use it, it is kinda funny, last year for his birthday,my Brother bought him an actual safe. The theory so far seems to work, the kids are all very careful with their electronics...because there was some "earning it"