Questions I Asked My Kids: The Rorschach Edition

Here’s something a little different. The Rorschach test. Administered to my two kids. Before you scroll down to their answers, take a look at them yourself first. See what you can see then compare it to what they saw. Then after you read their perspectives, see if you can see what they saw.

And when you’re done looking at these inkblots, check out my pictures on Instagram. (Follow me for completely-made-up-imaginary bonus points)

Crash: I see a castle with windows. I also see a three eyed monster eating an apple.

Bang: It looks like a tank with dots all over it. It also looks like a big scorpion monster.

Crash: I see what looks like two dog heads with a butterfly or some sort of bug in the middle

Bang: It looks like a monster with four eyes.

Crash: It looks like a pirate ship. Or a face with a Ninja Turtle mask. I also see a super tall Batman that has a mask that’s way to big for his face.

Bang: It looks like a pirate ship. Or a space ship shooting missiles.

Crash: I see five faces. And what looks like an animal of some sort. Like a horse.

Bang: It looks like two goldfish swimming away from a monster that shot cannonballs.

Crash: I looks like a giant with a boomerang in each hand and he’s sitting on a stool.

Bang: Looks like a transformer that transforms into an 18 wheeler that has rockets to make it fly and fire coming out of it.

Hey Kids, It’s Okay to be Bored

I’m bored.

Bored.
Bored.
Bored.

This was just minutes after ordering supper at a restaurant. You know what? It’s okay to be bored. It’s high time you learned to entertain your thoughts. It’s high time you learned to converse with other human beings. It’s high time you learned that sometimes in life you will bored.

And it’s okay.

Constantly in motion, constantly stimulated, the kids aren’t sure what happens when everything stops. There’s no app for sitting still. Sometimes you will just have to sit and entertain your thoughts for a while. I know thinking is something unusual for you, but it won’t hurt you. I promise.

With all of the lights and sounds and blips and bloops in today’s world, it’s no wonder that a constant need for stimulation is so heavily sought after by kids. TV. Tablets. Phones. Toys. They all need batteries and they all make sound and light up. How many non-battery toys do kids play with these days? How many adults turn to their phone when they have down time or are looking for something to do? It doesn’t matter that they’re sitting in the company of their friends. The lure is there.

It’s okay to be bored. It’s okay to use that boredom to think of wild and crazy ideas.

A pretty purple giraffe that drives a dump truck

An ice cream cone with 57 layers… what are those 57 flavors?

Hitting a homerun in the bottom of the 9th to win the game

Doing those stunts we saw the slopestyle snowboarders doing in the Olympics

What would happen if the shit really did hit the fan?

Daydream! I, myself, am guilty of it. I wander off to “Lalaland” more frequently than I should. Discuss! Talk to the people you are sitting with and tell them about your thoughts. Were you wondering something? Were you fascinated? Were you awed? Were you laughing hysterically? Were you pissed off? Tell them. There’s no need for an app for real life. It is its own app and it’s amazing. It never glitches. It never buffers. The images are always HD. The sound is surround. There are smells. There are feels. It’s amazing.

It’s okay to be bored. You don’t have start picking fights with your brother just for something to do. Go make something. A dream catcher. A leprechaun trap. A comic book. Draw a picture. Paint a picture. Paint a rock. Or mold with clay.

It’s okay to be bored. Go outside. Fresh air and sunshine are amazingly good natural remedies for boredom. Climb a tree. Explore the brook. Go “lion hunting” in the backyard. Ride a bike, a scooter, a skateboard, or rollerblades in-line-skates. Throw a Frizbee. Kick a ball. Throw a ball. Whatever… just go!

It’s okay to bored. You don’t need constant stimulation. You don’t even have to always be in motion. There is much to be learned from sitting still and silent. Finding your inner self can be quite a journey. I found my inner self one day. Turns out my inner self is still 6. You’re not going to find yours sitting in front of a screen surrounded by a cacophony of sounds and lights.

It’s quite the conundrum to be writing via the internet on my tablet about getting off the screen and being bored without it. So, I’m turning in now and I’m going to go read a book. (side note: I’m reading The Orphan Child about a woman who steals a Jewish baby off a Nazi train then joins the circus)

And it’s not going to be boring.

The Daily Elf: December 21st

They were hungry for sweets today. Probably because it’s Nana’s birthday and she’s not here (yet) to have cake and ice cream. So this morning we found Woody and Elfis in the bag of chocolate chips.

Fortunately, they are smart little elves and left a few set aside for our chocolate chip pancakes.

The Daily Elf: December 20th

They were up to no good, again. As predicted, the closer to Christmas we get, the more trouble they like to cause. This time they were vandals.

They graffitied the boys school pictures! They made Crash a devil and Bang a pirate…

Then while we were at school, Guppie (DW’s Dad) got a doodle upgrade as well.

The Daily Elf: December 19th

Less than a week away…

Our Christmas concerts are over (more on that later).

Woody and Elfis, like most days, spent the day hanging out. Today they were literally hanging out. They set up a zipline and had some fun in the kitchen zipping back and forth. They performed a few tricks for us, too.

The Daily Elf: December 18th

The war was on today…

Over a pair of aces, of course. The best kind of war. When we woke this morning we found the game in progress. Woody had just flipped his card over to reveal his ace.

The next time we saw them, they had laid their three cards down. Elfis flipped a 7, but Woody hadn’t flipped his fourth card over, yet. We didn’t know who was going to win!

This evening we saw them and it appears Elfis won the war as Woody had a four. Poor Woody lost his ace in that battle. You can see he wasn’t too happy about it, either. He threw a temper tantrum! While we got to see who won the Battle of the Aces, we don’t know who won the war.

You can also find these elves (and more) on Instagram…

The Daily Elf: December 17th

We made a mistake.

We all knew what the result would be.

This morning our prediction was spot on.

You see, I bought some shortbread cookies loaded with green icing and sprinkles. They were for dessert after supper. Our mistake? We opened them in front of Woody and Elfis. This morning we found the two of them in the cupboard enjoying the sweet treats. Fortunately, they just shared a cookie. They split one between them. They went halvsies.

For more treats follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter

The Daily Elf: December 15th

If you recall two days ago, Elfis captured Woody under a glass and held him trapped all day. Woody said he’d have his revenge. He is true to his little elf word.

We woke this morning to see a trap set and Woody waiting patiently under the tree for his prey. He used a candy cande and white chocolate peppermint M&M’s for bait. Elves are suckers for peppermint.

Elfis hung out on the elf that Bang drew and colored and taped to the wall. His holder is meant for cookies Christmas Eve for when the Jolly Elf stops by. From here Elfis could clearly see his intended target. However, this morning, it worked as a perfect perch for Elfis.

*You can just make out Little Snowball at floor level. He’s to hold Santa’s milk.

Elfis’s will power began to break down through the day. When we returned home from school, Woody hadn’t caught him yet. However, Elfis was only feet away from the sweet treats. He was eyeing them long and hard while Woody continued to lay and wait.

After spending all day staring at the delicious treats, Elfis apparently decided that being caught was worth the sacrifice for a candy cane and peppermint M&M’s. I agree, too. I would have been caught LONG before now. Bang was in the kitchen when he heard the bowl come crashing down and he came running. Naturally, DW and I didn’t see them move as we were each playing a game on our phone (DW was crushing candy and I was finding words in my soup).

With just 10 sleeps left, I hope they start playing nicer. I doubt Santa will be impressed that they are setting traps for one another. Or perhaps, being a right jolly old elf himself, he finds it quite amusing.

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The Daily Elf: December 14th

No mischief happened today. Though there was a note from Woody telling Bang that he has a plan to get Elfis back for trapping in that glass yesterday. Today they were just hanging out on the ceiling dangling on their favorite snowflakes.

Nothing but good times!

The Daily Elf: December 13th

Up to no good again…

This time it was just Elfis being bad. I’m still not sure how he tricked Woody into getting in the glass. Woody is one gullible elf. Or as we like to say in our house… He’s S-M-R-T smart. (bonus points if anyone knows the reference)

They also delivered a nice and naughty list that only they have control over. We don’t even know where the markers are that they use on it. I appreciate Elfis’s honesty as he put himself on the naughty list for his devious trick. I hope he makes it back on the nice list tomorrow. I hope Woody doesn’t try to retalliate.

He probably will…