Hey, Mom . . .?

Over the past thirty or so years, I've come to recognize these words as a preamble to either a confession of wrongdoing or an unreasonable request. Today it was the latter. My kids are pretty good at trying to show me the benefits -- or at least the lack of harm -- in asking to do something crazy. The phrase was followed this morning by, "You know what would be really great? Playing hockey on the hardwood floors. It would be fun for you to watch too, or you could play if you wanted." My middle son is coming over later (he and his brother are watching the Redskins game together), and the youngest wants to clear out the furniture so they can play hockey in the living room and dining area. Crazy as it sounds, my only real concern is my china cabinet. In fact, as I type this my youngest is placing a yoga mat over the glass in the cabinet doors to see if that will provide adequate padding.

I didn't say yes yet, but I also didn't say no. However, I did say, when he asked if he could try moving the furniture around to see how it would work out, "That's a great opportunity to vaccuum under everything while you have the sofa and chairs pulled out." So he did that. I'm reserving judgement until I see how well he can protect my cabinet. I like it when my kids have fun and I'm replacing the floors soon anyway. (They were damaged when my air conditioner leaked a while back.) Still, I'm not risking breakage of anything. And I do like to watch them play hockey.