Too Smart for Their Own Good

Yup, my kids are brilliant! Of course every mom thinks so, but I want to share a story about by intelligent youngsters. I have a code programmed into the TV so that the kids must ask before watching. Only I or my hubby know the code to allow access to one show at a time.

Well, a couple of months ago, the kids figured out how to set the TV to unlock all the restrictions so that they could watch for as long as they wanted without having to ask us to keep unlocking the TV. They would get permission to watch, and before I got to the TV to unlock it, they would set it to unlock all. Bam! Unrestricted boob tube until I figured it out. Brilliant my dear sisters! Until the youngest one, who cannot keep a secret, tells me what they are up to.

Fast forward to last weekend. I am doing my thing in the kitchen when little Blabber-mouth (name calling is in loving jest) approaches me with information. "Mom, we reset the password on the TV." Thoughts flashing through my mind: Wow, that took a lot of thought and planning!--how did they figure that out?--Dang! I need to discipline for this!?...
My little conspirator continues, "The new code is 1234." I laugh out loud as I hear her sister in the next room yell, " You weren't supposed to give her the code!"

Fortunately for me and unfortunately for the girls, Daddy was not too impressed by their creativity and ingenuity to implement a discipline. Apparently he had tried to watch something that was blocked and thought I had changed the code without telling him. He had gotten mad at me but hadn't yet remembered to fuss at me. He doled out an entire week of no TV except during the evening family time.

The moral? Intelligence is a gift that is best used for good, honest purposes.