28 thoughts on “April 11, 2024: A Black And White Night”

  2. Pretty tough for the Wolves to get 1 seed after last night's loss. They do hold head-to-head tie-breaker over OKC. If three-way tie, then OKC, MN, DEN.

    It would have been nice to get the 1 seed, almost for validation reasons. The 2 seed is not a bad place to be, maybe even takes the target off their back a bit.

    1. I was just coming here to type something similar. I am fine with not being the 1 seed. I feel this team may not react well to being the one seed. Might be for the best two enter as an underdog of sorts.

      1. and they don't have to face Curry or LeBron; I know those teams are weak, but seems like a daunting first task anyhow

  3. Last night I let the jalapeno play a Fortnite tournament from 7-10pm and was rewarded with a thorough cursing out followed by a demand for a snack after it didn't go the way he wanted it to.

    Is this a good way for him to get to do this again on a school night? Dear reader, it is not.

    1. Looks like you now have a benchmark against future requests to do the same. Good for you for giving him the opportunity to stretch a little, even if it didn't work out.

      1. I'm really trying to embrace him trying things and then evaluating how they went since I know experience is a much better teacher than me just making the call. But man, it isn't easy!

    2. We had a similar experience at our house this morning.

      Kid2, who is 3.5, got up early and asked to watch Spidey. I said "We have just enough time for 1 Spidey. If you want to watch, we need to get dressed for school soon as it's done."

      "Ok Dad"

      Fast forward 20 minutes, and cue the massive fit about not getting more Spidey.

      And now there's no Spidey tomorrow either.

    3. It's amazing how quickly they can switch from maturity to immaturity at this age, isn't it? There have been similar incidents with Aquinas in the recent past.

      1. I've been doing some reading and listening about teens lately to help me get a sense of what's typical. (Recalling myself at this age--a high achieving total rule follower--isn't the most helpful thing!) If you're not familiar with Lisa Damour, she has a great podcast.

        1. Yes, that lineup of episodes looks fantastic. I'm gonna check this one out.

          Aquinas definitely has some issues that pop up, but I can already tell that Aristotle is the one I'm going to need to watch out for - we're already butting heads way too often, usually (though, admittedly not always... sometimes it's me overreacting) because her emotions are leading to outbursts.

    4. Ours (11) just started playing Minecraft on-line. He's appropriate with his peers, but the game itself just gets him really amped up. Which is fine. I reacted worse than he did as a kid, throwing my Nintendo controller, pounding it. He doesn't do that, just yells, occasionally curses to himself. What is not acceptable is when he gets done playing and then takes it out on the rest of us. We had to make an only weekends rule, as he's better regulated then than on weeknights when there's stricter time limits. So far it's been going better.

      1. I wish we'd set firmer limits back when he was 11. They definitely don't become more compliant as they get older, and having a weekend-only rule seems like a very sound policy.

        1. When I was a kid we had a limit of one hour per day (which is damn annoying when you're playing a game that takes two hours to win and has no way to save it)...which as teens went away. We spent too much time gaming no doubt, but we got good grades, behaved. And I was still involved in extracurriculars that had nothing to do with screens. We're trying really hard to be flexible with our limits while also explaining why we change them based on our observations so he can self-reflect. Soon enough he'll have the option of playing whatever whenever, so helping him recognize how different things impact him can hopefully help build skills to self-regulate and do things in moderation. Not easy

        2. I wish we'd set firmer limits back when he was 11.

          Question... do you feel like you could re-establish limits now? I imagine it would require a conversation with him regarding why those limits were being re-established, etc., but, would that maybe be an option?

          The real reason I'm asking: I have family members who lament having given their children too much online access via phones. They moan and complain about all the problems it causes... but they aren't even willing to discuss putting new limits on these things. Like, once the cat is out of the bag... So I'm curious if you feel you could re-establish limits, even in a hypothetical world?

          1. oof yeah...we're holding out on phones for as long as possible, unless it's a non-internet phone

            1. We went with the Gabb phone for Aquinas/extra phone at home. No internet, and he's not big into calling/texting friends, so that has removed so much pressure. Aristotle, of course, is already asking for one/commandeering Aquinas' phone. We'll get her one too, eventually, but I'm going to keep strict track of her texting and such. She is super sensitive to anything on the bullying spectrum - even fairly innocuous things - so I'm sure she'll be accidentally opening herself up to that. Hopefully lack of social media will help greatly.

          2. I do think it's possible to reestablish limits. Challenging, but possible. He does still have some limits; they're just not working all that well for him (or us) and lately his already-intense level of interest seems to have reached new heights.

              1. I'm kind of glad we didn't have all the tech that kids have nowadays when we were young. But I'm glad we have all the tech now that I'm old. I can still remember when you had to walk to the living room or kitchen just to talk on the telephone. On the other hand, I never had to wander around the house looking for my misplaced phone when it was tethered to a wall.

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