I always thought it looked like a book and a sandy beach.

I took the kids out to lunch on Friday because I'd been working all day and felt a little of the guilt. Not enough guilt that I took them to McDonald's and fed them absolute crap. Just enough guilt that we needed to do something out of the house, also the house was all because we were leaving town and I still had a bunch of crap to get done and lunch seemed like the easiest way to spend some quality time.

Quality time turned into tearing up tiny bits of napkins, rolling them into balls and blowing them at each other.

I'm not so much of a Fun Killer that I stopped this "game" at the beginning but after about five minutes I got a little bored and thought maybe we could engage in "conversation" at the table.

Maddie: "Mom, this is fun."

Me: "Really? You're blowing pieces of napkins at each other. It seems kind of boring to me."

Maddie: "Didn't your mother ever let you have fun when you were a kid."

Me: "No, never. Ever." (This is actually totally true. No, seriously.)

Maddie: "Well then, Mom? This is what fun looks like."

Comments

[Nell]

Yeah, right now for my kids Fun = Tag. Me? Not so much. I like the book and the beach definition. I'm too damn old for tag.

[danielle]

i know the feeling-i'm always the fun police, and my mom never let me have fun either. :)

[Elisette]

Next time they whine about being bored, hand them some napkins!

[Kim N]

Ha! I love her attitude. I think kids can teach us a lot about having fun.

[Middle-Aged-Woman]

Husband was the arbiter of fun when the kids were little. Once they were able to appreciate a really good fart, I was Boss!

[kate]

And THAT is why we let them live to see another day, isn't it?

Well said, Maddie!

[ana]

We spent the weekend blowing paper napkins at each other too! How funny. A mom friend of mine suggested it as a way to get kids to take a deep breath when they need to calm down. Amazingly it worked! AND it was fun too. :)

[sam {temptingmama}]

Hahahaha! So cheeky!!

[lisa]

I know the feeling. Two summers ago my husband gave me the title of Fun Governor (Fun Guv)and now it's stuck...even the kids call me that.

[Lizzi]

Better yet, a book, a sandy beach and a margarita ...

[The Yummy Mummy Cooks Gourmet]

Ah Yes! Why is their fun always so not fun for us?

My kids like saying: Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled poopie...You know the rest.

Fun for them. Not so much for us.

Kim

[Michelle]

Fun for my niece and nephew is punching each other harder and harder to see who cries out loud first and gets them both in trouble.

[die Frau]

Clearly Maddie's got a good head on her shoulders! I also find it great that her version of fun is so cheap...to take Elisette's comment further, hand them napkins next time they ask for a Wii or something equally bank-draining.... :-)

[BOSSY]

Bossy is with you: a book, a sandy beach, and reading said book on sandy beach through closed eyelids.

[jamie]

This could so easily have happened in my life.

My kids are working hard to master armit-farting. Apparently that too is what fun looks like.

[Katy]

She's gonna be a lawyer.

[angelawd]

Maddie is a girl after my own heart. Man, I miss those days.

[Stationery Guy]

I don't see the fun in my son throwing dirt in his own hair...but he seems to be amused by it:)

[Beth]

I'm always shocked at what my son thinks is fun and I just have to roll with it. I love Maddie's innocent explanation. It's so endearing.