Christmas Intervention

Jack was in his room playing video games like usual. He heard his mother shout out that dinner was about ready, but he didn’t want to stop playing the level he was on. It was farther then he had ever made it in his new favorite game that he now had for about a week. His dad came in and told him to come to the table. He grumbled, but realized he would have to. He couldn’t wait to get back in the room and start playing again.

Later that night he was looking through a catalog of games, and he was very much aware that Christmas was just a few weeks away. He decided on three games that he wanted for Christmas along with a controller that was supposed to make the games feel more realistic. He asked his parents about them and they gave in. However, once he went to bed they started to discuss what to do with Jack. They were about at their wit’s end – they didn’t mind him playing video games, but over about the last year he was playing them just about when he got home from school to when he went to bed every single day. He still had a few friends, but had drifted away from some other good friends who weren’t into video games the way he was.

Fast forward now to Christmas morning – Jack was all excited when he got up. He was surprised actually how he hadn’t had to argue with his parents to buy him the games – they swore to him they bought the ones he wanted and the extra controller as well. He saw them wrapped up under the tree. He had hoped to be able to open them early even on Christmas Eve, but his parents wouldn’t allow that and he had to wait – but now the morning was finally here.

His mom came into his room before they were going to start opening presents and told him that his dad needs to shovel the driveway of some snow. His dad would do the shoveling, but he wanted Jack to go out in the back yard and get the shovel, where it had been left. Jack whined a bit, but his mom put on his jacket and directed him in that direction. When Jack stepped outside, his parents were both in the house and they locked him out. They told him through the screen door that they loved him and this was best for him – he had to stay out and would only be allowed in for the restroom or to get something to eat and drink.

Jack was furious of course. He was more in a sulking mood though and he went to the far side of the backyard away from the house and complained to himself about how bad his parents were. After a few minutes, two old friends of his, Joe and Tom came through a fence door to their yard. They said “hey” to each other and Jack told them he was forced to stay outside. Jack hadn’t seen much at all of Joe or Tom in the last year – they were more the type to play outside then Jack was anymore. Joe looked over at Tom and said “Throw me the football” – and Tom picked up a football that was laying there and lobbed it over. Joe missed it and it fell near Jack. “Where did you guys get that?” asked Jack. They said it had been just laying there in Jacks’ yard. The boys looked around and also found a baseball bat, some balls, some baseball gloves, a soccer ball, a sled and even some hockey sticks!

The parents were inside wondering if what they did was right and if they were bad parents for what they did. They hadn’t even bought the video games they had promised Jack – they just wrapped up some old ones he no longer played with. Instead, they had gone to a sporting goods place and bought all the sports equipment the boys were finding outside! That was their gift to their son – really a way to try get him to remember some of the fun he had before he had started playing video games all the time. Also, they had asked Joe and Tom to come over in the back yard that morning. They tried not to look out too often and see how it was going, but after a while they did and they saw all of the boys throwing the football around and having a great time! They were so relieved to see that.

After a while more had passed, there was a knocking on the back door. Jacks’ mom opened it to see a smiling Jack holding the sled. “We’re going to go down a few blocks – Tom says there’s a hill there we can try out!”. She let them go, but had made some food for them to take with them.

Jack had a great day playing with Tom and Joe most of the day and remembering how much fun things like sledding and throwing a football around could be. Now he just had to wait for the summer to come back to start playing baseball again!

He eventually realized what his parents had done and he felt bad about how he had acted, both on the start of Christmas day and a lot of the year before that as well. He had learned a great lesson through this Christmas Intervention that his parents did!


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