Wall chess

My son's first day of kindergarten seemed to go well. In his preschool days, he adopted the Black Hole defense in response to any questions about his day, and I only got information out of him that he would volunteer in unexpected moments. This time I plan not to ask him, hoping not to cement him into silence.

He seemed relaxed on the way in and on the way out. A couple of times back at home, he spontaneously said "Kindergarten is fun." He said that they mostly played, and didn't do a lot of reading. He has two friends in the class, and one more in the next class over.

The wall chess set I ordered came today. My intent is to keep him thinking about chess, make it spontaneously available, and enable us to save games until we are ready to resume them.

When I showed it to him, all he said was "Wow." Then he went back to reading his magazine. Later though, during his snack, he said "Dad, let's play chess!"

We played until he had to go to his swim lesson. The game remained saved on the wall. So far the plan is working.

The other plan that's working is introducing to him the idea of my being disabled. I told him I noticed a disabled parking space right in front of his school, and added that my doctor says that I could get a disabled parking placard, "since I have trouble walking, due to my nerve signal propagation problem." That's the language I used.

He's at the age where making up rules and following rules (just not his parents' rules) is really fascinating to him. So he responded enthusiastically that I should get a placard, and then we could use it to park in front of school, or other places, if there was only the disabled space left. So I theatrically told my lovely wife that I would order one. In about a week, I'll produce it.

You might wonder why the deceit. I did it this way so that my having the placard, my being officially disabled, is not sprung on him as an unpleasant surprise, yet one more thing beyond his control. Now he knows what's coming, and he'll be fine with it.


Notice: The Peoples' Revolutionary Internet Kangaroo Court (PRIKC!) hereby drops all charges against Architect Boy and releases him to the custody of Lefty Grrrl, subject to the condition that he obey all her commands and submit to meticulous examination of his motives, and random strip searches.