Building a Zoo

My son doesn't have screen time during the week.  This weekend, even though it was a vacation weekend with my in-laws at Myrtle Beach, because he snuck the Switch on Monday night and was up past Midnight.   But today, my husband made an exception.  

I came home from getting some new pants for my daughter because she had grown out of every single pair she had I think, even though I'm fairly certain I bought her pants last week—has it really been that long—to find the two children in front of the television in the basement building a Minecraft world together. 

And by together, I mean my son is doing everything in the game, and my daughter is participating in the creation process verbally.   They were working together.  My son wasn't half listening to her or saying sure but doing what he wanted instead.  He was taking her advice, talking about how they should do things, answering her questions about what could be done, and then implementing it in their world. 

A while later my son came upstairs and came to talk to me.   He said, "mom, I know sometimes when you see me playing a game, and my sister can't do it that it makes you sad.  But I don't think you should be sad this time because she has some really good ideas, and she knows all about Minecraft, and we're building a zoo together."

He was really sincere, and I could tell he was proud of his sister.   I told him that sometimes I was sad when there were things she couldn't do but very much wanted to.   In this case, I told him, I wasn't sad, I was happy, watching them work together and build something they were both excited about.   They can't wait to keep working on it and my son is very happy to be doing something he knows his sister otherwise wouldn't be able to do.  

I was very proud of my son for coming to tell me how it was a positive thing they were doing, not a sadness.