"This is MUCH healthier"

So after writing to the social worker about WoW we continued to have an interesting evening.

I must have looked like a sideways bobble doll as I think I shook my head with amazed disbelief all evening long.

I kept thinking things like:

-How can someone offer you money for access to the computer so that you can get naked and you not respond by thinking that they are either suspicious or creepy?

-Why would he endanger his account for nudity? I mean, the ability to breathe underwater, teleport, have unlimited life points I would get. But nudity? Is it a boob thing? I think I would understand a boob thing.

And this fun recurring thought: If suggesting that WoW did not make him happy and maybe he should not play sent him into a manic fit and resulted in our spending four hours in the emergency room, what will he do when we say we are taking it away completely?

If I tell him BEFORE he goes on respite will that mean that he will have time to deal with it before he gets back or that he will throw such a fit there that the respite provider will either call me and say, "come get this kid" or refuse to ever do respite again? If I tell him after will that mean that I have to deal with a full blown melt-down? Will he do more than slash a couple of shirts and stab a stuffed toy?

Maybe I am just too tired to think about this right now.

---
But last night he had agreed to be off all video games and he did not protest that. He got out his old code book and decided that he wanted to learn to write in Elvish.

We let him get on the Internet, supervised, so that he could print out a few pages on the Elvish alphabet. This was a creative, interesting, MUCH HEALTHIER activity. So now, please, let me share some snippets of conversation from my evening.

Brian: "DUDE, you know that there isn't really such a thing as Elvish, don't you? What you are printing out is just something someone made up."
Frankie: "I know! But look, this site has pages on the history and everything! This is the real Elvish that like everyone knows is the real made-up Elvish!"
Brian, "Dude, there is no such thing!"
Frankie, "Yes there is, and I know it isn't real."
Me (quietly): "Brian, I will give you a million dollars if you LET IT GO."

Brian (stage whisper), "But mom!"

Me (deathly stage whisper) "LET IT GO."

Frankie: "Yondalla, I just want it to print this little bit but it wants to print too much. How do I print just that?"
I show him.
Frankie: "NO. It's printing everything. NO! I can't make it stop!" (Frustrated crying begins). "No! No! Oh why can't I make it do what I want? Why am I so stupid? Yondalla! Why won't it work?" ... "Oh. It is working. Never mind!"

Later:
Brian, "You know you aren't writing Elvish right? You are just writing English in Elvish letters."
Frankie, "That's Elvish."
Brian, "Elvish is a whole different language!"
Frankie, "You said it wasn't real, so it doesn't matter!"
Brian, "You can't say it is a different language, even a fictitious language, if it's English"
Frankie, "It isn't fickshus, it's Elvish!"

Later still:
Frankie: "Brian, I don't get this chart. Why are those marks over the letters?"
Brian: "Those are marks used in to show how to pronounce the letter in English."
Frankie: "But this about Elvish!"
Brian, "DUDE! I know. Listen to me. That column is the Elvish symbols. That column is how you pronounce it. They show that with the letters and symbols in English."
Frankie: "I don't care about the pro-nounce-iation!"
Brian: "'PRO-NUN-CEE- A --TION!'"
Frankie: "I said I didn't care about proNUNcing it!"
Brian shaking his head, "Dude, those symbols tell you how to pronounce the Elvish symbols in English."
Frankie: "That is not how you write English!"
Brian, "It is how they write it in dictionaries!"
Frankie: "I have never seen that in a dictionary! Yondalla, that isn't how we write English, is it?"
Me: "Sweetie, those are the symbols that dictionaries use to show how to pronounce words. If you get a dictionary I will show you."
Frankie, beginning to make long whining, frustrated crying noises, "I don't know where a dictionary is! We don't have one! I just want to know what the Elvish symbol for 'a' is and they have like four a's! Why are there four a's?"
I throw a look at Brian that says, "You speak, you die." I grab a paper and pen and say to Frankie, "Honey look at these words: cat, father, cape. See how they all have a's? What sound do each of them make? Well, in Elvish, they have a different symbol for each one of those sounds. If you want you can use any 'a' symbol you want."
Frankie, "Okay. Do you want me to write your name in Elvish?"
Me: "Sure" (Since my name is not really 'Yondalla' the following conversation is adjusted, of course.)
Frankie: "Spell it." I do.
He works. "Is the 'Y' silent?"
"No."
"Is the 'o' silent?"
"No."
"Is the "d" silent?"
"No. NOTHING is silent in my name."
"Which 'a' is it?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Which one?!"
(Sighing) "Show me the list.... That one."
He works. He shows me. I agree that my name written in Elvish is pretty.

He asks Hubby to write his name. He re-writes it in Elvish. Hubby expresses his appreciation.

Frankie, "Brian, do you want me to write your name in Elvish?"
Brian, "Dude, it is NOT Elvish! It is just English with Elvish symbols."
Frankie: "I'm going to learn Druidish next."


And that ends the selections of the conversation at our house. It was definitely much, much better than him sitting at the computer and saying, "Look! A wuf!"

Right?