Of all the kids who had things taken and hid from them, I think I am the one who had it happen the most to. The first act of this kind to my remembrance was the green bag monster that would take away cloths and clutter that was not put away in our rooms. This I’ll admit was used more for the older kids than the younger 3. After the green gab monster got old or forgotten, the method of hiding went from fun looking bag to complete banishment. There was the NES and the duck hunting gun that were hidden in the milk canister and in mom’s closet, a favored hiding spot, along with dad’s dresser. I remember going on raids organized by Christian to find that NES and gun with no avail. But then we moved on from playing Nintendo to playing Christians card game, which when we paid too much attention to vanished. I guess parents get jealous like that. Time passed and the victims of mom and dad’s kidnappings moved from toys to more electronic games of mine and the boys. I don’t remember anything else being taken away, not Becca’s time consuming books, or Kaylene’s things that she did. There was X-Wing and Jedi Knights, Monkey Island and Diablo, Warcraft and anything else I cherished. I even remember by Game Boy Color ending up in mom’s closet on the top shelf between some sheets or something. I took it back and no one was the wiser. By this time I had grown up some and decided to put more maturity into resolving the matter. I would take moms books and hid them until I felt bad and snuck them back. Guilt works on some people, but not parents I guess. On a brighter side of all things, I am very careful with the things I have and they are in great condition. I don’t like other people using my things and moving them around. I like them in a certain way and you won’t touch them unless you have permission from myself and myself only. I also know where exactly where everything is. But I have never found anything that was hidden from me for Christmas or my birthday. There is a line there that I don’t cross.
This is one of those areas where our nearly perfect parents really went astray. One day I simply couldn't find a computer game, X-wing, a star wars flight simulator. I had barrowed it from Rich Kunz. He wanted it back and I could not find it. I'm sure I asked Mom, and she did not know. So being responsible for my stewardship, I went to the store and forked out $40-$50 to buy my friend a new copy of his game. Months later the game was discovered hidden in Mom's closet. She simply forgot she had STOLEN it! Now lets think about this. If a "child" is responsible enough to go buy his friend a $50 game because he thinks he lost it, it stands to reason that he is also responsible enough to talk to about any problems or issues. Would it make sense for a loving parent to vengefully steal from such a child, and never confront the child? Shame on you Mom, Shame on you.
Another hurtful act was the theft and disposal of Heroes Quest. A game that was much loved by Darren, Rich and I. Again, there was no warning or discussion. Like a thief in the night she stole and destroyed someone else property. I used to wonder if my mother was really a super villain by night. Luckily, there have been many acts of love and generosity that far outweigh the psychological damage and irreplaceable childhood joys that were stolen from me. I hope our mother has matured and repented of such acts. But, Just in case she hasn't, I suggest we bring locks for our luggage when we go home to visit.
As for Dad, who is to say he wasn’t the mastermind behind all these plots. Unlikely, but… Who Is To Say…
I am to say. I often remember we would have to wait for dad to come home to get the Nintendo controllers out of hock. I think the was because Mom lacked the gusto to get the lid off the milk can. That can only mean that Dad was the hiding instigator. It is possible that he was not the mastermind behind all thievery but at least he was the brute force behind the theft. Preston and Christian have said it pretty much how I remembered it. I can remember one searching for Christmas gifts expedition to Mom's closet. Christian climbed up on a chair and we found some Nintendo games. I believe they were Marble Madness and Sesame Street. I never felt really guilty because neither were for me.
When I was a small child, television was the distraction of the day. It was new technology and we were fascinated. It wasn't inherently evil — hey we were watching shows like "Leave it to Beaver" and "Bonanza" — but my mother was still concerned about its influence. It kept us from exploring outside, from playing family games, from studying or doing our chores. You'd have thought she would have been more supportive as the inventor of the television came from her home town. Those loyalties meant nothing in comparison to a potential threat to her children. I can still here her calling downstairs, “turn the TV off!”
We all have selective memories. I am sure Mom gave us ever more pointed warnings but what we really remember is that all of a sudden the TV didn’t work. I was too young to figure out what was wrong but my brothers eventually did. Mom would get into the back of the TV and take a tube out! (The first sets had small tubes in addition to the big picture tube.) Then Mom would hide the tube. After a time she would put the tube back in if she didn’t forget where she hid it. One time my brothers got impatient to get the tube back and sent her a long lasting message. They carved the words FIX TV into a couple of dinner plates.
It is interesting now to be on the other side of the media issue. Times have changed dramatically but the worries are the same. Is exposure to TV, Nintendo, computer games, etc keeping my child from doing worthwhile things? Is the content harmful? Dad and I wrestled with these questions the same as my parents did. Some things we did right and some things we just blew. The worst was forgetting we had even taken the X-Wing game Christian borrowed from Rich. That was totally my fault.
Now as far as snooping into Christmas presents:
I just couldn’t do that. It’s against my code of conduct . . . so why would I think my children would snoop? If I had thought they were so easily tempted, so easily enticed to choose the dark side, I would have come up with a good hiding place, not my bedroom closet. Come to think of it . . . maybe we didn’t take away enough stuff.
Mom and I talked about most of these things and were in agreement on most of theses incidents. We wanted kids doing things other than being hooked on computer games. Some games are bad (James Bond) and some are fine they just take time away from important things or playing outside. This is one of those things that the perspective of the parent and typically the male child will always differ.
I am sorry for the theft of Rich's game and other forgotten thefts that caused undue pain.
One point of great pleasure and satisfaction is that even knowing you were looking for the absconded property, I was at peace. I was not concerned that children were looking high and low because I had a hiding place nobody ever found until I decided to disclose the milk can to my adult children.
I don't recall anything being stolen from me. I didn't care much for the Nintendo or other inherently evil (apparently) games the boys played. And I probably didn't care for them because they never let me play them. So I found other things to do. And it wasn't until I read the posts on the blog that I learned the milk can was the hiding place. I didn't even know it opened. Good call, Dad. What I can share is that I am the guilty snooper. I snooped at anything, I'm not really sure why, but that is how I was. I think it started when Christian would hide all his money in the water shut off cupboard, I was so intrigued by the idea of hiding money, and he was so super protective of it. Confession-- I stole money from Christian's secret stash. Probably 50 cents or something. I'm sorry. I don't think you ever noticed or knew, so I guess your security system wasn't as good as you thought.
As for the Christmas gifts, that was a fun challenge. It stated off with mom making me take stuff to the food storage room and in putting it away I found some hidden gifts. And if gifts were hidden in the food storage room, where else could they be? So I started checking places -- mom's closet (which why it is never dad's clost I don't know).
Helping mom put away her laundry is also how I found the lost tooth depository and retrieved some teeth which I "recycled" as newly lost teeth to cash in some tooth fairy money.
Soon it became pretty evident that mom hid everything in her closet and that she and dad were on to my snooping. So I got sneakier too. One year when all my efforts were in vain I came up with a new method. Finding what she got was the goal, not necessarily seeing it, so I had a new plan. Mom had kept a meticulous checkbook writing down each check and the business and what she purchased with it. So I decided to just go to the source, I'd look through her checkbook. However I didn't really find much interesting there. That was when I finally decided to just give it up. I repent! I am a reformed snooper now.
Um... you should probably know that Christian has been emotionally scarred. Before we were even married, he told me about the time you stole his He-Man action figures all because you said they "are not the way God made us." I just want you to know that on behalf of Christian's and my family, I forgive you. But we will be locking our luggage. Sorry!
Dear Megan,
Christian says to tell you that his next phone bill payment will be 50 cents short. Do you have any other confessions to make?
So I know I was not snooping around the Jones house during Christmas but I was very good at finding my presents and everyone else in my family at the Seeman house hold. My friend Kristin Jones (no relation) and I would snoop around my mom and dads closet until we found the goods. They were usually wrapped so we would carefully unwrap the presents and wrap them back up when we were done. I also was very good at finding hidden candy and other such goods.
I can't really remember mom and dad taking anything away from me. However, I do recall my siblings and I each trying to have complete control over the new Harry Potter books. Every time one came out I would find new ways to hide it so I could read it at my own leisure. It didn't work. Someone would find it, read a couple chapters, and then find a hiding spot of their own. It was an endless battle.
As for the Christmas Gifts, I never realy snooped either. However, I did find one of my gifts by accident. Mom had just gotten back froma trip to Costco and had me unload the groceries. There was a period piece collectors doll in one of the bags. It was my Christmas present. I think that she forgot that she bought it. So come Christmas morning i still had a very happy face when I opened it and the doll for the first time, again.
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Of all the kids who had things taken and hid from them, I think I am the one who had it happen the most to. The first act of this kind to my remembrance was the green bag monster that would take away cloths and clutter that was not put away in our rooms. This I’ll admit was used more for the older kids than the younger 3. After the green gab monster got old or forgotten, the method of hiding went from fun looking bag to complete banishment. There was the NES and the duck hunting gun that were hidden in the milk canister and in mom’s closet, a favored hiding spot, along with dad’s dresser. I remember going on raids organized by Christian to find that NES and gun with no avail. But then we moved on from playing Nintendo to playing Christians card game, which when we paid too much attention to vanished. I guess parents get jealous like that.
Time passed and the victims of mom and dad’s kidnappings moved from toys to more electronic games of mine and the boys. I don’t remember anything else being taken away, not Becca’s time consuming books, or Kaylene’s things that she did. There was X-Wing and Jedi Knights, Monkey Island and Diablo, Warcraft and anything else I cherished. I even remember by Game Boy Color ending up in mom’s closet on the top shelf between some sheets or something. I took it back and no one was the wiser.
By this time I had grown up some and decided to put more maturity into resolving the matter. I would take moms books and hid them until I felt bad and snuck them back. Guilt works on some people, but not parents I guess. On a brighter side of all things, I am very careful with the things I have and they are in great condition. I don’t like other people using my things and moving them around. I like them in a certain way and you won’t touch them unless you have permission from myself and myself only. I also know where exactly where everything is. But I have never found anything that was hidden from me for Christmas or my birthday. There is a line there that I don’t cross.
This is one of those areas where our nearly perfect parents really went astray. One day I simply couldn't find a computer game, X-wing, a star wars flight simulator. I had barrowed it from Rich Kunz. He wanted it back and I could not find it. I'm sure I asked Mom, and she did not know. So being responsible for my stewardship, I went to the store and forked out $40-$50 to buy my friend a new copy of his game. Months later the game was discovered hidden in Mom's closet. She simply forgot she had STOLEN it!
Now lets think about this. If a "child" is responsible enough to go buy his friend a $50 game because he thinks he lost it, it stands to reason that he is also responsible enough to talk to about any problems or issues. Would it make sense for a loving parent to vengefully steal from such a child, and never confront the child? Shame on you Mom, Shame on you.
Another hurtful act was the theft and disposal of Heroes Quest. A game that was much loved by Darren, Rich and I. Again, there was no warning or discussion. Like a thief in the night she stole and destroyed someone else property. I used to wonder if my mother was really a super villain by night.
Luckily, there have been many acts of love and generosity that far outweigh the psychological damage and irreplaceable childhood joys that were stolen from me. I hope our mother has matured and repented of such acts. But, Just in case she hasn't, I suggest we bring locks for our luggage when we go home to visit.
As for Dad, who is to say he wasn’t the mastermind behind all these plots. Unlikely, but… Who Is To Say…
I am to say. I often remember we would have to wait for dad to come home to get the Nintendo controllers out of hock. I think the was because Mom lacked the gusto to get the lid off the milk can. That can only mean that Dad was the hiding instigator. It is possible that he was not the mastermind behind all thievery but at least he was the brute force behind the theft. Preston and Christian have said it pretty much how I remembered it.
I can remember one searching for Christmas gifts expedition to Mom's closet. Christian climbed up on a chair and we found some Nintendo games. I believe they were Marble Madness and Sesame Street. I never felt really guilty because neither were for me.
When I was a small child, television was the distraction of the day. It was new technology and we were fascinated. It wasn't inherently evil — hey we were watching shows like "Leave it to Beaver" and "Bonanza" — but my mother was still concerned about its influence. It kept us from exploring outside, from playing family games, from studying or doing our chores. You'd have thought she would have been more supportive as the inventor of the television came from her home town. Those loyalties meant nothing in comparison to a potential threat to her children. I can still here her calling downstairs, “turn the TV off!”
We all have selective memories. I am sure Mom gave us ever more pointed warnings but what we really remember is that all of a sudden the TV didn’t work. I was too young to figure out what was wrong but my brothers eventually did. Mom would get into the back of the TV and take a tube out! (The first sets had small tubes in addition to the big picture tube.) Then Mom would hide the tube. After a time she would put the tube back in if she didn’t forget where she hid it. One time my brothers got impatient to get the tube back and sent her a long lasting message. They carved the words FIX TV into a couple of dinner plates.
It is interesting now to be on the other side of the media issue. Times have changed dramatically but the worries are the same. Is exposure to TV, Nintendo, computer games, etc keeping my child from doing worthwhile things? Is the content harmful? Dad and I wrestled with these questions the same as my parents did. Some things we did right and some things we just blew. The worst was forgetting we had even taken the X-Wing game Christian borrowed from Rich. That was totally my fault.
Now as far as snooping into Christmas presents:
I just couldn’t do that. It’s against my code of conduct . . . so why would I think my children would snoop? If I had thought they were so easily tempted, so easily enticed to choose the dark side, I would have come up with a good hiding place, not my bedroom closet. Come to think of it . . . maybe we didn’t take away enough stuff.
Mom and I talked about most of these things and were in agreement on most of theses incidents. We wanted kids doing things other than being hooked on computer games. Some games are bad (James Bond) and some are fine they just take time away from important things or playing outside. This is one of those things that the perspective of the parent and typically the male child will always differ.
I am sorry for the theft of Rich's game and other forgotten thefts that caused undue pain.
One point of great pleasure and satisfaction is that even knowing you were looking for the absconded property, I was at peace. I was not concerned that children were looking high and low because I had a hiding place nobody ever found until I decided to disclose the milk can to my adult children.
I don't recall anything being stolen from me. I didn't care much for the Nintendo or other inherently evil (apparently) games the boys played. And I probably didn't care for them because they never let me play them. So I found other things to do. And it wasn't until I read the posts on the blog that I learned the milk can was the hiding place. I didn't even know it opened. Good call, Dad.
What I can share is that I am the guilty snooper. I snooped at anything, I'm not really sure why, but that is how I was. I think it started when Christian would hide all his money in the water shut off cupboard, I was so intrigued by the idea of hiding money, and he was so super protective of it. Confession-- I stole money from Christian's secret stash. Probably 50 cents or something. I'm sorry. I don't think you ever noticed or knew, so I guess your security system wasn't as good as you thought.
As for the Christmas gifts, that was a fun challenge. It stated off with mom making me take stuff to the food storage room and in putting it away I found some hidden gifts. And if gifts were hidden in the food storage room, where else could they be? So I started checking places -- mom's closet (which why it is never dad's clost I don't know).
Helping mom put away her laundry is also how I found the lost tooth depository and retrieved some teeth which I "recycled" as newly lost teeth to cash in some tooth fairy money.
Soon it became pretty evident that mom hid everything in her closet and that she and dad were on to my snooping. So I got sneakier too. One year when all my efforts were in vain I came up with a new method. Finding what she got was the goal, not necessarily seeing it, so I had a new plan. Mom had kept a meticulous checkbook writing down each check and the business and what she purchased with it. So I decided to just go to the source, I'd look through her checkbook. However I didn't really find much interesting there. That was when I finally decided to just give it up. I repent! I am a reformed snooper now.
Dear Mom and Dad,
Um... you should probably know that Christian has been emotionally scarred. Before we were even married, he told me about the time you stole his He-Man action figures all because you said they "are not the way God made us." I just want you to know that on behalf of Christian's and my family, I forgive you. But we will be locking our luggage. Sorry!
Dear Megan,
Christian says to tell you that his next phone bill payment will be 50 cents short. Do you have any other confessions to make?
So I know I was not snooping around the Jones house during Christmas but I was very good at finding my presents and everyone else in my family at the Seeman house hold. My friend Kristin Jones (no relation) and I would snoop around my mom and dads closet until we found the goods. They were usually wrapped so we would carefully unwrap the presents and wrap them back up when we were done. I also was very good at finding hidden candy and other such goods.
I can't really remember mom and dad taking anything away from me. However, I do recall my siblings and I each trying to have complete control over the new Harry Potter books. Every time one came out I would find new ways to hide it so I could read it at my own leisure. It didn't work. Someone would find it, read a couple chapters, and then find a hiding spot of their own. It was an endless battle.
As for the Christmas Gifts, I never realy snooped either. However, I did find one of my gifts by accident. Mom had just gotten back froma trip to Costco and had me unload the groceries. There was a period piece collectors doll in one of the bags. It was my Christmas present. I think that she forgot that she bought it. So come Christmas morning i still had a very happy face when I opened it and the doll for the first time, again.
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