I found a new way to torment my children

The fun thing about kids is that sometimes they don't realize you are torturing them.

So, today, I invented a new game. A game any adult would call "cruel and unusual punishment" but which my kids thought was fabulously cool. I told them to close their eyes and hold their arms above their heads, and I would tickle them and whoever put their arms down first lost.

And they actually cooperated with this. Surprisingly, Genevieve won both times. She held her arms straight up, squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on "turning her tickle spots off" which she can do alarmingly well for a five year old. I've never met a child that young with that much will power and frankly, I don't see what the fun in that is. (No wonder she's so much trouble.) Imogen put her hands on her head, closed her eyes, then peeked constantly and kept bending over so her elbows would be at her sides.

Then, when I got bored of the new game, they got annoyed and begged to play some more.