Cardboard Boxes Still #1 Toy In Our House

My kids are enamored with empty cardboard boxes. Large ones usually end up in the driveway for an afternoon of spaceship flights. Most of the time my wife squirrels the smaller ones away to the garage for me to do my manly disposal duty.

Yesterday, I left an empty 4′x2′x2′ Amazon.com box in the hall. My six and four year olds, ‘Colonel Smith’ and ‘Howling Mad Murdock’ respectively, ran up to me asking what it was for? I said, “Well, we’re going to ship your older brother to Alaska when he gets home from school.”

The young ones were giggly and enthusiastic about that. In fact, they kept pestering me the rest of the afternoon: “When are we sending ‘B.A.’ to Alaska?”

The back story is B.A. tends to be very loud and obnoxious to his younger brothers and occasionally steals candy from them. Other times, he’s sensitive and kind. At the moment, B.A. was actually being a good guy and keeping his Bad Attitude in check. Twin brother Face man was actually the one being a trouble maker. So I kept delaying with excuses like after B.A.’s homework was done, then after dinner, then after his shower.

Meanwhile, the Colonel and Murdock kept hauling that box up the stairs to their bedroom, back down stairs, and back up again — all afternoon — giggling all the way.

Before bedtime, we invited B.A. into his ‘private video game playing room’ (box) and he agreed and played along with our brief joke. He was good spirited about the whole thing.

In the end, B.A. got a reprieve. Sadly, there are many times I thought about how nice it could be for the rest of the family if we could send B.A. away. The junior members of the A-Team really enjoyed the idea of sending B.A. away. Although that was a joke, it’s kind of sad. In hindsight, it makes me feel bad. I’m an ass.

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Replace your toys with cardboard boxes