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Tuesday, January 17, 2006

A Close Call

Tonight, I played a therapeutic game with one of my client families at the agency. "The Talking, Feeling, Doing Game." If a player lands on a "Doing" space, he or she draws a "Doing" card and does what it says. This usually involves acting out or pantomiming some vignette that is described on the card.

My clients are a single mom, her 18-year-old daughter, 14-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son. Son drew a "Doing" card, and read aloud:
"Pretend you are home alone. Do the thing that you most enjoy doing when you are home alone."

I have seen a lot of frightened people. Rarely have I seen three females look more frightened than this boy's mom and his sisters, when he read the card, then he gestured that they should move off of the couch, because he intended to lie down as part of his charade.

And rarely have I seen three females look more relieved than when he acted out napping, then sitting up to play a video game. Whew!

20 heads are better than one . . .

Blogger eviluncledave said...

I'm not touching this one....

;)

 
Blogger Philosophical Karen said...

Interesting game. For some reason I thought it would be eating and playing video games.

 
Blogger Katy Barzedor said...

Wait, did the video game involve a joystick?

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As soon as I read this, I thought...I wonder what Bucky is going to say!

Oh my. Video game and napping were good.

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Wow. That was awesome. Nicely written!

 
Blogger Susie said...

eud, then I'm not touching that comment.

mrtl, can you imagine?

karen, I think Sonny's family had some experience of him that you and I don't have :)

bucky, you know it did ;)

lawbrat, it really was amusing, to see the looks on their faces, the looks they exchanged, go from absolute terror to total relief. heheee I just kept the game moving.

jim, aw, thanks. Just a quickie :)

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OMG! I totally thought this one was going to have a Donnie Darko conclusion.

 
Blogger Nic said...

LOL! That is too funny. You know he should have done the other but wasn't about to in front of his mom and sisters (and you).

I'm inviting you to participate in the "Ask Nic" post that I have posted today. You can ask me a ? about whatever you would like to know about me. Hope you can make it!

 
Blogger Kranki said...

What if he had 'gone there?' What if? Yikes!

 
Blogger Andrea said...

Some days I am SO glad I don't have a son! :)

 
Blogger OldHorsetailSnake said...

What were YOU thinking? Fie. (Damn. You made me think the same thing.)

 
Blogger Susie said...

hanni, I am profoundly uncool, I'm sure, but I don't know donnie darko.

nic, hi, there! I came over and asked you something :)

kranki, hehee, I was ready; I really have to be ready for pretty much anything. I think I would have affirmed his doing his favorite thing when he is ALONE as opposed to publicly, and moved on to the next player. One rule of the game is no "cross-talk," which is why his family members couldn't say anything, just shot the horrified looks.

andrea, sometimes those discussions are even more difficult with girls, I think.

hoss, well, my mind being what it is, I was thinking what his mom was thinking, but for me it was only a fleeting thought; I was distracted by my own amusement at his family's anxiety.

 
Blogger Andrea said...

Susie, you are right. If I had a son, I could just tell Leo, "YOU talk to him!" With girls...I am definitely going to be the one on the spot!

 
Blogger Nina said...

Laughing my butt off here, that is all. :)
Other than my word verification is
sieisxd ~ maybe it is I with a dirty mind. :)

 
Blogger Nilbo said...

I think you should have warned the young man that if he does too much of that, he'll go blind.

 
Blogger eclectic said...

Bwahahaha! That right there is an example of answered prayer, I'll betcha!! And I don't know how in the world you keep a straight face in your job!

 
Blogger Squirl said...

Susie, that was a close one. I think you would've handled it soooo much better than his mother and sisters.

 
Blogger Susie said...

andrea, you would NOT wuss out like that if you had a son ;)

nikki, ha! At my private office, perhaps not; but at this particular agency, I don't want to think too much about the sights that couch has seen :0

nina, of course it's you with the dirty mind; something about being 45, I think. Thank goodness I've moved past that, now ;)

nilbo, actually, I think it would have been the mom and sisters who would have been instantly stricken with blindness, had he done what they feared he would do :)

eclectic, sometimes, I must cover my mouth to "cough." Some day I will have to blog about one or two particular coughing fits I was sent into :)

squirl, yea, I wasn't too freaked; but then, I would only have had to see it in charade form; who knows what they've walked in on!

 
Blogger August95 said...

Hehehe.

 
Blogger WILLIAM said...

that is funny. The kid is lying but it is funny.

 


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