“Are you ...” Kiersten frowned. “Are you trying tocrack our safe?”
The kids were clad in various shades of black, plus what appeared to be attempted disguises. Guinevere wore a Darth Vader mask. Olivia wore a Harry Potter cape, Bella an Elsa wig, and Luke sported a purple balaclava normally used for snowmobiling.
What the hell?
“Upstairs,” Piper bellowed. “Now.”
The kids scrambled up the stairs, followed by their mothers. Kiersten called Rosamund, who arrived moments later to find all eight kids sitting in uncharacteristic silence on the couch.
Piper pointed to her youngest. Always start an interrogation with the person most likely to rat out her partners in crime. Bella was notorious for giving “hints” that revealed the contents of every Christmas present under the tree.
“You. Spill it.”
“We just wanted our iPads back,” Bella said plaintively.
“I can’t take this anymore.” Luke pulled off the balaclava. His hair stood on end, giving him the strung-out look of an addict in need of a fix. “I needFortnite. I need itnow.”
Caitlin removed her blackIncrediblesmask. “People are, like,texting thingsabout me. Saying I left school because I had some kind ofmental health episode. And I can’t set the record straight, because I can only textone hour a week. This isruining my life.”
“We used your iPad,” Johnny confessed. He removed his goalie mask and looked up at his mother with a guilty expression. “We went on YouTube. We found a video about how to crack open safes. They said to use asethascope. So we got the one you use when you’re a nurse.”
“We had no choice.” Matthew removed the catcher’s mask he’d been wearing. “The current screen time policy isdraconian.”
Rosamund shot him a small smile.Draconianwas one of the vocabulary words they’d discussed this week.
“We want to negotiate a better deal,” Matthew continued.
Piper’s mouth dropped open. “Negotiate?”
“That’s right.” Guinevere removed her Darth Vader mask. “We pay attention. We behave. And you let us have screens for three hours every day. Andtwomovies on Saturday nights.”
Caitlin moved to stand beside Guinevere and Matthew with crossed arms. “These are our demands.”
“And if we don’t meet your demands?” Kiersten asked, eyebrows raised so high they disappeared into her hairline.
“Then we go on strike,” James said. “We won’t learn things.”
Piper exchanged a glance with Rosamund and Kiersten. “Management needs to discuss this.”
Matthew picked up the remote. “Great. We’ll watch theMinecraftmovie while you talk.”
He turned on the TV, and the kids immediately sank into a tranquilized silence.
The mothers retreated to the dining room / classroom.
“I can’tbelievethis,” Kiersten spluttered.
Piper threw her hands in the air. “Completely outrageous. This is—”
“Smart,” Rosamund said.
They turned to stare at her. “Smart?”
“We discussed this in history last week,” Rosamund said with a bemused expression. “The Industrial Revolution. The Luddite movement. The newsboys’ strike of 1899. The rise of labor unions. Believe it or not, I think they’re actuallylearningthings. And I think they’re right. One hour of screen time once a weekisdraconian, by modern child-technology standards. I say we rethink our policy.”
Piper put her hands on her hips. “Seriously?”
“Yes. Seriously,” Rosamund said. “And it might actually be easier if we do it their way. If they expect screen time every day, we have a carrot we can use when their attention starts to wander.”
