So Much Earth Hour

There were a variety of attitudes towards Earth Hour last night. The four kids were pretty into it, although the three-year-olds seemed confused. As far as the adults . . . Quinn was supportive but disappeared for periods of time. Bindy was skeptical . . . she wondered if lighting 50 candles was really better than using electricity. Tabitha was straight up hostile when we started seven minutes early . . . she panicked when I clicked off the TV and demanded to watch something until 8:30. I refused . . . what was she going to watch for seven minutes? Then she kept insisting our Earth Hour ended at 9:23. Hello . . . that’s not how it works.



But it was all worth it . . . and everyone had such a good time. How do I know? Because I saw them all smiling . . . even Tabitha, when she looked up from the game she was playing on her cell phone. The source of our entertainment was a freestyle game of something like charades. We took turns acting like whatever we felt like in the middle of the candlelit room. The three-year-olds were guaranteed to be a ballerina, princess, kitty or doggy. No one could figure out what Bindy was trying to be but we cheered her on anyway. The rest of us were animals, TV characters, flowers, people in the room. And everyone was laughing . . . for about a half hour. Then the three-year-olds had meltdowns and the older kids went upstairs and took showers . . . with the lights on. Bindy put her youngest to bed and Quinn disappeared again. Tabitha and I sat and talked in the darkness for the second half hour while Violet fell asleep in my lap. Didn’t know Earth Hour was going to be a test of endurance. We’ll try again next year.