THE ORANGE STICKER

'Have they been sitting there the entire time' I asked as I walked in after my workout. The children were sitting at the same spot where I left them almost an hour before. At the media station. The gym had replaced the large monitors with iPads so children had the option to sit and play games instead of playing outdoors. It's a gym, I thought. Not a school computer lab.

Though my children knew it was Sunday, which meant no iDevices, they still sat at the tables and decided that playing computer games was the reason we came to the gym. I lectured them and informed them of their having lost two days' of iDevice time this week because of today. Since it was warm outside, I wanted them to play with the other children.

'Oh, I didn't know we could go outside' was Sage's excuse. He tried telling me he was unaware of the doors being open to the outdoor covered play area but I am sure if he bothered to look, he would have noticed children playing on the equipment.

'I was going to go outside but you just came now' was his other excuse. Good try, my son, but I was gone for an hour. Saffron tried putting the blame on her sister by letting me know that she asked her to play with her but her sister did not want to go.

'I will make sure I put an orange sticker on their tags' the lady at the front entrance to the children's gym assured me. I am sure she could sense I was not pleased about the situation. The orange sticker means 'no media'. Good to know, I thought as we left. I will make sure to request the stickers tomorrow morning.