Monday, October 11, 2021

All the Points

When the boys were growing up, I made dinner almost every night. That meant that every so often we would have leftovers, stored in a collection of containers in the refrigerator. Some had just a few bites in them, like leftover spaghetti and meatballs that Justin couldn't finish, or maybe a spoonful of green beans that Ryan didn't really like. Once the leftover containers had taken over the refrigerator, and I couldn't transform the leftovers into soup or something else, I would declare a smorgasbord night, put out all the containers on the counter, and everyone could decide what they wanted for dinner.


John loves leftovers, but they weren't very popular with the boys. There were "good leftovers" (macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, lasagna, or meatloaf) and the less popular "yucky leftovers" like peas, pork chops, or broccoli. One night the boys were moaning about how we didn't have anything good and they were tired of eating yucky leftovers, and I said, "Well, if you finish everything in a container, you'll get a container point!" I don't remember how old the kids were, but they were young enough that the idea of earning points won them over. They proudly tallied up their container points, and it wasn't until the next smorgasbord night that they wondered how to redeem their container points and what they were good for. I hadn't thought too far ahead, and wasn't willing to bribe my kids to eat leftovers with any real or monetary reward, so I just told them I'd figure out something.

I never did anything with the container point redemption scheme, and it eventually became a family joke. Even as adults, they still occasionally ask about container points. But a few weeks ago I discovered another type of point. 

A bunch of warning lights came on in John's truck after he had driven over some rumble strips on the way back from MD, so he took the truck to the dealer. They said he had a bad wheel speed sensor, and they would try to order one. It's one of those parts that has a rare and hard-to-get electronic chip in it, so they weren't sure if it would be available. They called me when John was on vacation and I decided it would be best to take it right into the dealer since they had actually found one. My service advisor was a woman who wondered why I was bringing in John's truck. I explained the story and told her that I was just trying to increase my good wife points. She found this fairly amusing and could barely get over the fact that I was going to sit there for three hours and wait for his truck.


When the truck was done I was pleasantly surprised to find that my good wife points had been upgraded. I'm guessing that the redemption is similar to container points, but I'm just happy to have my points officially documented (and to have earned so many)!

14 comments:

  1. Now that's a ton of Great Wife Points!! Congratulations. I love that she put the sticky note on your receipt.

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  2. I cannot remember what we did with leftovers when the kids were small, I guess I have a selective memory. I know when they had apartments in college they would take food containers of food! Now that we are just two we have container dinners often because I cannot cook for two people...

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  3. I am dying with laughter! This is brilliant and I am going to share the Container Point story with Heidi...LOL

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  4. What a fabulous story, Bonny --- both the Container Points AND the Good Wife Points! I wish I'd been clever enough to come up with Container Points when my kids were still at home -- they would have loved it (and Erin would have figured out some sort of elaborate tracking system). Tom and I still pull out all our leftovers now and then and proclaim "grazing night" to finish them off.

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  5. Bonny, this is priceless! Container points is such a creative way to get kids in the habit of eating leftovers. I give you 5,000 good mother points! And the lady at the car dealership must have a great personality. You made me laugh on Monday morning, and that's not easy. :)

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  6. I hope that Post It was placed where John would be sure to see it!

    I cracked up at the idea of container points. It's always been hard to convince the other two members of my family to eat leftovers -- I've had to train my husband to do it, I think because he had some bad association with them before (maybe they always tasted bad?). He was going to take leftover lasagna for lunch today but forgot it, so does that mean he gets negative container points?

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  7. Those are great stories, I love how you tied them together. I'm sure you can think of a way to redeem those good wife points!

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  8. Wow! You ROCK!! That's A LOT of *Good Wife Points". I think you must have earned something pretty fantastic with all of those!

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  9. Congrats on your good wife points! The idea of container points cracks me up!

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    1. Part of the success of container points was that they were introduced when the kids were young and got excited about the possibility of winning at almost anything (and beating each other)!

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  10. I love it! And Doug would get every container point! Except in our house they tend to be foil packets.

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  11. Oh man, I love the idea of container points! That is hilarious... and inspiring. We have enough leftovers around here to rack up a whack of container points each week. Maybe if we earn enough we can splurge on fancy takeout! At least you deserve one after racking up the good wife points!

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    1. Container points were a fun part of parenting young kids. Now I often look at the containers in the refrigerator and feel uninspired. I've got spaghetti, spaghetti sauce, carrot souffle, and green beans. Not exactly the ingredients for good soup!

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  12. Container points! That's hilarious!!

    I would double your Good Wife Points because that kind of "repair" doesn't even have anything to do with the operation of the vehicle...

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