Escaping Saturday
Saturdays are a near-death experience in our household. Nothing particularly dangerous happens, but by the end of the day, we’re so close to killing each other that I start hiding all the baseball bats.
“Why are our Saturdays always like this?” I lamented to Logan a couple weeks ago after breaking up the umpteenth fight and then yelling at forcefully reminding our children that they still had chores to do before they could even think about doing anything fun. “It’s just a day full of chores and fighting and boredom. I’d gladly take a hundred Mondays over this.”
Being the wise old owl that he is—and also undeniably the fun parent—Logan thought for a moment and said, “I think we just need to be more intentional in our planning. We need to plan something fun to do once chores are done so the kids will be motivated to work hard and get along.”
I stared off into the distance, trying to imagine how anything could be more motivating than the promise of being locked in a quiet room with a good book.
“Can you define ‘fun’ one more time?” I asked. “This word confuses me.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “I’m thinking an arcade, or a hike, or skiing, or a movie. Stuff like that.”
“Um, a big ‘no’ to all of those, except maybe the movie,” I responded. “Although, come to think of it, Jane mentioned the other day that it would be fun to do an escape room.”
“Now you’re talkin’!” Logan replied. We both counted it a miracle that we had landed on an idea that at least moderately appealed to both of us, and he left me to plan the whole thing while he spent the next four hours tinkering around in the garage. I called the escape room place and made an appointment for the following Saturday.
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of an escape room, let me enlighten you. An escape room is an immersive game experience that requires you and your friends to solve several riddles, puzzles, and clues that will allow you to “escape” an actual room.
Depending on the theme you have chosen for your escape room experience, your room could look like a lab that has been overrun by zombies, or a fantasy world in another realm, or a saloon in the Wild West.
Right after you stumble into this space, a clock starts counting down and you look around frantically for anything that might be a clue. Could that red handkerchief on the ground be something significant? How about those numbers printed on the bottom of a poster? And what about that knob over there, surrounded by a small plastic rectangle that’s screwed into the wall? Oh, that’s an actual light switch. Never mind.
If you’re thinking of doing an escape room, I would advise you to choose your escape-mates carefully, because if you’re in a room full of Julia Dittos, you will literally never get out of that room. My brain and the brains of people like me are simply not cut out for working our ways through an escape room experience.
Luckily for me, my family is composed of a nice mix of problem-solving types. Some of us are extremely analytical and gravitate towards numbers and codes; some of us are highly observant and notice seemingly innocuous hidden clues; and some of us are intensely emotional and excel at expressing rising panic.
“Oh my gosh, only fourteen minutes left!” it was my job to exclaim. “Should we use the hint they promised they’d give us? We’re running out of time. I think it’s time to use it. I’m pushing the button to ask unless one of you stop me. Okay, I’m doing it! I’M DOING IT!”
Between the seven of us, and in spite of my lack of any real contribution, we were able to escape our Wild West bank heist situation with four minutes to spare. It was a nail biter for sure.
When it was all over, we rather unceremoniously stumbled out of our escape room and back into the tame lobby from whence we had begun our journey just an hour before. None of our kids were fighting, no one was complaining about chores yet to be completed, and Logan and I gave into peer pressure to hit the frozen yogurt shop on the way home. I guess, with a little planning, Saturdays don’t need to be a near-death experience after all.