This virus really sapped my energy this past month, with many days finding me so tired in the afternoon that I could barely stay awake. The kids knew that I was sick, and we’d come to an agreement. When I was too tired to stay awake, they’d get to watch a movie.

On one such day, my oldest was home alone with me.  He was sick as well, so the two of us were just lolling about the house, killing time. We’d played games, read books, watched TV, and pretty much exhausted our store of activities.

“Dad,” he said as dinner time approached, “how about we do something outside?”

I glanced out the window. Rain was pouring down in gray sheets, and the sky was dark enough to qualify for screen time in a depressing movie.

“Outside?” I asked.

“Yeah,” he said. “You know. How about we do a father-son thing outside?”

“You want to do a father-son thing outside,” I repeated. I’d never heard him ask for a father-son thing. In fact, I wasn’t really sure what that would be.

“Just us,” he said.

I pointed out the window. “Kinda rainy.”

“Oh,” he said. “Yeah. How about a father-son thing inside?”

“Okay. What would you like to do?”

“I dunno. A movie?”

“Okay.” We picked out a movie, and I stretched out on the couch. He climbed up on my back and sat there to watch while I snoozed.

It wasn’t exactly the father-son thing either of us had in mind, but I think it worked.