Last night our fam went to a nursing home and played bingo with the residents as part of Wednesday Night Service. We typically leave the three years old in the day care on these evenings, but since it was a nursing home, we decided it'd be ok to take them. We were joined there by another family with a 5 year old and a 2 year old so it bingo night was a little more active for the residents! One of the women who was sitting at Tarina's table told my three year old son that he'd have to be quiet once they started calling numbers because if he kep chatting, they wouldn't be able to hear!
Bingo is kind of a big deal at this home- winning cards get a $.10 token to use at the 'store', and right after winning, you'd see the residents grab their token so they must have some worth. My 6 and 4 year old joined me at Blanche's table. She really wasn't all that interested in us until the boys and I started racking up the bingos (I should have taken the boys straight to Sertoma following the nursing home to up the ante a bit!)- Riley even scored a '6 pack'- and we left Blanche with $.60 worth of tokens- enough for her to smile as we left for the evening.
There's nothing revolutionary about bingo night or being present in a nursing home, but I know in the normal course of my life I avoid these kinds of places. One hour out of a week is a small price to pay for some fun, some connection, and some $.10 tokens.
We had a lot of fun the night we went too!
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