A guest post by the husband

Hi all, Eddie here.   I thought I would write this next post as Melissa is still traumatized by the events of yesterday.  
Have you ever heard of a football team employing the "twelfth man"?   This refers to the crowd in a stadium cheering for the home team, booing the away team.  Many times it so loud and raucous that it affects the outcome of the game, thus...the twelfth man.
Melissa and I have something like that.   We call it "the third parent".   It is our TV.  And in this case, it is our 47" VIZIO flat screen TV.  
We bought it three years ago for over 900 dollars.   Now, let me just say, we don't just have 900 dollars.   It was a tax check purchase and we had been shopping around for one for about four months.   We did our research and wanted to get the most bang for our buck. 
The VIZIO is great, although it proved to be a bit of a pain when it comes to universal remotes.   We loved our Friday night movie nights, our Saturday morning cartoons, our weekday TODAY shows in the morning.  
Our TV warned us of impending bad weather.  It entertained us.  It educated us.   It babysat our kids.   .
We loved our TV.   The kids loved our TV.  In short, the TV was family.   However, all good things must come to an end. 
The kids and I love a cartoon network show called "The Regular Show".  It is irreverent and hilarious, and extremely quotable.   So naturally, we bought the DVD.
Yesterday, we played the DVD and there came a moment when it froze, momentarily.  Tobey became frustrated and slapped the TV.   We quickly admonished him and fixed the DVD player, problem solved.
Then, Melissa and I left our teenager, Lena, in charge as we went to the store to pick up dinner.   A short while later we returned home.   Lena came running out of the front door.  
"OMIGOD OMIGOD!!!"  she was yelling.   Instantly, we feared the worst.
 "Is the TV OK?" we asked.   (I'm just kidding, we asked about the kids.)
"It's Tobey...he did something..." she trailed off.  "He cracked the TV."  This is how I reacted. 
The DVD had frozen once again.   Lena had gone to the restroom.   In that few seconds, Tobey grabbed the broom and shoved it through the screen of our precious TV.   Now, if one of my kids ever becomes a mass murderer or worse, a politician, I know I will be able to support them.  I was able to keep my calm.   But, sometimes, especially with autism, life can feel like this.  Pay attention to the :47 second mark.
So now, we are a day removed.   We are using an old 27" Tube TV.   It's like we're Amish.  
And, I think we learned a lesson that day.   We really need to get cable.