A year ago we decided to stay away from video games for as long as possible. I pictured my children blankly staring at the screen shooting things for hours. I thought there brains would atrophy and they'd never talk to us again. I also thought they'd just forget about wanting it because there is so much that keeps them busy.
A few months ago I that C was not forgetting about video games and instead was asking more and more frequently for a "personal video game system". I didn't want to just give him (them) whatever they wanted but I didn't want to just say NO because of some vague idea of mine that all video games are BAD. It seemed like lots of families that we knew had a Wii and liked it. They said that it was for the whole family and at least it gets everybody up and moving around. I read that the Wii was more interactive and some of the games are easy enough that even children K's age can play.
We caved! We let "santa" bring the Wii. Actually, I did most of the caving and Mark remained skeptical but didn't stop me. The boys were very excited when they realized that there wildest dream had actually come true on christmas morning. I had been pretty careful to maintain the pretext that we just aren't a "video game family".
Everyone (even Mema, Papa, Aunt Amy and Uncle Chris) enjoyed creating a Wii character and trying out the Wii sports and Uncle Mark's vast video gaming experience was very helpful in learning the ropes. C has become very frustrated and even cries when he can't navigate some part of a game well. What's fun about that? We got some more educational games and we haven't tried them yet....an ocean exploration game and an African safari game.
Did we really need a Wii? Will it be nice that the children won't be begging to go to their friends houses that have video games? We aren't totally convinced that the Wii will be a great thing for our family in the long run. I am looking forward to trying some more games though.
4 comments:
The Wii Bowling game was great fun. I wanted to play golf too.
Lara, we have a Wii, and love it! :) We have lots of games, but we've had our Wii for 2 years.
We have had ours for a year and I still haven't played it. Chloe likes video games but she rarely plays games on the Wii. She likes creating her Wii person, though. She does have a Nintendo DS and she plays with it a lot. But she loves to read so she is good about balancing it out.
We still haven't caved...but Joe hasn't really asked yet. (whew!) You have to let us know how things go with the Wii! However, he does want Guitar Hero (we played it at a friend's house). ack!
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