No, we did not just get back from seeing the new Justin Bieber movie.
Growing up, we never had any sort of gaming system in our house. Many of my friends had Atari (yes, I’m THAT old) and then the original Nintendo. It was kind of fun playing Mario Bros. at friends’ houses, but because I didn’t play often, I wasn’t good, so didn’t really like it all that much.
Fast forward to Christmas 2000. Patrick and I spent our second Christmas as a married couple together and he REALLY wanted the new Sony PlayStation. Being the good wife that I was, I got it for him. We played it together on occasion and sometimes he’d have the guys over to play Madden 2000.
Eventually, the newness wore off and it got used less and less. We were both busy and there were other things we’d rather do with our spare time. We still have it, but only because we like to bust it out every so often and get crazy with some Tetris (apparently that game is worth $70 now)! It’s the only video game I’ve ever loved.
I liked to think we’d never let our kids have video games. I mean, that’s the way I grew up and I turned out okay, right? I’m all about encouraging outdoor time and physical activity and video games went against BOTH! Until. . . the Kinect came along. I was still a little resistant, but I had to admit that this was a gaming system that is anti-couch potato. It isn’t possible to play the games while sitting down and unlike the Wii you have to use your WHOLE body.
Patrick’s parents were so generous and bought it for the girls. It arrived yesterday and here are some action shots from their first time playing. I love that they don’t have to worry about a controller! They were having a blast and working up a sweat!
No, a tutu is not required.
We have set a few rules:
- You must ask permission to play. (No sneaking down to the basement without Mom knowing!)
- When Mom says it’s time to quit, there is no whining.
- If any arguments or fights start while they’re playing, it is immediately turned off.
This is only our second day using it, so we might have to add more rules, but so far that’s working for us and they’ve been great about following them. They know if the rules aren’t obeyed, I’ll pack the whole thing up and hide it for a while!
Today was a day off of school (four day weekend with President’s Day too—woohoo!) so they did a little Kinect, watched an episode of Little House, and have been spending most of the day outside. Almost all the snow on our lawn is melted—finally!
3 comments:
Enjoy the simplicity of those rules while they are little. It's a little different when they are teenage boys and they buy a used game system from KSL with their own money (even after Mom tried to talk them out of it). My rules have to be about grades and clean rooms, etc., and then give them the freedom to waste time as they see fit. Ugh. At least Evan is on the track team and Grant has swim team everyday, so they do get exercise, too.
With a husband who loves video games (although thank goodness doesn't play them 24/7) it's inevitable that our boys would love them too. We got the Kinect for Christmas and I got the game "Dance Central" and I love it. Embarrassed to say, we also have Wii, another xbox besides the new one with the Kinect, 3 Nintendo DSi's, and I should probably stop there before going onto ipod touches that they use for yet even more games!Rules are important- I agree but I really don't mind them playng.
Those pictures were cracking me up. Love that they are having such a blast. We only have a PS2, but I try to limit Jaydon's playing time. Enjoy it.
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