[rancho_gordo]

I hate these things! My oldest (8 years old) plays with it and then goes into what I call the "zone" and he will be really cranky and unpleasant for about an hour after playing. I am so sick of asking them to do something and the response is silence followed by a repeat from me and then "just a sec. Let me save" and this can go on. I am SICK OF IT! We don't allow it before school but we've been lax for summer. I was getting the kids dressed for summer day camp this morning and I asked him to turn it off. He huffed and puffed with attitude and I went through the roof and now he's had it taken away for 2 days.
My thinking now is he can have it an hour a day and that's it. Or maybe he gets an hour for every hour he plays outside. I fear he'll start thinking of playing outside as punishment so I have to be careful.
I'm venting more than asking you to help me parent. But am I being too sensitive? Any experience with them? They really want a box for the TV to play those video games but we've put it off.

[TheMatt]

I got an old Atari 2600 to sell you if you want it.

If you want to be an enabler, send me the DS in trade. I'm already addicted to the demo of Puzzle Quest and I'm sure Pokemon would pull me in as well.

The solution? Only buy him really crappy DS games. Looks like Zoo Tycoon might be a winner.

[foodie52]

Hello? Who's the parent? Who calls the shots? Years ago when Nintendo came out, we were probably the only family on the block that didn't own one. I told my kids, if you want to play with Nintendo, go to your friends' houses. They did. They played, they came home and did whatever kids do when they don't have electronic toys. Like use their imagination.

And they turned out just fine. In fact, pretty damn good. First thing my son did when he went to college? Bought himself a playstation. Played it til he got sick of it, which took maybe 6 months. And now he's talking about when he has kids, how he's not going to let them have all the electronic stuff. Or cable TV.

Did I say that we didn't have cable either? And we SURVIVED!!