by Annette Van De Kamp

Created on: May 01, 2008

I am afraid of the Play Station. I am also afraid of the X-Box, Game Cube, and Game Boy. I know that in the past, many parents have agreed with me that having these kind of devices around your children is not necessarily a good idea; and if you must own them, you should limit the time they spend on gaming or they'll turn into couch potatoes and grow up to be dumb. Now, there's the Wii. Suddenly, playing games is not only allowed, it's good for you. They're using this in hospitals, to rehabilitate people; it's great for your eye-hand coordination.

Well, so is learning to shoot ducks. And what, pray tell, do my children need such great eye-hand coordination for? So they can learn to punch each other with more accuracy?

Maybe this thing is so popular because it's a reaction to the way childhood in America, for years, has been structured around extra-curricular activities. Soccer on Monday, Basketball on Tuesday, Bible class on Wednesday and debate club right after, Dance on Thursdaybefore you know it, the whole damn family ends up living in the minivan. No more time for home-cooked meals, which means everybody's getting fat; wait, why again did we make our children play sports? Can't they just stay home, not eat fast food, and call it even?

Bingo! Enter the Wii. You can do anything. Tennis, guitar lessons, golf, baseball; you name it, and you don't even have to leave the house! Which is good, because sunshine gives you cancer. You'll save money on gas, on sun block, and on sports equipment; what's more, parents can start cooking real food again. If you're out of practice, don't worry: I hear Rice-a-roni's quite easy to make.

I am such a hypocrite. The whole time I am writing this, my son is watching something called Wow Wow Wubbzy on Nick. I don't really know what the big deal is; it sounds positively heinous, but my son seems to enjoy it. They say "wow" a lot. If anybody brings up the fact that television is probably just as bad as playing the Wii, or at least lives in the same neighborhood, I won't argue.

So I should ask myself; as fanatic as I am about my children reading books (they even have their own reading room off the kitchen where they can curl up and read), why do I still let them watch television? Why have I made an absolute rule regarding gaming systems not coming into our house, yet I never forget to pay the cable bill? Is this just hypocrisy on my part, because I like TV so much, and haven't cared about gaming since Donkey Kong ruled my grade school?

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