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Alyssa paid for her DS with her own money. We planned to give each of the boys one for Christmas. However, the boys love to play with their sister’s. As with most video games, the player must master one level before advancing. Accumulating points is the key to moving ahead. Points may be lost and must be replaced before moving on. A less experienced player, such as her 5-year-old brothers or parents, could easily “mess up” any progress Alyssa has made with the game.
As parents, this puts us in a difficult situation. We want to encourage the kids to share their toys. At the same time Alyssa should enjoy some advantage because she chose to spend HER money to get this game. If she is generous and chooses to share, it could erase some of the fruits of her labor. I’m obviously using an extremely broad definition of labor.
Tim has a business trip in a couple weeks to Minneapolis. We are going to go with him to have a little mini-vacation. He decided we should get the boys their own DS’ before the trip. This would give all the kids something to do, besides watch movies, on our road trip.
How did parents survive without video in their cars? Think about the pioneers, traveling westward in search of opportunity. It took months. After twenty minutes I’m tired of hearing, “Are we there yet?” Interstate highways, air conditioning, drive thru’s and rest stops were generations away.
Saturday I caught Alex with Alyssa’s DS. I asked him, “Did you ask your sister if you could play her game?”
“No” was her shrill reply as she ran over and ripped it from his hands.
Alex looked at me with his sad little puppy dog eyes, “But Mom, she always says no.”
Tim, unaware of the situation, tells me he needs to run to the hardware store. “Again,” I ask.
Without tipping off the boys, I whisper that he should pick up a couple of DS’s while he’s out. He sneaks them into the house when he returns so we can get the batteries charged. Want to frustrate a 5-year-old? Give them a new video game and then tell them to wait four hours before they can play with it.
Later that evening, we share the exciting news with the boys. They are so excited they can hardly contain themselves.
On Sunday, Alyssa returns from a sleep-over with the girls next door. The boys are now in the DS owner club with the girls. All five were sitting in our living room playing video games. It was so cute. The system has the ability to communicate with others wirelessly within a short range. They were sending messages to each other and having a blast. All the laughter was worth it.
