Wii Finally Caved In

So I thought it was worth mentioning on my little blog journal here about our Wii. It wasn't an easy decision to buy this thing. Neither one of us really wanted one. We are not gaming people. Drew would have friends come over and it was amazing at how "unfun" (if that is a word) our house was to them. Every kid that came over to our house wanted to play video games of which we didn't have. I had to watch these kids look at Drew annoyed at his suggestions to play different things, and walk around looking hopelessy bored. It was kind of painful to watch really. Don't kids use their imaginations anymore? For about 4 months Drew asked us constantly if we could buy a Wii. Each time we told him no, it was too expensive and he would lose brain cells etc. He kept asking to go to certain friends houses that had Wii's just in order to play. To say he was obsessed would be an understatement. One day he came up to me and said, "Mom . . . I know how we can get a Wii, and you don't even have to buy it. At Christmas I will just ask Santa Clause for it, and that way you don't have to pay for it." That was pretty cute.

So we did what any unresponsible parent would do . . . we gave into peer pressure. We told the kids that they could earn a Wii. We got a big empty Costco cookie jar and put a hole in the lid. We bought a ton of cottonballs, and told the kids they could earn them by doing chores, listening promptly, serving, being kind etc. We also had the right to take cottonballs away for bad behavior. It was amazing how well we could get the kids to listen with cottonballs at stake. It took a whole lot longer than the kids wanted, but they finally earned the Wii. And all of that earning time gave us time to come up with rules and a system of playing time (Thanks to Lamon's co-workers) The Wii can only be played on Wednesdays and Saturdays. But it's not just a free for all on those days. During the week the kids have opportunities to earn "Wii bucks" Each Wii buck is worth 5 minutes of playing time. So even if it is a Wii day they can't play unless they have Wii bucks. It's worked out pretty well so far. The most they have had at once is 90 minutes worth so they aren't playing Wii all day everyday! And we have never seen Drew so willing to do chores! ;-)