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Monday, November 16, 2009

My big fat Wii confession

When hubby and I got married, we made a very important decision regarding the children. We vowed that we would absolutely not buy a video game system. We hated the fact that kids spend so much time on video games.

Over the years, we've kept that promise. And then, this game system called Wii came out. We dismissed it at first. Not another game system. We don't need it. We have computer games. And we don't need one more thing to take up our time.

We've heard a lot of great things about the Wii. And I have to say, I started getting a little bit of Wii envy. Especially when the Wii fit came out. We started talking about getting a Wii over a year ago. But each time, we decided against it.

Then we started talking about this coming Christmas. I'm pretty disenchanted with the whole holiday. I'm sick of the commercialism. I'm sick of my kids getting a bunch of stuff that does nothing more than clutter up my house. I'm sick of the big productions. I'm sick of spending tons of money on toys that break the next day. Which is when we decided to get a Wii.

The thing I liked the best about my friends' stories about their Wii is all the games they can play together. We spend so many evenings on our own computers, doing our own things... why not find one we can do together? Rather than sitting on our hind ends all evening, why not get up and get active?

So... in a great reversal of our previous anti video game stance, our family will be getting a Wii for Christmas. The kids do not know. (And if you read this and tell them, I will break every bone in your body. :) ) They have already been told that they need to lower their expectations in terms of quantity of gifts. Hubby and I haven't hashed out all the details yet, but we're committed to a smaller Christmas. But hopefully, one that is bigger in terms of the quality of time we'll be spending together in the future.

Now that I have crossed over to the dark side... I would love recommendations of "must-haves" for the Wii. So if you have something your family enjoys together as a family, I'd love to hear about it!

2 comments:

Kay Day said...

We (the kids and I) like Animal Crossing. It's not something more than one can play at a time, though.
Mario Kart is fun.

Joanna said...

We enjoy "MarioKart" and "Carnival Games." I love our Wii. I was hesitant at first because my hubby had another game system, but we tried it out at a friend's house, and it won me over. The two games listed are easy enough for my now 4-year old to enjoy, but not so simple that hubby and I get bored. Another benefit of the Wii - you can use it as a bargaining chip - Wanna play the Wii? Then clean your room. ;)