I delayed as much as possible to get Kristina video games. After seeing her cousins play she wanted one and I made her work towards earning one. The only game she has is the Nintendo dogs and Cooking Mama which she also earned. I liked the idea of making her earn the games until now...my fears, and yes they are my fears and I am working through it, fears of addiction were exposed. We run across rental of games at Blockbuster for $4.99 for the week. I thought why not try it this way. We rented Mario. All good at first until she became proficient and her competitiveness took over and she could not see "straight", frustration and anger took over at times. Needless to say the game is going back to the store, the device is gone for a week and in a week she can play back with virtual dogs and cooking which do not take over her.
Now to the fears, I can also take one of those games and play for a long time ... So unproductive in my opinion and not any different than other addictions: alcohol, drugs, eating, shopping. I do not like feeling of not being in control of what I do. I do not like the feeling it leaves of emptiness. I do not like to see it on me or on her. I need to work with her in making her realize that she can play for a bit but it is not play until you die. We also will work on realizing that somethings are not that important and it is not worth the extra anger and frustration.
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