The Aerie
We finally relented, as it was almost inevitable as we would. We got the Xboxes.
I had always vowed to be a video-game-less household. Not because video games are some kind of caustic force upon the fabric of American society (which of course they are), but because they are largely consumer-driven machines. That is to say, you can use them as a consumer, but very rarely can you use them as a producer.
I've tried to instill in my kids a strong sense of producing versus consuming. Consuming is passive, consuming is expensive, consuming is playing into the hands of the powerful.
Producing is hard work. Producing is creative. Producing is, or at least can be, subversive.
So I never wanted to get video games. I wanted the kids to use their home computers to do things like "learn to run video game emulators," and "write your own games.' In short, I wanted to trick them into learning skills that would be useful in becoming producers rather than consumers.
Unfortuntely what I didn't count on was Monster's Den, a local gaming shop that provides a bunch of wired-up Xboxes for kids to use. For a fee.
And while I knew that my kids' friends' would have video games, I figured that distance would limit their exposure.
Between friends-with-video-games and the Monster's Den, my kids were frequently not home, and often broke.
So we decided enough was enough. Not having a video game wasn't preventing them from being consumers or using video games, they were simply doing so away from home, where we couldn't have any input or control. Better to have them, and sometimes their friends, over here, where we can keep an eye on them.
So I went out and got a couple of Xboxes, used, cheap, and a bunch of used games. Got some really good deals. Then on Christmas morning they were all set up in the basement game room, waiting.
Mind you, Christmas is upstairs. We opened all the gifts. We inspected the stockings. Afterwards we cleaned up the papers.
Then when the kids were convinced everything was well over, I told my daughter, "It's really noisy downstairs, could you go see what that is?"
Now the first thing she saw was the Karaoke box that we had purchased, and she was very excited about that. So when she started yelling, I sent my youngest down. "Go see what your sister is making so much noise about."
The wife and I listened as he went downstairs.
"Holy S^&#!" he yelled. He rocketed back upstairs, almost incoherent. Racing into their room he called his brother at the top of his lungs, managing to blurt "Xbox!"
The boys went downstairs, and we followed. As they were exclaiming over the first Xbox, I opened the door to my office and showed them the second.
Our eldest boy, at the surly age of 14, threw his arms around both of his parents and gave us a very enthusiastic, "Thanks!"
Sure we'll have battles in the weeks ahead keeping them on top of their homework and off of the video games. But it was all worth it to crack through a 14-year-old's armor, just for a moment.
Posted by Albatross at December 26, 2005 7:32 PM | TrackBack