The Right Stuff

This year we bought a Wii. It was our Christmas present to each other (thank goodness my shopping is done).

Although still fair-traded, the $200 price tag included a couple of extra disks, including a dance disk where you imitate the movements of a rock singer as they move their arms and legs while singing the song.

It is good exercise, and you can enjoy the music. I tried it a couple of times and you get slightly winded by the end of the song, which means I’m getting a cardio benefit. The only problem with using it on a regular basis is that I have to turn it on, which requires a dedicated effort to interrupt my schedule. And that, of course is my problem with any exercise routine.

However, I digress.

It was actually the first day my daughter’s family came over to see the Wii, and seven-year old Anthony was hooked. The sports included baseball, bowling, basketball, canoeing, archery, sword dueling, bicycling, and on and on.

From that day on, Anthony wants to come to our house, not to visit, but to play the Wii. His obsession with getting to the Wii was changing his behavior to rudeness when his path was interfered with. On several occasions he barged into our house, made a direct line for the TV, switched it to video and started playing a game. “Hello” did not enter his mind, the fact that we were watching a program did not enter his mind.

When he was playing a game and we tried to give him a suggestion on how to play it better, he would snap back, “I know that.”

In my mind, a single occurrence of return verbal fire from a child is going too far. And rudeness has no place in our home. There were four of us and only one of him, so we had an intervention; of course with a seven-year old, there were a couple of interventions.

The Wii was shut down immediately for any visits with rudeness. It was, after all, our game and Anthony was a guest. And after he realized he was not going to win, his behavior became better. His spelling test marks also became better when I allowed a Wii session after he practiced his words.

To keep the monster contained, we now allow him to play the Wii an hour at a time after respectful behavior and spending some time visiting. And hopefully, Anthony will realize his is a society that rewards cooperative behavior.