Slightly Off-Balance

I hate – we don’t say hate in this house – I strongly dislike my son’s Wii.  

I swear that video games lead to at least one tantrum or mild freak out session in my house per day.  My son’s Wii melt-downs can be classified into one of the following:

1. He gets upset when time is up. (I set a one hour per day limit)
2. He gets upset when someone beats him or he can’t beat a level
3. He gets upset because he doesn’t get to play on a given day even if it is because he was at a playdate, birthday party,etc. (I am sorry, you are having a fairytale life and couldn’t squeeze Wii into your amazing social calendar!)

What makes it worse is that my better half (who in this case is not better) often contributes to the problem with wise actions like letting him play right before bed (which is prime melt-down time) or my personal favorite, overriding my one-hour rule with, ‘Oh, honey, I know he already had his hour, but I told him he could play with me'”

I realize that it is not the Wii’s fault and it is a parenting issue, but I am in no mood to be reasonable.  In an effort to cope with my Wii frustration, and end Wii struggles, I am considering the following (none of which would happen in front of my son, because that would be another tantrum!):

1. Use the straps on the controllers as a sling-shot to launch the console
2. Donate it to a clay pigeon range – Pull!
3. Give the Wii swimming lessons
4. Sponsor a grape stomping competition on the console – wet and crushed – that oughta do it!
5. Controllers as pins, console as bowling ball
6. Wii Field Trips: beach, lake or snow
7. Donate it to a ‘kindergarten hardware engineering’ class – sounds altruistic, yet fatal
8. Drop the system at the front door of the Playstation headquarters – it’s not that I like PS any better, I just figure it won’t come back that way
9. Tell my daughter there are princess stickers inside that she can have if she can get them out
10. Go crazy like Office Space with a copier on the whole system

 Watch out Wii, you don’t want to be left alone with me…

This could be you Wii!