Children today think video games are a birthright.
Their declaration of independence goes like this: "Wii, the children of the United States ..."
At the Kennedy house, we resisted peer pressure and for years delayed buying our boys a video-game machine.
Alas, this summer we finally caved and bought a Nintendo Wii.
I grew up in the '70s, when we thought video games were for nerds.
Men who grew up the 1980s are always talking about the newest version of "Madden" or "Halo." Sometimes I'll try to swagger my way into the conversation. "Boys, I'm old school," I'll say, sucking my teeth and hitching up my britches like Barney Fife. "Anybody remember 'Donkey Pong'?"
I imagine them thinking: "Whatever, grandpa."
My wife is an educator and a closeted Ms. Pac-Man player. Whenever I mentioned getting a game console for the boys, she would could slam the door with a scowl. (It's the same look I get for wearing pleated shorts.)
Our 7-year-old son, bless his heart, was the last kid in his neighborhood. He reminded me of my high-school buddy Roger. Roger's parents didn't let him watch TV -- ever. Always the object of peer pity, poor Roger didn't know Monty Hall from Monty Python.
I think my 7-year-old son had pretty much given up on ever getting a video game when his mother and I sprang the news one day this summer.
"Your Dad and I were thinking about taking you to Target today for a surprise," his mother told the boy over burgers at Steak & Shake.
My son immediately began to giggle.
"What do you think it is?" I said.
More giggles.
"A Wii," he said, almost unable to utter the delicious word.
"How did you know?" I asked.
"I saw you looking at Wii games at McKays (Used Books and CDs), Daddy," he said, now squirming with excitement.
On the way home he concocted an elaborate plot. He would gather the neighborhood kids at our backyard sandbox, he said. Then, after a few minutes of play, he would casually say: "Hey guys. Wanna play some Wii?"
"Then, Dad," he explained, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, "when they start running to their house, I'll say, 'Hey guys. Come on back. I've got a Wii game, too."
Hilarious.
Still, the thought of this deception cracked him up. It was his way of making up for years of being the odd man out in the video-game club.
When we got home, we tore open the Wii machine box. Minutes later we were bowling. Later came a spirited boxing match, in which I literally threw out my back delivering a kidney punch. (The boy showed me how to anchor the controller with a wristband so I didn't launch it through the Sony.)
Years from now, they'll study the Wii in marketing classes. In a stroke of brilliance, Nintendo invented a game that gave mothers a way of rationalizing video games through active play and family togetherness.
After a few days, I noticed my son playing with the Wii less and less. Soon, we were back in the backyard playing catch and shooting hoops.
Sometimes we make parenting scarier than it really needs to be.
E-mail Mark Kennedy at timesfreepress.com
Kennedy is the content editor of the Times Free Press Life sections and writes the “Life Stories” column. Previously, he was the first Sunday editor of the Times Free Press. Before Chattanooga’s newspapers were merged in 1999, Kennedy was the coordinating editor of the Chattanooga Times, where he had previously been an education reporter, feature writer and team leader. His first newspaper job was as sports editor of the Cleveland (Tenn.) Daily Banner. Kennedy’s human ...
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