I have been on a journey for about the last four months with Game Boy hand held games. I am struggling now with writing about them (is it two words or one, is it a game or a hand held game, etc). They have caused me so much chagrin, you have no idea. It has been a journey of "the best laid plans" gone straight to hell.
JM has friends who have one. He wants one. I do the research all of us mommies are good at. I am impressed that about 95% of Game Boy games are appropriate for young kids. I am impressed that the interchangeable games can easily be bought used for $4-$7 dollars. I am impressed that I don't have to buy a huge game system and earn a degree in the workings of the back of my TV to get it to work with my satellite dish.
So JM earns one. He has worked hard for several months at chores, extra chores, behaving, etc. It was a point system and he had to earn 100 points. Each chore was a point. Yes, he worked hard. I have been so proud of him. This has been a great lesson in working and earning towards something.
Sounds like I had everything planned out right? Who knew a two year old could pick up a Game Boy and use it? I sure as heck didn't. So BH has been "borrowing it" in the loving, nasty, giggly, demanding way that two year olds do. I have felt bad for JM because he worked his tail end off for this thing that truly is his.
I had a conversation with my friend, B, about all of this a few months back, and she mentioned that since all of her kids have graduated to DS's (those are the upgrade from a Game Boy, and they have little stylus's and will eventually make Game Boy's obsolete--that is what they are playing with in the picture) I should have called her first before I bought one. When I went and visited her a few days ago , I asked if I could still take her up on her same offer.
My thinking was, let's get BH a Game Boy that he can beat up. I haven't spent $100 on it, and it will hopefully ease the arguing. She is so gracious and gives us a dated Game Boy. It looks different, it's bigger, it takes batteries not a charger, and it doesn't light up, which is a pain in a dark car. But it's perfect for BH. All is great and peaceful in our household right?
Wrong! JM thinks that BH's little Game Boy is better because it has a head phone jack. I say to him over and over and over and over and over........again that it isn't. That was the bickering all the way across Oregon. I gave up.
I did notice JM handing BH his newer Game Boy in the car. I noticed BH can very easily interchange the games, turn them on and off, knows the point of the games, etc. Freaks me out, what a little two year old brain can do.
Now today, BH is playing with the newer Game Boy, and JM wants it back. We have now had the discussion that since he's been handing it to BH for two days, he has communicated to BH that he can play with it. And who needs to take responsibility for that?
Except for that little discussion....I think the Game Boy arguing is starting to settle down. I am not kidding, I was ready to throw them out on the freeway on Tuesday. It was hideous.
All this because I wanted to reward my oldest. I wanted him to earn something he really wanted. I wanted that to stay his special toy, so I got a diversion for the youngest. Lord, help me.
JM has friends who have one. He wants one. I do the research all of us mommies are good at. I am impressed that about 95% of Game Boy games are appropriate for young kids. I am impressed that the interchangeable games can easily be bought used for $4-$7 dollars. I am impressed that I don't have to buy a huge game system and earn a degree in the workings of the back of my TV to get it to work with my satellite dish.
So JM earns one. He has worked hard for several months at chores, extra chores, behaving, etc. It was a point system and he had to earn 100 points. Each chore was a point. Yes, he worked hard. I have been so proud of him. This has been a great lesson in working and earning towards something.
Sounds like I had everything planned out right? Who knew a two year old could pick up a Game Boy and use it? I sure as heck didn't. So BH has been "borrowing it" in the loving, nasty, giggly, demanding way that two year olds do. I have felt bad for JM because he worked his tail end off for this thing that truly is his.
I had a conversation with my friend, B, about all of this a few months back, and she mentioned that since all of her kids have graduated to DS's (those are the upgrade from a Game Boy, and they have little stylus's and will eventually make Game Boy's obsolete--that is what they are playing with in the picture) I should have called her first before I bought one. When I went and visited her a few days ago , I asked if I could still take her up on her same offer.
My thinking was, let's get BH a Game Boy that he can beat up. I haven't spent $100 on it, and it will hopefully ease the arguing. She is so gracious and gives us a dated Game Boy. It looks different, it's bigger, it takes batteries not a charger, and it doesn't light up, which is a pain in a dark car. But it's perfect for BH. All is great and peaceful in our household right?
Wrong! JM thinks that BH's little Game Boy is better because it has a head phone jack. I say to him over and over and over and over and over........again that it isn't. That was the bickering all the way across Oregon. I gave up.
I did notice JM handing BH his newer Game Boy in the car. I noticed BH can very easily interchange the games, turn them on and off, knows the point of the games, etc. Freaks me out, what a little two year old brain can do.
Now today, BH is playing with the newer Game Boy, and JM wants it back. We have now had the discussion that since he's been handing it to BH for two days, he has communicated to BH that he can play with it. And who needs to take responsibility for that?
Except for that little discussion....I think the Game Boy arguing is starting to settle down. I am not kidding, I was ready to throw them out on the freeway on Tuesday. It was hideous.
All this because I wanted to reward my oldest. I wanted him to earn something he really wanted. I wanted that to stay his special toy, so I got a diversion for the youngest. Lord, help me.
4 comments:
Wow! sounds really annoying. That is the kind of thing that is so difficult with raising kids, huh? It's hard to be fair to the older one and age-appropriate for the younger.
Thank you Tracy. Now that we are a few days away from this arguing, I think the boys have come to some kind of understanding. The fighting has stopped. I think the novelty of the one BH got has worn off. JM and I are working on his Cars game to go up levels, and that has helped too. We'll wait for the next toy to rock the peace in our little slice of heaven.
One our struggles, too, is keeping perks for EE. AA just tagging along on stuff has allowed her to do a lot more things than EE did at her age. I have had to make a real effort lately to say that AA can do certain things "someday" when she is 8 years old. It has caused a lot of tears. I usually empathize with her by saying, "It's hard to be 4, huh? You get left out sometimes." But what else can I do? It's not fair to EE to work hard for privileges just so that her baby sister can gravy train off of it.
We just had another squabble today. JM took it to church. (I will not sleep because of this.) Another kid, NM, as well as a bunch of other kids wanted to play with it. Suddenly NM comes up to myself and his parents "JM pulled my hair and punched me in the stomach!" WHAT??! That is SO not happening. JM then lies to us and tells us that NM threw his games on the ground. I confronted NM (mistake--I am so embarassed/sorry that I believed JM's lie and made NM feel bad), then JM suddenly tells us he lied, he just wanted NM to leave him alone and quit asking. SO NOT COOL AGAIN! The Game Boy went far away, lots of apologies to so many people, lots of time in time out, no playing outside, and a major chewing on. We are also exchanging the Shrek game where the point is to punch the ogre to bits. I am not kidding, the Game Boy is almost GONE! Problem--I am hooked on the Cars game.
Post a Comment