Drrrrramama Queen!

[elfs]

This afternoon I went to pick Kouryou-chan up from her school. The kid's been a little obsessive-compulsive about her Nintendo DS handheld came, especially the Legend of Zelda series, and this morning was so focused on it that she neglected a lot of her morning responsibilities until I finally took it away from her completely. She snuck off after being awakened to play it; she snuck off again, and stole the thing from where I'd put it up after she'd had breakfast and was supposed to be making her lunch. I finally took it away from her completely. On the short drive to school, I gave her a brief spiel about the difference between a pleasure and a vice, and how the DS was becoming a vice for her. "A vice," I told her, "is a pleasure you have not learned how to take control of, and now it has control of you."

I was also booked to pick her up from school that afternoon. On the drive home, she again said, "Daddy, when we get home, can I have my Nintendo DS?"

I told her no. That she had been rude and thrown a tantrum after I'd taken it away from her the third time this morning, and she wasn't going to get it back until tomorrow at best. In any ordinary kid, this would result in either a routine tantrum or a sulk.

Kouryou-chan is no ordinary kid: "When I was at school today, I told all my friends about how I couldn't wait to get home and play on my DS. But now that's not gonna happen and all my dreams are shattered!"

Comments

[codeamazon.livejournal.com]

Boy does that sound familiar.

FWIW I've watched Stone's personality shift almost completely twice now after detoxing from the games for about two weeks. It's an all or nothing though -- we tried limited access this fall and he slipped right back into the lying sneaking cheating mode. Worst of all, he felt TOTALLY justified -- he explained to my mom that it was the only way he could get (enough) time on them.

Apparently getting his work done wasn't an option. ;-)

[shunra.livejournal.com]

ooh, she's already figured out that your weakness is fine and somewhat purple prose...

...you poor thing.

[gromm.livejournal.com]

"Kid, it's *today's* dreams that have been shattered. You'll have more tomorrow."