> > I wish my mom had had your mindset when I was a kid. One time I saved up my own money and wanted to buy my *own* Nintendo, and my mom wouldn't let me. I think she had some kind of grudge against video games; when we were younger we had an Atari and we used to fight over it. Three kids, only two joysticks. Plus she says my dad used to stay up past midnight playing it.
> >
> > Gri"all things in moderation"shny

> I took this as an opportunity to teach that parents can change their minds when it makes sense to do so. But they understand this is a privelege - and one that can be taken away ;-).
>
> te "Grish said it best - everything in moderation" ach

As the guy in the opposite situation of Grishny -- my brother and I have owned just about every videogame system worth owning from the Atari 2600 to the Gamecube -- I strongly suggest that you really do enforce that moderation thing. Looking back, I spent way too much of my childhood playing videogames.

I don't really have anything to show for all of that time. It's only been in the last few years that I've been able to moderate myself and realize how ridiculous it is to play to games for 10 hours a day all summer. I do tend to overindulge in lots of things, but good games are particularly compelling. Even worse, if you had to choose between 10 hours of reading great literature and 10 hours of playing the best videogames, I think you would be far better off with the book.

I'm not trying to say that videogames are bad, but they should be a diversion and not a central focus in life. I wish I had figured this out as a kid.

Stephen