Growing Couch Potatoes

We are inadvertently growing at least one couch potato. Okay, maybe, two. But not because we purposely foster any of the typical couch potato habits when it comes to raising our children.

If the boys (all three of them) watch TV it's limited to 30-60 minutes a day. Unless my Mom is babysitting or it's a weekend morning, or I'm at work. And there are plenty of days where the TV doesn't even exist in our universe, not when I'm in charge of it, anyways.


Gio Under the TV Influence

Thank Goddess for the TV armoire. Out of sight, out of mind really does work.

Video games have been banned from our house. Actually this started prior to having kids, sort of, anyways. Before we were even married, we purchased a Nintendo 64. But we had to return it within weeks of bringing the "devil" into our home, because it was igniting a lot of arguments between us.

"I can't believe you didn't kill the Evil Lord!" Stefan would yell at me. "What's wrong with you?! Give me the controller! I can do it."

But it wasn't just the yelling. The main problem was we spent every waking hour playing it. Video games were are like crack for us.

We have had a few Gameboys. Game Boy Advance, as I recall, was purchased while I was pregnant, so I could play Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer. Right, since I couldn't surf in the Ocean, I could at least surf in a video game. And did I ever. My thumbs were so sore from paddling!

So when our oldest son was the appropriate age, we dusted off the ole Gameboy Advance, and we bought him a few G rated video games. Harmless games like Rescue Heroes and Dora the Explorer. Or so we thought.

It seemed harmless, at first, with parental imposed 30 minute time restrictions per day. But it wasn't. It was disastrous.

"Can I please play Rescue Heroes?" Vinny asks calmly.

"No, you already used up your video time today," we say.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease!" he begs. But then he quickly went into major freak out mode screaming, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

He's a very articulate guy, even at 5, but when it came to video games he was simply possessed by the video game devil and stuck in a constant state of video lust.

So, when our oldest was around 5ish we banned video games from our house. Forever!

However, I'm starting to notice our kids are their own people and no matter what measly attempts we make to mold our children into responsible members of society, somethings can't be changed. Especially genetically inherited traits.

"Stefan told me his big plans for the weekend," my friend informs me the other day.

"Oh, really, what are his plans?" I ask nervously.

"He says, 'he is going to lay on the couch and eat all weekend,'" she says.