To Wii or not to Wii . . .

that is the question. Erik and I many years ago established a "no game systems" policy in our house, when it became apparent from an early stage that Ethan carries the "attachment to electronic devices" gene. As kids, our family dipped into the electronic world with the TI994A, on which we played Munch Man (a version of Pac Man), Parsec (a space game) and Tombstone (a wild west game that to our knowledge was impossible to win. Our goal was simply to stay alive as long as we could). That computer had less memory than the average thumb drive now. We didn't have anything else. Unless you count our Speak and Spell.

Sorry to go all grandma on you, but I think our lives were probably better for it. Certainly not worse. But this is the debate raging in our house lately, as Erik has broken rank and engages me in frequent discussions on, "Why we should get a Wii."

It began because my brother has Rock Band on his playstation II, and Megan loves it. Not only does she love it, but she's good at it, and we even saw her improve while she was there. So Erik's logic is, "We could get a Wii and get Rock Band, and it will improve her guitar skills." I countered with, "Or we could buy her a REAL guitar and she could improve her guitar skills."

He came back with, "But it would give us lots of fun family time together. There's tennis, bowling, boxing, all kinds of fun and active games." And again I countered with, "Or we could actually go play tennis, bowling, board games, or any other host of things we already do which promote family togetherness."

My biggest argument against this is that I know I will be the one to have to enforce rules about the amount of time spent on the Wii. Erik insists he will help on this, but he is not here 10 hours of the day, during which there is ample time for little people to cajoul me into more Wii time.

I stand firm. Can anyone give me a good reason to relent? I'm open, but not very open. :)