What's Currently in My Head

A few days ago, someone shared a news story of a kid in England who played online video games and met someone online who eventually killed him.  Then, the person who shared this story posted, "This is why there will never be video games or anything like it in my house."

Now, while this news story is tragic and while I commend the young mother for wanting to protect her little family, I have a little issue with the statement "This is why there will never be video games or anything like it in my house."

It's mostly the statement "NEVER".  Maybe it's just me.  "NEVER" has blown up in my face all the time, but here it is.  I said, "We will never have a TV."  Then my mom gave us an old black and white one... then she gave us her old colored one... then we bought one.  On the bright side, we've "NEVER" had more than 2 TV's in our house.  Oh, take that back.  We had three.  But the kids NEVER had one in their bedrooms.  Oh, wait, take that back.  Dallin bought a TV at a yardsale and put it in his bedroom.

I said, "We will never have video games in our house."  Except at Thanksgiving, we would rent a Nintendo and a couple of games (Goldeneye was the boy's favorite.)  And the boys had Gameboys. And the boys wanted an Xbox.  So the boys saved their own money and bought themselves an Xbox. But they NEVER played any games that were rated higher than E10.  Except that when they became teenagers, they could rent the T games.  But we NEVER had any M games in our house.  Until someone snuck one in (Robbie... or Dallin...).  When we found out, we banned the game.  For a while, til it came back.  Then we banned it again.  And again.  Heck, over Christmas Halo came in the house again.  What the heck.

I said, "We will NEVER have a cat in the house."  Guess what.  We now have two.  And I'm allergic. But about 6 years ago, Fleas got cold in the winter.  And she came in and played on the bed in the office until she warmed up and then she went back out side.  She did this for days, then weeks, until summer.  But the next winter it started again.  Now Fleas is 11 years old.  She likes to be in Jordon's room.  She doesn't go outside much.  She has a litter box in the garage.  Then my husband thought it would be a great idea to get a kitty for Charli and Cami and Cadie.  That's cat #2.  I'm hoping she will migrate to being an outdoor cat when winter is over.

In the end, it's probably good that we had a TV, so that we could teach the kids to be picky about what they watch.  They aren't perfect, but they have the foundation, which will serve them the rest of their lives.  And getting an Xbox turned out OK.  The boys learned lessons about hard work, responsibility and making good choices in games.  Apparently, the still have a hard time respecting our rules, but they have a foundation and they will get it one day, right.  And the cat helps my girls be responsible and gives companionship to the lonely.

And by the way, I have NEVER smoked a cigarette or touched a sip of alcohol. (Except that one time we were in Hawaii and ordered virgin Pina Colada's... which were not virgin, if you know what I mean.)