Parent Blames DS For Bad-Behaving Children

By Jorge Ba-oh 05.05.2008 38

In yet another case of trying to blame a gaming device for poor parenting: "Ninten-Don't... How I watched my children turn into monsters".

In a column for UK newspaper The Daily Mail, mother of four Rosie Millard discusses how buying a single DS with 20 games between the group lead them to become argumentative "monsters".

I finally buckled to buy a Nintendo DS Lite after considerable and sustained pressure from my children.

What finally did it was a suggestion from my oldest child that without a Nintendo in her school bag, she would be unable to fit in at school. (Yes, I know - oldest trick in the book. And I fell for it.)

It was that, plus reading a piece in one newspaper which suggested that if you regularly played Brain Trainer on your Nintendo, you'd bump up your mental acuity.

And another piece from child expert Dr Tanya Byron, of all people, which, as far as I recall, actually suggested that regular use of interactive toys such as the DS helped your children to be caring and creative.

I also had a sneaking and totally selfish wish to be Mother of the Year. Which I was, for about a day.

When the pale blue,

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Echoes221 is offline. Echoes221 05.05.2008#1

nope, its due to sibling rivalry, you know how it is, if one person plays it, they all want to play it at the same time.
DRAW UP A TIMETABLE!

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 05.05.2008#2

Oh. For fucks sake.

This kind of thing really rubs me the wrong way. Such ignorance...

1) Her children obviously aren't very old. Therefore Brain Training is a bad idea, it's aimed at adults after all...

2) Children fight over ANYTHING. Consoles? The type is regardless. Any kid a certain age will fight over something unless they have one each... and even then they'll find a way to fight.

3) I bet this woman has never even heard of the SEGA MegaDrive. The console that me and my brother waged an epic war over in ancient times. The console that got us banned from videogaming for 2-3 years. Why does she think it's exclusive to the DS? She's simply pushing the blame where it can get her the most money...

4) Why are they taking a story from a single mother from the whole of Britain? She acts as if she's made some amazing discovery and everyone else on the planet is in the dark...

Hey waitaminute.... OSHI--.

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Cheesing It Up is offline. Cheesing It Up 05.05.2008#3

It's clearly sibling rivalry that she can't cope with/control.

And she bought it from Hong Kong with a 20 games bundle? Sounds legit. Smilie

 
D_prOdigy is offline. D_prOdigy 05.05.2008#4

Thank God for messiahs like Jack Thompson, who are fighting their hardest to ban this sick filth.

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 05.05.2008#5

D_prOdigy said:
Thank God for messiahs like Jack Thompson, who are fighting their hardest to ban this sick filth.

Amen to that (I can't believe I live on this planet... Smilie )

BTW, thanks to video games my brother and I are best friends. I guess that woman was too selfish, ignorant and impatient to see it through. gg :3

Although from the soundsof things they would have been brought up as casual gamers anyway...

Born and bred on Sonic games I was. Smilie

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Jump_button is offline. Jump_button 05.05.2008#6

20 games as a gift some one rich wish she was my mum lol

ps 20 game take a long time to do XD i know i be busy playing them too

( Edited 05.05.2008 12:09 by Jump_button )

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Ikana is offline. Ikana 05.05.2008#7

Hm, I was gaming since I was 5 years old...but my little brother has never been into gaming. Though I do have some good memories of playing co-op on Alien Storm on Mega Drive with him when I was about 8/9 and he was 6/7. I don't remember us ever arguing over games...lots of other stuff, yeah, but not games. Smilie

Well, these kids sound a) Rather spoilt and b) Completely normal. As others have posted before me, it's just sibling rivalry; kids will fight over ANYTHING. Our old Christmas home movies prove it. Smilie

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 05.05.2008#8

Jump_button said:
wish she was my mum lol

No you don't Smilie

Instead of getting 20 games she could have gotten another DS.

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Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 05.05.2008#9

"And she bought it from Hong Kong with a 20 games bundle? Sounds legit."

Yeah, exactly.
She is hardly setting a good example by showing their children that hard work is worth nothing, because piracy is ok!

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JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 05.05.2008#10

Neither her, her children, or the Daily Mail probably have any idea the DS was a pirated machine.

What can you do about that?

EDIT: Ooooh I hope Nintendo reply to this <3

( Edited 05.05.2008 12:37 by SuperLink )

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RudyC3 is offline. RudyC3 05.05.2008#11

Ikana said:

Well, these kids sound a) Rather spoilt

I can only agree with that. If you teach your children not to fight when another has something they don't or if you simply teach them the value of things (by not buying them anything they want) then i think they won't fight over anything.

I can tell cuz' i've been raised that way, and saw my cousins and mates back in the day fighting over a Game Boy while I was keeping my cool. I ended being the one allowed to play with the Game Boy cause i remained calm while the others were arguing Smilie. Thanks to my parents for that :lol !

Ikana said:

b) Completely normal. As others have posted before me, it's just sibling rivalry; kids will fight over ANYTHING. Our old Christmas home movies prove it. Smilie

Yup ! It's not only over video games, it could be over the last Action man, (or Barbie if it's girls), or whatever... she's just blaming video games because it's something i bet she doesn't even know about too much.

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Azuardo is offline. Azuardo 05.05.2008#12

Clearly the Daily Mail is the biggest pile of wank of a newspaper running at the moment.

When I saw this article on the front page of C3 today, I thought exactly the same thing as SuperLink:

"Oh. For fucks sake."

 
mooojc is offline. mooojc 05.05.2008#13

I agree with the mother, DS is baddddddd. You would want your childern to be playing GTA IV anyway.

 
jb is offline. jb 05.05.2008#14

Perhaps she should have set more firmer rules, or get them something else (e.g. a home console or at least a second DS) so they can all play nicely. Stricter rules and better judgment would be a better approach.

E.g. only able to play after rehearsing their instrument, doing their homework etc.

Blame the parents I say.

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Martin_ is offline. Martin_ 05.05.2008#15

I agree with the parent.

 
chrisjwilkinson is offline. chrisjwilkinson 05.05.2008#16

To echo what (several) others have said, I have two young children (aged 3 1/2 and 2) and they fight over who gets to push a toy wheelbarrow around the garden or who plays with which dinosaur!
Of course, I almost didn't bother reading further when I saw the words "The Daily Mail"...

 
samus_boy is offline. samus_boy 05.05.2008#17

When I was much younger, I attacked my brother for turning off LoZ: LttP because he was mad that I'd been playing so long. Fast forward to yesterday when he was at my house for an hour + playing Mario Kart Wii.

Video games are obviously the work of the devil.

 
Steoandnoodles is offline. Steoandnoodles 05.05.2008#18

depriving your children of entertainment and allowing them to have short bursts sorta would make them annoyed.
I blame the Mother.

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 05.05.2008#19

TBH coursework/revision has made me far more severely depressed and angry than games ever have. I think that should be more of a concern to parants TBH.

( Edited 05.05.2008 14:54 by SuperLink )

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mushroomer is offline. mushroomer 05.05.2008#20

This lady has no idea what she is talking about. The DS isn\'t addicting at all. Man this makes me so mad that I need to go play some Advance Wars. BRB.

Actually, I am , i think addicted to DS. Although I only play on my commute to work, I just feel like I need to play 2 times a day for 40 minutes or else something is missing. Currently I am playing: Band BrothersDS(guitar hero-like game imported), RBI BASEBALL DS(Imported called famista DS), and have recently been done with Advance Wars DoR, Tetris, Jump Ultimate Stars, Zelda, Metroid, and the number 1 addcitive game thus far for me, Mario VS DK 2 because of the level editor and wifi sharing abilities.. ahah anyone else list off their most addictive games?

( Edited 05.05.2008 17:57 by mushroomer )

 
Phoenom is offline. Phoenom 05.05.2008#21

Pitiful Woman. If she can't control her kids over a simple matter of a Games Console, she shouldn't be a parent. Simple.

 
Firefly is offline. Firefly 05.05.2008#22

Bollocks. Absolute bollocks. I advise the parent, GET THE KIDS DS LITES WHEN THEY ARE OLDER FOR FUCKS SAKE!Smilie

Onwards, TO NOWHERE! Proud owner of Farming Simulator 2013.
 
Fatman is offline. Fatman 05.05.2008#23

Hey douche, try not getting 1 toy for 4 kids.

That wasnt a problem, just a dumb ass calling her self a parent.

A fail so epic, it may just be a win.
 
KingDom is offline. KingDom 05.05.2008#24

And what about the millions (obv no exaggeration) of parents that don't have problems with games.

Probably because they weren't stupid and handled the situation.

There can be no doubt that videogames are addictive for children.

20 games 1 ds 4 children? Games take a reasonably long time to finish and you, much like a film, want to finish them. This isn't strange and if parents are too stupid to understand this or too bad at parenting to manage the task then it is not the fault of their children ffs or the games.

Just because there is paranoia about games they see games as different to every other toy in order to explain away their bad parenting. It's like they won't believe it's their fault. Sorry love, games are just like any other toy. There is no secret conspiracy. You're just a bad parent.

It's like parents, failing to see the point in videogames, are completely unwilling to even entertain the idea there is a point and understand how the desire to play videogames could reaqsonably affect their children. Just like anything else.

A home console with 4 controllers? done. 4 ds with 1 game each? If too expensive then GBAs for the younger ones? If you bought a stupid package for your kids it's your fault. Not only with 20 games does it make it more likely the kids will get hooked on something it will be more games to be hooked on and more games to finish, 4 times, on one console.

If she was clever she could use to make them better at sharing. Ah but their uncontrollable right? Really? You're a lot bigger than them you know. You could just lock them in their room when they fight. If they really wanted to play they'd learn to share.

I'm lost for words to describe how pathetic that is. Thats about as pathetic as claiming you can't go outside because of the sun. Yeah sure you MIGHT get burnt a little bit. But the fact you won't leave the house is not the suns fault but your own specific weakness. Uncontrollable, pish posh.

And since when did she have the authority to debunk an academic study? In the paper with the biggest readership in the country no less. Some old bint talking shit is the oracle of unrefutable truth. Or perhaps the actual study would have been more fair. You're not going to publish that?

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JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 05.05.2008#25

To be honest, what exactly can this do? Nintendo aren't going to stop making DS' because of one article. DS' aren't going to stop selling like hot-cakes. It's only to create media attention and get fans riled up. It's a completely pointless waste of time.

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