Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Oh geesh. My kids have an old Nintendo 64 (and a few pc games as well). What on earth does any kid need with 130 games!! OK, off my soapbox.
If he wants to get a wii then I am in favor of having him sell the 70% of games he isn't using and buy it himself. He will value it more if he is invested.
As for a birthday gift, how about a day out at his favorite place...a museum or rock climbing, or local attraction. My dad recently took DS to the drag races for his birthday and he loved it.
Model rocketry. Fiery flaming exploding fun for the whole family. Some of my favorite childhood memories involve building weirdly shaped rockets and trying to jam as many chemical engines into them as I could, then firing them off and hoping they didn't explode on ignition.
And later...schlepping through the woods and fields trying to find where they'd landed.
Rocketry. Yes, this is the type of advice I could use. We did the rocket thing last year, lots of prep for a short fuse- but fun.
Unfortunately the Mods moved this thread into this video forum -thinking the cards are stacked against me here.
We won't be selling current games/ consoles -they will eventually get passed along.
What I'm trying to avoid is the initial addiction witnessed on the GameCube and Playstation -occupied many hours each weekend & DW used them as behavior tools/rewards. Ahh, maybe that's her goal with Wii.!? I recall considering they may have been a mistake, after a ~ year the addiction reduced to tolerable levels. I mean, those games and strategies were all he spoke of, for a very long time. Is this just the day'n'age we live in, & I should suck-up to this reality?
when i was a kid, whenever we wanted something new we had to donate something old (this actually lasted all the way through high school when i was making my own money-- if my mom saw me prance home from the mall with a new pair of jeans, she would march me straight to my closet to find a pair to donate to goodwill). maybe you could bring this up to your family. if your son really wants the wii, is he willing to part with an older gaming system and all its accoutrements? then you can make the same requirements as you acquire too many games.
GREAT IDEA!! I wouldn't get him anything unless he was willing to donate something first!
You could take the game cube, the PlayStation, and the PlayStation games to either gamestop or gamecrazy and get store credit to use to buy the wii. Then he only has one system, games (from the cube) that he can play w/ (or he can decide to take them and trade them if he wants) and you've saved some $ while doing what your wife would prefer. (cause it's all about us women, lol)
You could take the game cube, the PlayStation, and the PlayStation games to either gamestop or gamecrazy and get store credit to use to buy the wii. Then he only has one system, games (from the cube) that he can play w/ (or he can decide to take them and trade them if he wants) and you've saved some $ while doing what your wife would prefer. (cause it's all about us women, lol)
Gotta agree here. Back when, when my son wanted the xbox 360, he traded in everything he had to go towards it. He rarely has more than 5 games hanging around. When they get old - he trades them in for credit. He just turned 15 and really doesn't do a ton of gaming. He has certain games he likes, and when a new version comes out he'll play it - otherwise not so much.
As a family we all play it more. I love playing Rock Band. All three of us play it together.
As far as the Wii.....I recently got it for me really. I love the Wii Fit. But as a family, we've all had a lot of fun playing the Wii Sports. Especially the tennis and boxing. And our son really likes the bowling.
If the rest of the family is not much into playing certain types of games then will there be anyone to play table tennis with him, etc.? Just keep that in mind - they usually get tired of that sort of thing just as quick as a gaming system, but it takes up a lot more room.
True-dat, the P-Pong table does take a bunch of space -partly why I sold mine. But His old man is/was good at table tennis & will always be a willing partner. They have combo table with foosball too. If I play more than 30min of those 3d video games, I'm sickly for several hours, they're fun and addicting but not worth the hangover.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve building weirdly shaped rockets and trying to jam as many chemical engines into them as I could, then firing them off and hoping they didn't explode on ignition. 
