Tuesday, February 17, 2009

My Four Year Old is a Spore Addict


My four year is remarkable in many ways. He decided one day he wanted to learn the "body systems". Since that day I have spent umpteen hours reading "The Human Atlas" to him. I am sure you have seen this type of book before at Costco. It is about two feet tall and has everything you may ever want to know about the body (and much more). For the past several months my day begins with "Mommy, let's talk about germs," or perhaps "Let's do the digestive system mommy. Is that the urinary bladder?" I thought that this was going to try my patience forever, but last week he discovered Spore.

Now if you don't know what Spore is you must not have any teenage boys in you life. It is a game where you get to act like God. Well, at least you pretend to create life starting with a simple cell and let it evolve until you are taking over universes. It is a game that doesn't have sex (well a love dance), drugs, too much violence and even the music is not to oppressive. As far as video games go, this one is a favorite.

The little guy spent the weekend standing behind my teenage son watching him play. For hours I couldn't get him to move. Since that indoctrination, I can no longer keep him off the computer. He has learned how to turn on the game and pick the correct star in the universe to get back to his game. Now my day consists of discussions with my cyborg. "You must eat breakfast/lunch/dinner."
"How did you turn that game on, I unplugged the entire computer?"
"How did you turn that game on again, I took away the keyboard and mouse pad and put them on the fireplace mantle?!"
"How did you turn that game on again, I put the keyboard on top of the refrigerator?"

With a quick week end, my boy has forgotten the joy of reading, playing with trains, or Lego's, or drawing pictures. He has given up the trampoline and everything outside and tries to sneak back to the computer and become reattached to the board. He has become my cyborg--but I will never give up.

I am now in all out war with the computer.
Any suggestions anyone?

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