My cousin in law, a young boy with a love for the NIntendo DS hasn’t been having much luck convincing his parents to buy new games. He spent his entire savings of Lunar New Year’s day money to just get the system and one game to begin playing. He’s been playing the same game for the past few months and can’t get another because his mother has banned him from going to all game stores. Combine this with a lack of cash, and you have someone who isn’t able to enjoy his expensive purchase.
On the other hand, I have several Nintendo DS games that I’ve stopped playing for various reasons. Lack of time being the most likely factor, but there are only so many games to occupy my time, and only the best of the best can see play on a frequent basis. What I don’t play I usually trade back for cash to fund other purchases, but even I have a minimum point where holding onto a game is better than not getting back enough cash. This being the case, there are a few games I’ve beaten and have little or no enthusiasm to play again sitting in my collection.
When I had been asked to help with the purchase of the gaming device, I wanted to give him a few of those spare games I had to build his library, but my wife suggested it wasn’t yet the time. She foresaw the problem the boy now has and asked me to hold onto the games I wanted to trade him so that when he did get bored I could give him something new to play. Also, we wanted to make sure he could learn to balance his school work and his gaming habits. We had to delay giving him a game earlier when he didn’t do as well as his parents wanted on one of his frequent school testing sessions.
After a long wait, she delivered the "new" game to him when she visited their house yesterday. The entire time she was there, he was glued to his NIntendo DS again playing his "hand me down" game. We deflected credit from the purchase and gift by claiming we owed him something for Children’s day a while ago, and that his mother had "allowed" us to get it for him. He shouldn’t go begging me for games, but ask his mother if he had done a good enough job to receive one. I’m glad that I get to be the "cool" relative.
