Nathan’s New DS

 

I guess it is time to tell the story of Nathan’s new Nintendo DS.

I guess it all started last school year when two boys in Nathan’s class decided that they didn’t want to be Nathan’s friend anymore. OK, actually it started last summer at Day Camp when all of the other kids had DSes and all Nathan had was my old Game Boy Advance, but he diligently took it to Day Camp with him and sat and played it alongside the other kids. He never even really complained that his was different (he did want a Toy Story DS that he saw in Target, but that was more around Christmas time).

Anyway, one of the boys that didn’t want to be Nathan’s friend anymore is in Day Camp with him and this boy has a DS. This year I sent Nathan to Day Camp with my old iPod, mainly because the game boy batteries were down, but when he came home he talked about sitting beside this boy and watching that boy play his DS. Every competitive, keeping up with the Joneses, I want my kid to have the best of everything impulse inside of me screamed that my child needs to have his own Nintendo DS!

I was able to put off getting him one for a while, but finally on Monday when I learned that he would need to go to the Doctor on Tuesday and get a ton of shots I was determined to go and get him one. So Meredith counted out all of his change and all of his chore money (which was about $40) and we went to WalMart to pick one out.

Trust me it was all I could do not to buy the new 3DS (which is $250) or at least the DSiXL (which is $150) but in the end I ended up with the basic model that I came looking for. Nathan of course was ecstatic and that is cool to see, and I got a game (Super Scribblenauts that is too much fun) so it has been a big video game week at the Yancey house.

Now before you come up with conclusions about my bad parenting trust me I am already way ahead of you. It really bugs me that Nathan gets so excited over physical things and I am just feeding the beast when I get him new stuff.

But I am his dad and I like to get things for people (as Sumer would say, that is my love language) and so I like to get things for him. On top of that if I can do anything to make his walk through the world of school and other kids easier even if it is shallow and empty I will try it because that boy is so much like me it is scary and I just hope against hope that he will be able to navigate those grade school-middle school years better than I did.

So I am torn about getting this for him, because on the one hand I don’t know if it is best for him and on the other hand it made his week and he and I have had a great time playing it together this week.

In the end I got it because I just love getting things for my son. I love seeing his eyes light up when he has something new. It is cool for me to think that my heavenly father also likes to get stuff for me. It is cool to think that he loves to see my eyes light up when he brings good gifts into my life.

Ok, maybe that is still just trying to justify things. As You can see I am still very conflicted about the whole thing, so I thought I would add the story to this blog for posterity.

O, and Noah now has Nathan’s Game Boy Advance which he refuses to hold right side up. No matter how many times you try to turn it back around again he always turns it upside down. That boy is adorable and will be getting way too much stuff from me soon too.