WII U

Get it because it is the newest bullmeep they are hawking. Therefore if you don't get it you are a bad parent. That is all...

Whelp, I'm sold.

I had this long response all typed out but i hit a key and its gone.

Don't do it.

The salient bullets were:

_ I abhor spending money on bullmeep, even though i have the means

_I refuse to play into the Christmas shopping frenzy bullmeep. I think its unhealthy. I am very conservative when it comes to buying presents.

_For Christmas, I spend less on my one child than my sister does on each of her three, though I likely earn twice their income. As a result, i don't need handouts from my parents to pay for band, karate, etc the rest of the year. Nor do i constantly moan and gripe t about how i cant afford to go out to dinner.

_spend half that $ on your kid, and invest the rest in his name (buy some Nintendo stock, put it in a college savings account, whatever.). The WII U will be obsolete in less than 9 months, just like EVERY OTHER VIDEO GAME CONSOLE that came before it.

_Quit developing those expensive-gift expectations. Its only going to get worse. Quit demonstrating the importance of keeping up with the Jones's who are mortgaging their future to do it.

I had an intro to consumer economics professor 25 years ago who said something i never forgot. It was words to the effect that 95% of the people showing off their expensive cars and things things (this was even before cell phones) are in debt up to their ears because of it.

I'm going to do my damnedest to avoid having my kid fall into that trap, and it starts with how i demonstrate my attitudes towards these things.

I bought one. New Super Mario Bros U is the first genuine sequel to the old Super Mario Bros series, and playing it has given me wonderful flashbacks to being 6 years old and playing the original Super Mario Bros for the first time. If I were an 8-year-old kid, I'd be over the moon to have one, just like I was back in the 80s when I unwrapped that NES.

$300 ain't much money, and it's guaranteed to get a slew of fantastic first-party games like every Nintendo system gets. And things like being able to play on the controller's screen while others use the TV is great.

Bravo to Nintendo for perfectly exploiting my childhood nostalgia.

Hey StartRecordingNow. Dial called, they want their box back.