Proving that irresponsible parents will find anything to blame on their children being nasty little thugs, a mother has written to dishrag "newspaper" The Daily Mail to blame the Nintendo DS, of all consoles, for the corruption of her innocent little darlings. While The Guardian embraces gaming as a new cultural mainstream, The Daily Mail is still clinging pathetically to the past with "stories" like this.
"I finally buckled to buy a Nintendo DS Lite after considerable and sustained pressure from my children," states mother of four Rosie Millard. "What finally did it was a suggestion from my oldest child that without a Nintendo in her school bag, she would be unable to fit in at school. (Yes, I know - oldest trick in the book. And I fell for it) ... I also had a sneaking and totally selfish wish to be Mother of the Year. Which I was, for about a day."
After the DS arrived however, Rosie noted how the toy caused "endless rows, sessions of screaming and increasingly regular parental punishment." Because, of course, buying one Nintendo DS for FOUR children was always going to be a good idea, right?
Our Nintendo had taken the guise of a small but toxic drug which, little by little, was poisoning my children.
When they had had their fix, they were even more frustrated and discontented than before.
... I have first-hand evidence that using a Nintendo turns my delightful, curious and funny children into argumentative demons full of aggression, wholly uninterested in anything apart from playing, and then playing some more.
According to Millard, who already admits she buckles under pressure from her kids because she wants them to think she's awesome, the DS is the sole reason why her spawn would be selfish little pricks who can't share -- nothing to do with the fact that they're, y'know, children, and children tend to be selfish little pricks by nature. You buy a cool toy for four kids to share, and this is what is going to happen. It's not because the DS is a "toxic drug," it's because children don't understand common decency.
Anyway, now that Millard has donated the DS and its games to charity, I am sure her children will never do a bad thing, ever again, ever ever. Hyuck.
05/05/2008 11:40
05/05/2008 11:42
05/05/2008 11:44
05/05/2008 12:01
Maybe it's me, but it seems poor strategy for a Nintendo DS to take the guise of a "toxic drug." Unless, of course, Nintendo's goal is to trick suicidal people or apprehended spies under interrogation into playing Nintendogs instead of offing themselves.
Now, a toxic drug taking the guise of a Nintendo DS...that might be an issue...
05/05/2008 12:07
Also, get a DS for 3 of them and then give the youngest one a PSP, then see what happens. Mwahahaha.
05/05/2008 12:07
05/05/2008 12:12
Someone please post a face slap.
05/05/2008 12:12
She bought ONE handheld for 4 children. Of course their going to fight over it. Handhelds are a singular experience Why not buy a console instead? Two of her children are too young to be playing games anyway. My 4 yr old nephew goes ballistic every time he isn't allowed to play. I generally turn off the console whenever he comes over.
She bought 20 games... holy crap, if my parents bought that many games for me at once when I was young... I would have never seen the light of day. She didn't impose time limits...
05/05/2008 12:14
05/05/2008 12:15
Not going to happen lady, little kids will always compete over something they all have to share. Just like the animal kingdom, where cubs will fight over their mothers milk and to establish dominance. Its the same in this instance, accept it and set limits or make a schedule for your kids to follow. When their time is up thats it, as long as they know it ahead of time and you don't just rip it from their hands they should hopefully understand.
05/05/2008 12:15
05/05/2008 12:18
Just for you velt.
05/05/2008 12:28
05/05/2008 12:29
05/05/2008 12:30
05/05/2008 12:34
05/05/2008 12:37
£150 for a £100 console and a 20 game "bundle" (author's quotes) including Nintendogs and Brain Training? Suuuuure.
05/05/2008 12:42
05/05/2008 12:43
05/05/2008 13:38
Lol, damn good point you've got there, mate.
Here's a comment I tried to leave on the site;
"You're completely right of course. I've been playing "nintendo" since I was about 5 (well, that was an Atari, but as we seem to be unable to distinguish game development companies I'll roll with it), and to this day, as a twenty year old university student I just can't help being an "argumentative demon full of aggression". Not a week goes buy that I don't kick a homeless person down to the ground, before stealing his copies of the Big Issue and burning them as a testiment to all that we hardworking uppper class people work to achieve. I blame all that I have become on videogames, my brother and myself have the worst sibling relationship that I have ever known, and our heart-to-hearts often degenerate into nothing more than intoxicating ourselves in primitive conflicts over our Nintendo. I'm with you, Mrs Millard, if your children don't know to share, then they shouldn't be given things to share or learn to share with!"
Lets see if they publish it!
(I would post a link to the original story, but I'm with Sterling on refusing to link to that ball of ignorance that is the maily dail)
05/05/2008 14:17
1) 1 DS for 4 kids = FAIL
2) Two of her kids are too young for video games and should be playing Leapfrog Edutainment stuff at best. Hey I played predecessors to those in the early 80's. They were great!
3) She bought a pirated "bundle" of 20 games. Even if they weren't pirated 20 games at once is overwhelming for me as an adult, let alone an 8 year old.
4) She didn't bother to teach them anything about sharing, set any limits of playtime or set ground rules on who can play, when, which was set up as soon as the NES arrived in my house as a kid. My parents were even willing to take it away if my sister and I weren't playing nice.
5) She's a bitch, like a lot of British women who write to the Daily Mail as I have learned thanks to Sterling and Fark.
6) 4 kids? Come on. They also look like ungreatful brats in the picture on the article of that website that shall not be named.
05/05/2008 14:32
05/05/2008 14:34
05/05/2008 14:38
05/05/2008 14:49
It's gonna suck when they're all old enough to drive and have to share one car. I guess then CARS will be a poisonous, toxic drug.
05/05/2008 14:53
05/05/2008 15:06
05/05/2008 15:16
right. Someone's either lying or is a terrible person.
05/05/2008 15:27
05/05/2008 15:50
05/05/2008 15:56
05/05/2008 16:06
05/05/2008 16:14
right.
if anyone is corrupted, it's the mother for hogging all of her money and not buying a DS for everyone. if she did buy one for everyone, she MIGHT've been up for mother of the year. now she's just a victim of another nintendo tragedy.
05/05/2008 16:20
It isn't bad parenting. It isn't video games. It isn't the television. It is natural human behaviour. You can't blame it on anything else.
This stupid bitch just likes to shift the blame and make it look like her SUPER MEGA AWESOME idea of buying ONE Nintendo DS for FOUR kids is going to somehow pan out the kids will be complete chillers with one another and LOVE to share the ONE Nintendo DS in the house.
You fucking idiot, learn to parent properly. Don't distribute ONE Nintendo DS around to four kids, if you bought one for one of your little shit bags, buy three more to shut your other three fuckers up.
Dick head.
05/05/2008 16:41
05/05/2008 16:43
I've been hooked ever since.
05/05/2008 16:51
05/05/2008 18:12
Surely this has nothing to do with her shitty parenting.
05/05/2008 18:17
05/05/2008 19:04
05/05/2008 19:36
05/06/2008 03:13
05/06/2008 03:14
05/06/2008 07:53
So, yeah...kids fighting over stuff is nothing new. This woman is a fucking idiot for thinking that the DS is "poison". You bought ONE kid the DS, but got squat for the other kids. And it's not even some toy...it's a fraking game console, with lights and sound and buttons and crazy shit. You think the other kids are going to sit there and watch their sibling have a whole shitload of fun?
Moron.
05/06/2008 14:25
05/06/2008 16:36