Here Wii go!

Something shifted in our household during Christmas break. We opened a Pandora’s box made of shiny white plastic, and now our leisure time will never be the same again.

Yes, it’s true … gulp … I introduced our kids to video games.

I was desperate! Those two weeks without school or activities stretched before me like a desolate sandy plain with nothing more than a scraggly cactus (playdate) here and there to fill the hours.

Yes, of course I tried other things first! We did puzzles and played with toys and read books! We went on frigid walks! But eventually … I just caved. I wanted a moment of peace when I wasn’t being asked to make food or draw the letter “M” or dress a Polly Pocket in an impossibly tiny rubber swimsuit.

“I have a surprise!” I told the kids mysteriously as I dug out our dusty Wii console and basket of games. “I’m going to let you play … a video game!”

They squealed happily. They’d only ever played once or twice, about a year ago, and I got a terrible headache from the Rock Band drumset and banished it to a tall shelf in the utility room. They forgot video games existed and I was fine with that.

But desperate times call for Koopas and Goombas (or “turtles” and “mushroom men,” as I call them).

At first, I couldn’t even be in the same room while they played because they were terrible. Absolutely terrible, and that’s coming from someone who has been pretty awful at video games for more than 25 years now. They couldn’t press two buttons at once. They ran straight into bad guys and died. They ran straight into ditches and died. It was like watching my mom try to play (sorry, Mom).

They got better quickly, though, and actually started beating levels together. Our eldest is hysterical to watch because he shouts “Oh no! Oh GOSH!” every time it looks like poor Mario is headed for doom. The kid has never said “gosh” in his life, but it’s every second word out of his mouth while he’s playing.

The multiplayer feature is genius because our youngest gets to feel like she’s playing even when she spends most of her time floating around in a bubble shrieking, “POP ME, DEX!” When her brother’s character dies, she delights in being able to “rescue” him by popping his bubble. “Oh, thank you, Sis! You saved me!”

Even though the Wii is super old and we’ve had the New Super Mario Bros. game for like six years now, the kids excitedly showed visitors their “new” toy. I suppose we should have just wrapped it up and stuck it under the tree because they like it better than all of their actual new toys.

I must admit, as much as I’m not a big gamer, I do feel like knowing the basics of handling the controllers and navigating at least the easiest levels is … almost a life skill? It sounds silly, I know, but they’re going to be playing at friends’ houses as they get older. They don’t have to be good at gaming, but it’s mortifying when you have absolutely no idea what the “A” and “B” buttons do and everyone is laughing at your ability to die in four seconds.

(I was that kid. I’m still haunted by that doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo death knell from the original Super Mario Bros.)

I’m kind of proud when I hear the happy music that means they’ve reached the flagpole and beat a level, but mostly I’m smiling because the sound of their little voices chattering together is so cute. “Oh GOSH! Oh, Sissy, HELP ME! Oh, THANK YOU, Sissy! Thank you!”

The rule is they must play together — yay teamwork! — and if there is screaming or fighting (or, uh, control-related injuries) we turn off the system immediately. This means they go out of their way to be kind to each other for the most part, for fear the game will disappear.

I expect I’ll have to pry them away from gaming consoles when they’re older, as my friends with teenagers have warned me, but for now they’re content with just playing occasionally. We even worked out a three-person rotation of Mario, Luigi, and Official Watcher so I can play with them, too.

They are the first people, ever, to be impressed with my gaming skills and that feels pretty great! Of course, it probably won’t be long before they’re better than me.

“Uh, guys, not the castle. Mommy doesn’t do castles. Can we just do the first level again?”

Heather Laura Clarke is a freelance journalist who married her high-school sweetheart. They moved from the city to the country, where they spend their days chasing their spirited five-year-old son and sassy three-year-old daughter. Follow their family’s adventures over at at: www.LaptopstoLullabies.com.