Tahoe and PCP

So, last week my Flower Mama friend, her kids, my kids (no hubbies) and I headed up to Tahoe for a couple of days of frantic fun and away-from-home discipline. I mean honestly? What are kid-heavy vacations (where the children outnumber the parents and no husbands are around) but jaunts to new surroundings where we mommies are forced to come up with more creative forms of punishment than "you will be getting a time out in your room if you continue this behavior"?

Okay, that may sound a bit harsh (and really it is - I had a great fantabulous time overall), but you weren't there. You didn't witness Flower Mama and I giving our brood a *perfect* day on Friday, only to be bitched at about how much PCP - er, PSP - (an incredibly lifelike handheld basketball video game) they could play once we returned to the cabin. Video games are a freaking drug and should be as illegal as alcohol for humans under 21 years of age. My child is not allowed to play them in our home or own them (ever) but it's easy to score some action when they are in every pizza parlor and in nearly every kid's hands. One whiff of the stuff and he turns into a scheming, screaming junkie ("I WANT ONE I WANT ONE I WILL SAVE ALL MY MONEY AND BUY ONE IF YOU WON'T GET IT FOR ME AHHHHHHHHHH! It's not fair! I can't take it! My life is worthless if I can't play these games!" etc. And yes, I exaggerate, but not much). Thank G-d there is no way my five year old is going to save up the $300 it costs to buy this thing before he's well into High School.

Case in point against video games. This was our glorious day last Friday:

1. Wake up to waffles for the kids
2. Go to bike rental place to find it not yet open, so kill time at Albertson's in Tahoe City eating chocolate donuts (which we never, ever eat for breakfast at home)
3. Rent bikes with trailers and ride 12 miles along the Truckee River (kids in trailers behind bikes). Stop along the way for a beautiful rock skipping and river dipping break. (Let the kids get naked and throw rocks and piss in the dirt. Not an everyday experience.)
4. Get ice cream in the middle of the day (another rare treat)
5. Play in the lake in the most gorgeous weather and water temp the lake has ever seen. Dig for dinosaur bones, play soccer in the water, be kids like kids are supposed to BE. (This was W and B's first time (that they can remember) to play in Lake Tahoe.)
6. Go home and allow downtime playing with illegal drug - I mean portable SONY Playstation
7. Get gang back out the door for pool fun, dinner and watching roller skaters at the new $30 M renovated Northstar Village. (We don't have a pool or belong to a pool club. The boys love to swim but don't get to very often.)
8. Go home and force exhausted bodies into bed

Lots of first time or rare treats were had on Friday. This was what I remember about Saturday:

Me: "We did SO much yesterday and had so much fun. W, what was the best thing we did yesterday?"
W: "Video games."

Enough said. Okay, not enough. I know there are other factors here, like the forbidden fruit argument. Sure, if I let W play video games whenever he wanted, the experience wouldn't be so special and he wouldn't covet it. However, then he'd be a junkie. We've tried giving some time to play. The result is the rest of the day spent asking why we had to stop. And this from a boy who is obsessed with playing sports and being outside. So, I know that some folks play video games and it's not horrible. I'm sure some kids could drink an afternoon beer each day and not become alcoholics too. But for us, well, I'm convinced that giving my sons video games is bad bad bad. I might as well be giving him a highball. So, note to all relatives: no video game gifts for us. Ever.