Parenthood and gaming you say?

Yeah... let me tell you a story.

Back in August we get Otis, a six-week old Blonde Lab. I didn't want the dog but the kids wanted it big time. "When can we bring Otis home?" That's all I hear for weeks. Fine, we spend the $350 and bring the puppy home.

Puppy grows up, and six months later the kids don't find Otis as cute as before and Otis now exists as a child-neglected dog.

A few weeks ago I'm in the kitchen and my 10 year-old is sitting on the couch playing with something. I go over and see. "What's that?" I ask. "It's a Nintendo DSD." (Or whatever.) "Wha'cha playing," I ask. "' "It's a dog game," she says, "you have a dog and you have to take care of it. You have to walk it and feed it and everything."

Excuse me?

So the kids won't walk Otis and barely ever feed him, but now they have these bloody DSD Gameboy games with digital dogs (blonde labs!) and they walk them and feed them and you can even use a special pen that comes with the thing to pat the ******* dog! You can even talk to the game and tell the dog to sit. ARRRRGGH!

So, a few night ago, I'm back in the kitchen, the two kids are on the floor patting and feeding and walking the digital dog, and Otis is lying behind them looking as sad as a labrador possibly can. And that's pretty sad.

Parent's and gaming? Prepare to go insane.

(I told them they have to play the dog game where I can't see or hear them because I will throw that bloody gameboy right out the window the next time I see them patting a digital dog while the real one is lying at their feet neglected and unwalked.)