{"id":12436,"date":"2013-01-04T10:54:08","date_gmt":"2013-01-04T18:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=12436"},"modified":"2013-01-04T10:54:08","modified_gmt":"2013-01-04T18:54:08","slug":"nintendo-mom-i-unplugged-my-kids-nintendo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/nintendo-mom-i-unplugged-my-kids-nintendo\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Nintendo Mom: The Day I Unplugged My Eight-Year-Old"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ten-year-old<\/a>
Two years after being unplugged, Peter won the original Final Fantasy<\/a> game; we took a picture to prove it. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here’s a fun story I wrote for the Oakland Tribune back in 1989 — during the very early days of Mario, Link and Zelda.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

At 7:20 a.m. last Sunday, I was making plans to leave home.<\/p>\n

Like any normal person with a job, two kids and a front yard full of weeds, I had been sleeping in on a Sunday morning \u2013 until I heard Jon and Peter playing the new Nintendo.<\/p>\n

I burst in on them. \u201cHey. It\u2019s 7:20 in the morning. YOU WOKE ME UP.\u201d<\/p>\n

No answer. Scenes from the Legend of Zelda flickered across the transfixed faces of my husband and my son.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t care. So enraptured were they \u2013 man and boy \u2013 with their dratted boomerangs and Oktoroks that they actually did not care that they had wrecked my beautiful Sunday morning sleep-in.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The culprit — The Legend of Zelda. “Man, what an epic, epic, epic game,” says Peter looking back decades later. Nowadays he prefers chess.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I stomped back to bed, covered my head with my pillow and cried. I like my pillow. It cares.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d leave home, that\u2019s what. I\u2019d pack a few clothes and leave. In my new life as a single woman, my job and some clothes would be all I\u2019d need.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d check into a hotel. It would have to be something cheap, probably something with noisy air conditioning and windows that didn\u2019t open.<\/p>\n

Later on, I\u2019d phone Christina, our 5-year-old. Did she want to come live with Mommy in the place where the windows didn\u2019t open? Or did she want to stay with Daddy, Peter and the Nintendo?<\/p>\n

With any luck she\u2019d choose the Nintendo. I\u2019d be a free woman.<\/p>\n

But first, I\u2019ll just cry myself back to sleep a bit. No point in starting a new life with that grumpy, no-sleep feeling.<\/p>\n

I Lose My Cool<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Half an hour later, the hotel room had lost its appeal. It would probably smell of Lysol. I ate breakfast and got ready for church. Peter ate his breakfast and went back to the Nintendo.<\/p>\n

Soon it was time to wet down the cowlicks and put on the shirt and tie.<\/p>\n

But Peter wanted to kill himself first.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo way,\u201d I said, hanging tough.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease, Mommy,\u201d he begged, his eyes fixed on the screen. \u201cCan\u2019t I just get killed? If I don\u2019t get killed I\u2019ll lose all my stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Nintendo<\/a>
Legend of Zelda’s hero Link in 1992. Nintendo image.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThen pause it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t pause it. Daddy wants to switch to his guy while we\u2019re in church.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPeter, you pause that thing or I\u2019ll pull the plug on you.\u201d<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

I did.<\/p>\n

On the morning of April 23, 1989, I pulled the plug on my 8-year-old son.<\/p>\n

He burst into tears and went to find his necktie.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a flaw in the system,\u201d said Jon. \u201cYou can\u2019t just turn it off or you will lose everything. You have to wait till your guy gets killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Monday morning I decided to get counseling.<\/p>\n

I dialed a number in Redmond, Wash., where 75 Nintendo \u00a0Team Power Game Counselors<\/a> answer 35,000 calls a week from Nintendo players and their significant others.<\/p>\n

At 12:15 p.m., all circuits were busy. At 12:20, 12:40, 2:08 and 2:14 all circuits were busy.<\/p>\n

It was time to go home. I would pull no plugs tonight, I told myself. Pulling plugs is bad for young egos and 12-year-old marriages. Pulling plugs wreaks havoc on expensive electronic equipment.<\/p>\n

\"Christina<\/a>
Here, the grown-up Christina is dressed for Halloween as Link of the Legend of Zelda. Today she prefers escape rooms to video games. \u00a0Photo by Christina Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fifteen minutes past the kids\u2019 bedtime, I found Jon, Peter and Christina sitting, arms entwined, before the Nintendo. All eyes were on the monitor. \u201cBedtime,\u201d I said, keeping my hands to myself.<\/p>\n

But Video Games Are Good for You<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The Nintendo is not just fun, asserts a 31-page white paper from Nintendo of America, Inc. It\u2019s educational. It enhances creativity, reasoning, self-esteem, spatial skills.<\/p>\n

The Nintendo requires children \u2013 and adults \u2013 to keep track of competing stimuli. Players must acquire tools, set goals and respond to enemy attacks \u2013 simultaneously.<\/p>\n

The white paper did not say anything about simultaneously responding to the word \u201cbedtime.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Get Counseling<\/h5>\n

On Tuesday, and none too soon, I got through to my game counselor at Nintendo. His name was Jeff. Yes, Jeff could save my marriage and keep my family intact.<\/p>\n

Just pause it, he said. Then push up A and B on controller No. 2, put the arrow on save, push start, hold the reset button down and turn the power off.<\/p>\n

That will save everything. When my loved ones come back to their game, their guys will still have all their rubies.<\/p>\n

What a relief. Jon and Peter will be able to switch off the Nintendo at the drop of a power bracelet. They will be on time for church. They will be on time for dinner, for school, for bed. They will listen to me.<\/p>\n

If not, maybe Nintendo has a Team Power Family Crisis Hotline.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a0The Oakland Tribune, April 30, 1989<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
Our original 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System console with controllers — and wires. Photo by Barbara Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Update: Years later, remorseful, I finally apologized to Peter for unplugging his Nintendo. Was he traumatized? “I don’t remember you pulling the plug on us exactly,” was his response. “But I do remember when Dad would get excited in a super tense moment, he’d yank on the controller and accidentally unplug the system.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Christina, now in her thirties, tells me that, had I invited her to run away from home with me, she “totally would have chosen to stay with Peter, Dad, and the Nintendo.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The latest Nintendo console, the Switch<\/a>, has been a big seller during the pandemic. But that phone number in Redmond, Wash.? It gets you an out-of-service message these days. So, you’re on your own, Nintendo Switch moms. There’s no help for you.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more stories about young Peter, go to “Will My Kids Grow Up to Be Cheaters?”<\/a>\u00a0 Also, “Small Boys: Reading, Writing — and Yucky.”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"NES<\/a>
A 1990 version of Mario in our Nintendo Super Mario Bros. 3 instruction booklet. NES image.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Ten-year-old<\/a><\/p>\n

Like any normal person with a job, two kids and a front yard full of weeds, I had been sleeping in on a Sunday morning \u2013 until the sound of Jon and Peter playing the new Nintendo woke me up. I burst in on them. \u201cHEY. YOU WOKE ME UP.\u201d No answer. So enraptured were they with their dratted boomerangs and Oktoroks they didn’t care that they had wrecked my beautiful Sunday morning sleep-in. I stomped back to bed, covered my head and cried. Read more<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12486,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[34,849,850,851,55,852,853,82],"class_list":["post-12436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-changing-family","tag-dont-miss","tag-final-fantasy-i","tag-legend-of-zelda","tag-mom-leaves-home","tag-family-stories","tag-nintendo","tag-nintendo-game-counselors","tag-on-the-funny-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12436\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}