jumpers for goalposts- eh?

DS fever has got to all the children I know. They all sit gazing into little electonic screens , sometimes when wifi'd to each other they occassionally laugh or say 'ow!' or ' that's mine!' - normal children stuff except their eyes never leave the screens.

J and I tried them out after the children had all gone to bed but could make nothing of them really. Of course it is only right that the up and coming generation has secrets from us oldies but the way they eat up the hours and tie children to horizontal slumps aggravates me. So far they are banned at bedtime and in company. I a feel draconian limiting regime coming on - perhaps an hour a day (Muuuuu-umm!). After all it is only in the past ten or fifteen years that so many children spend so many hours locked into electronic games not generated by their own imaginations but by corporate nerds. I feel pessimistic about the effects generations of children who are bored when there is no screen to beep and whirr them into subdued and static excitement. I am disheartened when I hear friends who have bought Wiis so that their children can get some exercise (seriously...).

Why then did I buy my children these infernal machines? That is a very good question. Not sure what the answer is...