21st century boy

"Can I play Death Car Nitrous 4?" asks son with just a hint of the pleading puppy eyes.
"No, there's something I want to watch on DVD."
"Didn't you say you had work to do?"
"Well yes...but it's getting late and I really can't be..."
"Come on, just do it...and while you do I'll play...[whatever it's really called]"

Before I know it, I'm typing something up while he sits there getting his way. When I try the same sort of thing on him re: homework I don't see him busily tapping away at the PC while I do whatever it is I'd do if I was capable of relaxing.

It's funny actually: this whole playstation thing. When I was a kid- an elderly one granted but a kid all the same- I had an Atari 2600 (my grandparents bought it but I somehow managed to persuade them leave it at ours). Anyway...I had a similar relationship with it to the one my boy has with his DS, PSP, Gamecube, Playstation and Xbox. His is more of an electronic promiscuity whereas mine was old fashioned one console devotion but the obsessional aspect remains the same. Anyway (again) I went by my mum's yesterday and she'd found a box I had stored there at some point in the last century. In it was the old Atari console. I got back to Yorkshire at 12.30 am. but did I get some well earned rest after a tiring journey? Nope, I plugged the thing in and played Space Invaders til my eyes burned.