Elissa usually posts on our blog, but today it’s ‘Dad’s’ view!
“Dad, is it a stay at home day today?”
And so the day begins…
Yes, this is what I wake up to most mornings. The same question, come rain, hail or shine - and the reason why Jack asks? Well, regardless of my answer to this question it is always followed by the next:
“Dad, can you play Playstation with me?”
I live with a Playstation junkie.
For a long time Elissa refused to have any sort of computer / video games in the house. She was a bit of a ‘purest’ so to speak, and believed that kids should be outside building cubby houses and digging in the sandpit. Well, she still believes in her ideal, but when her parents presented Jack with the Playstation she finally caved in and agreed to allow it in to the house.
Since then, Jack hasn’t looked back (and Elissa even admits that at times it is her saviour in that it gives her half an hour of total peace and quiet when she needs it due to the fact that when Jack sits in front of it he is totally consumed by it). He only has 3 games, but he knows them like the back of his hand, and in typical Aspie style, plays them over and over and over and over…….. well, you get the picture.
Unfortunately though, in the beginning, when Playstation was new to the house, I kind of ‘made a rod for my back’ so to speak. Jack would become frustrated with the games because he couldn’t play them perfectly (yes, those Aspie traits again) and so I would sit with him in an effort to calm him down and help him work through the steps. The problem now is that Jack associates the Playstation with ‘Dad sitting next to me’. And that doesn’t neccesarily mean playing, but more commentating and ‘fixing’ his mistakes.
I should mention that when Jack asks the infamous ’Playstation’ question he asks it in multiples of about a dozen at a time. No matter the reason I give him for not being able to sit with him at that moment I always then get the response “Oh, okay, but can you play Playstation with me?” In fact, I can even be in the middle of a heated discussion with him about the reasons why he shouldn’t pull his sisters dolls body parts off and he will still manage to find a way to squeeze in the question. One day I had the banter non stop for about 2 hours straight. I finally threatened to throw the Playstation in the charity bin, and so he stopped asking, for about an hour - before starting up again!
Jack recently had a weekend away staying with his grandparents (yes, the ones that gave him the Playstation), taking the Playstation with him and spending the entire time in front of it. Whilst at his grandparents he also had his Uncle Mike with him who is a fellow Playstation addict, and so the 2 of them battled over top scores, and together plotted their way through the more difficult parts of the games. I’m planning on inviting Uncle Mike to come and stay for a few days to take over my role in the Playstation arena, and hopefully reprogram Jack’s morning wake up call to exclude the “Dad, can you play Playstation with me?”
Until then, I’ll keep rolling over and putting my head under the pillow…..
But that’s life with a Playstation Junkie!
Steve 
