great article. my parents limited time i spent on video games when i was a kid by not buying video game consoles and today, i thank them greatly for that.

those kids will grow up and appreciate the time spent on other things than video games.

My response to this article was as follows, I actually had to do it in two parts for teh actual comments on the page because it was too long:

Wow... it's amazing; all the parent has to do is restrict the children's ability to play the game. I recall a long time ago, we used to call that "being a parent"
Mistake #1: Doing something for her children with the hopes of getting them to like her more. They are the kids, you are the parent, you don't need the approval of someone with less than half your living experience.
Mistake #2: thinking that kids will prefer brain exercises over entertainment.
Mistake #3: making it the "family's" DS. No. It is either for one child and that's it OR it is the PARENT'S Ds and the children have NO right to play it. It is a reward or treat that is earned and rationed.
Mistake #4: Letting the kids play it at inappropriate times, like at the table, as close as I can tell is because she's scared "that her kids won't love her anymore"
Mistake #5: Not invoking serious punishments for taking the DS without permission. If that had happened under my watch, that would have earned loss of DS privileges, erasing all data from their choice games, and also taking those choice games to a completely different location, such as the desk at work, the glove compartment of the car, or small unmarked box under the sink, the games are nice and small and much easier to hide than the entire DS, and the threat of losing any progress they have made in their favorite games will do a great deal to deter any attempts to steal, as there is little point to playing when you can't make any progress.

Mistake #6: Not bothering to teach the kids a little something called "responsibility" and instead deciding to place the blame on the console.
It's so much easier to place the blame on video games and TV and loud music, and even easier to blame things when you can call them a drug. It's not our fault, it's an addiction! Us mere mortals are helpless against the all powerful addiction! it's like mind control in a bottle!
It's one thing to have lovely, well behaved children that read, walk the dog and play the violin because there's nothing better to do, it's another thing to have children who will do those things because they want to, and are able to ration their entertainment to balance with their responsibilities.

Where might one find one of these "Nintendos". I'd like to get my hands on one of them!

wow, apparently a lot of people here think raising a kid is easy. maybe that's why the world has so many bad parents.

Never heard of condoms? I mean four kids? Jesus, then you need 4 DS. Think of the consequences first.

This is exactly the point I was going to make!

I understand that young children can be a handful (particularly 4 of them) but if she had applied the same totalitarian insistence on the rotation (and provided consequences for complaining about giving it up when it wasn't your turn anymore) she might have been able to make it work.

The simple fact of the matter is that as was already mentioned any time you stick 1 very popular toy in the mix with 4 children who want to use it you've just created the problem. You must then immediately create a solution that involves rules and boundaries or it WILL get out of hand. They honestly didn't need 20 games either...they could have gotten 2 DS lite and some games and that alone would have alleviated tons of problems.

As for their fixation on it that is simple, you let them know how long their allowed to play and that when you tell them to get off or their time is up you expect them off immediately and failing to do so means they lose the privilege for set period of time.

Honestly life is full of these types of activities that are easy to get lost in. The DS was an opportunity for her to teach her children how to responsibly partake in those activities without losing thier heads over it. She couldn't step up to the challenge and her kids suffer for it..not just because they don't have the DS but because the lesson the learned is a bad one.

@lingsys,

Nobody thinks its easy, they think she is bad at it...slight difference. 

I hope a Nintendo rep reads the article then has their judiciary department deposit a complaint for piracy, promoting piracy, illegal importation of goods, illegal importation of pirated goods and a few other things.

Ohh OHHHHHH I'm jonesing for my fix, ohh help me I NEED HELP! I can't take it, I'm coming samus.

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Take that Ridley

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ahh much better, you were saying?

typical daily mail reader really. middle class lady with nothing better to do than complain when she doesn't know what she's talking about. I get the impression these people don't particularly care about their children anyway. They are just used as some kind of 'trophy' to show off to their friends when they do well academically etc. It's as much about 'keeping up with the jones' really.