I was talking to my mom the other day, and she had mentioned how she had no idea what to get my brother for Christmas. My brother has Down’s Syndrome, and spends a lot of his free time playing music and video games. He also loves wrestling.
I was asking if there were any new video games that he might like, and she couldn’t think of any, but mentioned that she was thinking of picking up a Wii for him, since she was at her local Walmart the day before and they looked “kind of cool.”
I had never thought of a Wii for my brother for Christmas, only because I didn’t expect there to be any available. I expressed to my mom how that would be a great gift, since he would have to get up and move around to play the games (he participates in Special Olympics, but has a fairly sedentary job and doesn’t do much when there aren’t Special Olympic practices taking place).
I added that there was a pretty good chance that there weren’t any more available, since she had seen them at the store the day before. I promised that I would try to hunt one down for her if she wanted me to, and that was the end of the conversation.
Yesterday, she told me that she was able to pick up a Wii for my brother! I was really excited for him, since I think that he will like it a lot. Then she said, “I got one for you guys for Christmas too, if you want it.” She went on to say that she could return it to the store, but that she wanted to get us something fun this year, since “you guys always want practical things and that’s so boring!”
I am not sure what I was more shocked by – the fact that my mom dropped some major cash on a Wii for us, or that she had just called us boring.
So here’s the question: Should we accept? I’ve wanted a Wii for awhile, but never really considered getting one until they went down in price. I would really love to get a Wii fit to try to learn some yoga. I think that we would have fun as a family playing together, and if I had to choose a video game system for my son when he gets older, this would be the one.
On the other hand, it’s not practical at all! I had mentioned that a gift card to Lowe’s would be a nice gift, since we need to replace the fixtures in our bathroom. I’m guessing that this falls into the category of boring to my mom…
So if you were me, what would you do?