A colleague of mine got a pleasant surprise recently. She and her husband bought their six-year-old son a Nintendo Wii video game for Christmas and she relayed the following story to me.
“I was not excited about this purchase. Even though it was my idea to research the Wii, I got cold feet thinking about the cost. It was a pretty big investment for us when we factored in other presents we had already purchased. My husband was sold early on, and he eventually talked me into it, against what I thought was my better judgment. I’ve never been so happy to admit I was wrong. Something that I perceived as a waste of time and money has actually become more than a Christmas gift for the whole family. It has become a gift of time.
I have never been a fan of video games. Even when I was a kid, I wasn’t very good at them. So the first time my son asked me to “bowl” with him, I was not excited. But, it was important to him, so I decided to grin and bear it. What I was reminded of during that 30-minute play date was something all parents need to be reminded of once in a while – time is the best, most lasting gift we will ever give our children.
Kids have an amazing way of not caring how well we do something, as long as we’re doing it with them. I’m admittedly better at video games than I used to be, but not as good as my six-year-old. He beat me at bowling many times that first day (and many times since then), but neither one of us cared. We’re both winners, because we found a new way to maximize our quality time together. And, I have the best kind of proof that it meant as much to my son as it did to me.
After we finished playing video games that day, I went back to my computer to do some work, and he went to the kitchen table to color. What he produced was the drawing pictured here. It’s a picture of us playing the Wii together. He told me it was one of the best “dates” we’ve ever had.”
It doesn’t take a lot of money, a lot of skill or a lot of any size gifts to make kids happy. It just takes time. Find something simple your kids like to do and do it with them. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you’re doing it together.”
Think Huge!


