The curse of the PS2

My son's latest PS2 game arrived on Friday, making his collection a grand total of 3! You'd think that would make him easily bored, so that he'd leave off playing every second he gets, right? Wrong!

Saturday night has become "mom, amuse yourself while I take up the decent TV playing hours of whatever". I've taken to watching the non-decent (tiny) TV in the bedroom, but the powers that be have taken to showing re-runs of all the movies I've already seen! So Sat night turns into "long bath with a book", accompanied by the background sounds of explosions, opal collection and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger talking to whomever has info for him.

This weekend I took the obligatory bath, and by 10 was ready for bed. To keep warm, I climbed beneath the covers while I waited for J to save his game and get ready for bed...

....THREE HOURS LATER at 1 in the morning, he woke me up to say goodnight! Geez...

He also spent the entire day yesterday playing, with only a meal-break at midday.

Unfortunately he's now on school holiday, and has been spending so much time on the PS2 that his fingers are going tingly. Can you say "repetitive strain injury"? There's not much I can do to control his time while I'm at work, but he has a definitive cut-off time of 5pm each day.

I checked in with him a few minutes ago - he's still in his pyjamas, hasn't eaten breakfast, and I'm about to go home to make lunch!

I thought it would be nice for him to have a PS2 to keep him busy during the holidays - but it's turned into something bigger than all of us! HELP!

Signed
Neglected Mom