To Wii or Not to Wii... That is the question

Sigh... hubby and I had decided that we were going to buy a Wii for our family for Christmas. We figured that it would be a great way to keep the kids physically active while having fun when it was just too cold, wet, snowy, and/or muddy, etc. this winter and beyond. Now I will start by saying that we did know what the cost of a Wii was as we made this decision, but what I hadn't given a huge amount of thought to was what the "rest of the story" was in terms of needing more controllers for multiple players and the cost of additional games. The other thing that I wasn't prepared for was how painfully difficult these boogers are to find to actually buy; we were afraid that we wouldn't find one to buy before Christmas (from a source that we were familiar with, such as Wal-Mart, Sam's, Toys-R-Us, Circuit City, Best Buy, etc.).

Then, finally, yesterday morning we found a Wii system on the Toys-R-Us site - can you say WOOHOO!!! I placed our order and we were all set, or so I thought! A short time later, I got what I call "that itchy feeling" - the feeling I get when something just isn't right. I couldn't dismiss it so I stopped to pray that God would guide Eric and I on whether purchasing the Wii was a good decision or not. When I shared my "itchy feeling" with my hubby, he agreed that if it didn't feel right then we needed to cancel the order; so cancel the order I did and now the "itchy feeling" is gone! WHEW!!!

BUT.... now my question is... what decision process have others had on the road of "To Wii or Not to Wii"? Why did you chose to or not to purchase it???

We had a hard time justifying the cost of the console, additional accessories, and on-going cost of games. My cost estimate was near $478.00 for the items that we felt we would need just to get started, not to mention the cost of additional games or other accessories that we don't yet know that we "need". Plus, the questions we asked ourselves were these... do we want to encourage our children to play video games rather than seek out other sources of play that would be equally physical and even more imaginative??? Do we want them to think that all entertainment must come from either the computer or the television??

As a slight bunny trail, but still on the same thought... We are considering cancelling our cable TV in January for a couple of reasons (we would cancel it now, but, even though this was my idea, I am having a hard time committing to giving up some of the shows that I watch on cable). First, we pay approx. $80 per month for digital cable and some additional digital tiers. We think we can be better stewards of that $80 by using it to either build our savings or to pay down student loan debt rather than use it for pure entertainment. Second, because there is just too much on TV that we do not agree with; such things as the attitudes of some characters on some of the pre-teen/teen shows our oldest daughter suddenly wants to watch, violence (even the evening news is hard to watch with kids), not to mention the encouragement to "get more stuff" from watching all the toy and fast food commercials (especially this time of year) that we are always bombarded with. We have considered just blocking the channels that have what we consider to be questionable content, but that won't eliminate all of what bothers us.

All that being said, I think that still would like a Wii because I think it would be a lot of fun... but we just cannot justify the cost for our family. Please know that I am not judging other families that do have Wiis and/or cable TV, it is a personal choice that each family must make for themselves. All I am doing is sharing what thought process we have worked through (and we are obviously still working through them ourselves) and now I would LOVE to hear from each of you on your family's decision "To Wii or Not to Wii"; I look forward to hearing from you.