Our good friend Wooftie - on his annual visit from The States - dropped a couple of small-but-expensive presents on Rachel and Jake: Nintendo DS Lites.

At the same time, Lisa’s mum gave us a PlayStation 2 and donated a boxful of old games including the highly addictive Star Wars Lego.

The children instantly became transfixed by Super Mario and Star Wars Lego, and begged to play with them at all hours of the day and night. Lisa’s best laid plans - to restrict usage to weekends only - fell by the wayside pretty quickly as the novelty of computer games overtook our self-discipline.

Jake became very adept at Super Mario World on the Nintendo, and would get lost in the game until he hit a tough spot and needed adult assistance. However, he’s become adept with the DS Lite in a short space of time, and I’ve noticed that his concentration is phenomenal as he gets absorbed in the game. Almost to the point of being oblivious to everyone else. I walked into the house one day last week and he was busy playing his computer games, looked up, smiled at me, and went straight back to the game.

Rachel’s just as good with the games, probably better since she has a couple of years up on Jake, but her biggest failing with computer games is her impatience. She’s alright on her own, but when in a two-player game with Jake or her little friend Lauren, she quickly loses her temper when the game isn’t going her way. Jake also can become very frustrated, and you know this because of the anguished animal howls that he makes. That’s usually a sign that gaming time is over…..

We’re trying to teach her more about teamwork and being understanding when Jake doesn’t understand what to do. So far to limited success. What works best is when you restrict them to single-player games and let them do a level or 5 minutes each.

Having said that, there are a couple of the kids’ friends who we can’t allow to play computer games. Too many kids = major kiddie impatience, screaming, shouting and bad temper. When those folks come to the door, we kick everyone out. They get fresh air - we get a few minutes of peace before having to referee the next row!