by Hermilia C. Banayat-Nas(10th entry)
This Yahoo! feature made me deeply concerned because (1) my son learned how to play bowling with Wii and (2) my husband has taken up Wii dancing.
We had our first Wii injury two hours after we installed the Wii. The help was putting on powder on my then sweaty son's back when she was whacked on the forehead with a Wii tennis racket. My son can swing a tennis racket so when the help said "Aray!" I knew it was really aray.
During this first injury, I had to ask (rather sternly) that the Wii be switched off and for my son to take a rest from playing. After that I heard my son setting down "rules" while playing Wii--Rule Number 1: Ate should never ever go super near me while I am playing tennis.
From then on, Wii playing has always been problematic especially if other kids are around. The thing is that it is not really fun to play Wii alone. In short, problematic it is. So, we had to put masking tape boundary lines on the floor in front of the TV. The playing area became noisier but at least safer.
Safety cannot be absolutely ensured. My husband is a risk coordinator and he lives with the motto: There is no such thing as accidents. Nonetheless he once accidentally (I hope) swung a Wii bat which grazed my left ear. Silly me, crossing those masking tape lines.
The masking tapes really worked for a while. Until another nunchuk came. Then, two people can be in the Wii playing zone at any one time. So, we had to make another precaution: soft comfy couches for each player and nobody stands even if playing Wii sports. That was a short-lived precaution and now we are back to masking tapes and one nunchuck at any one time.
What I am saying is that we were really happy with Wii being an interactive game console. It was a great idea and, considering the accelerating increase in obesity, it still is. But the moment we complain of injuries brought about by Wii because it is a game console while we accept injuries from real live contact sports, then we are in for trouble. If we buy Wiis because we want to be active, we must accept that injuries can happen.
Unless you want to play tennis on a couch.
see related story at: http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/wii-injuries-on-the-increase-says-medical-journal/1388232
image from Google images
2 comments:
"Rule Number 1: Ate should never ever go super near me while I am playing tennis."
Aaaw...ur son is so cute. :)
ako buti na lang may strap yung wii kasi lagi akong napap-over swing na nabibitawan ko yung controller. hehe. pero naalala ko yung simpsons a few episodes back where they used wii sa home for the aged where grandpa simpson lives. tapos all the old people became so energetic. the staff removed the wii kasi nagkaroon ng buhay yung old people and bigla na sila nagrereklamo sa service ng staff. wala lang. i remember lola techie rin of bayantel. technology like the internet and wii can really give old people a new lease in life ;)
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