First thing this morning, the visitors started.

“Can I play Moshi Monsters?”

“Can I?”

“Can I?”

“And me too!”

Weekend mornings are for wallowing in technology and television. Weekend mornings when every available activity has been cancelled by hurricane, even more so. (We sustained no greater damage here than that done by Rob and me when we decided to move the couch; it was a good day to live on the side of a mountain.) Anything the kids can do by working together, they can do, and that includes eating Pop Tarts and Oreos.

People were checking for moshlings all over the house, and cries of “Sam, can you do the Daily Puzzle for me?” rang out. (The Daily Puzzle is the moshi excuse for calling the whole thing educational. It includes division and multiplication and spelling on a speed basis. It probably is good for you–if you can divide or multiply in the first place.)

Very quickly the favorite games were exhausted. (Moshi doesn’t let you play anything for that long.) New games were explored. Wallpaper was “purchased.” Friends were called in an attempt to lure them into the game. Gifts were sent to one another. It was really very cute.

And very addictive.

I’ve fought the good fight against this stuff. No Club Penguin. No American Girl doll website. No YouTube. No–I don’t even know what else no. But lately my resistance has felt a little over-the-top. I adore technology, after all, I’m a gadget girl, I’ve reviewed media and video games and apps. I have five computers to my name at the moment, three in active use, not to mention all my iStuff. It seemed, for a moment, like I should let them in.

But oh, dear. They can’t just take a little, can they? We let them gorge themselves on Moshi Monsters this morning, and by 10:30 they’d had more than enough. Every one of them “signed off” without being asked–but every one of them wanted back at it by mid-afternoon. I can tell it’s going to be the go-to request for weeks if not months, whenever boredom looms. If Moshi Monsters is even the remotest possibility, that’s where they’re gonna be. It’s gateway tech.

I’d considered, briefly, relaxing my no-tech on school days rule–but I think it can’t be done. I collected various educational things, thinking we could set some evening time for things like math or reading online–but the slope is too slippery, I think, and the whining too great. It’s easier just to have a no, none at all, no exceptions rule. But Sam needs to learn to “keyboard…” Oh, I go back and forth but–no. No, no and no. I can’t stand the asking, and Sam will surely have enough homework. Weekends, though, and that’s that. Maybe I’ll make them earn Moshi time with educational time.  They’d get up first thing Saturday and rush to whatever I planned to get to Moshi, at least for a while. I have them by the short strings.