Can Pokémon be a parenting tool?

Three years ago I wrote about how I became obsessed with playing Pokémon Diamond and Pearl for the Nintendo DS, under the pretence of creating a posse of creatures for my then five year old to play with his friend. (The fact that my 5 year old even KNEW about the Pokémon video games I blame entirely on the publicist who sent me the games, and my terrible hiding skills).

 

 

Fast forward to this year when my now 8 year old son began begging me to trade some of my high HP (Heart points? Health points? I have no idea.) Pokémon with him so that he could more effectively trounce his friends. I hadn't played the game in years, but apparently, I had quite a few rare and high level creatures locked within my copy of the game that he was DYING to get his hands on.

 

 

After some delay, I made a deal with my son – I would trade him 3 Pokemón as a reward if he:

a) finished all his homework

b) did extra reading

c) cleaned his bedroom

d) helped pick up the toys in the basement

 

 

This is when I discovered that, at least for now, rare Pokémon and a few minutes of battling with his mother, may be the best parenting tool I have at my command. Since our original trade and battle, I have rewarded him with two more creatures and another battle royale (I won).

 

 

Of course now I'm running low on my rare creatures – so I'm going to have to borrow my daughter's DS (I gave mine away a couple of months ago) and go hunting. Because I need to stock up while I can!

 

 

What non-traditional reward have you discovered works for your kids?