Are two X Box gaming consoles better than one?

A few weeks ago, my husband confused me with his line of thinking. This confusion happens from time to time but this one really had me pondering his thought line. When did the solution to getting the kids off the Xbox One in our bedroom be to get a second Xbox One? Wouldn’t have been easier to just move the Xbox One to the downstairs TV?

Ok…let’s go back a little bit and describe the whole scenario.

We have way too many game-playing consoles as it is. Before the latest addition, we had 4 gaming consoles – 2 upstairs and 2 downstairs.

Downstairs we had an Xbox 360 and a Wii U. When we got the Wii U, we moved the old Wii game console upstairs. We probably should just get rid of the Wii as no one plays it any more. My husband also bought an Xbox One when they came out and placed it upstairs, so he could play video games in the bedroom. At the time, the kids usually played video games in the living room.

I don’t know how or when they migrated to playing upstairs. Maybe it was that the Xbox One games couldn’t be played on the Xbox 360. Or perhaps it was the comfy carpet they liked to sit on verses the downstairs couch. But I guess the reason doesn’t really matter. The fact was that they were in our bedroom a lot. We would have to kick them off the Xbox if we wanted to watch TV in our bedroom or when my husband wanted his turn at the Xbox. (Remember, he did buy the upstairs unit so HE could play video games even if he doesn’t play that often.)

So, one evening, after my husband got fed up with the kids dominating our TV, he did a little late night online shopping, which is never good. (He is dangerous when he shops online at night. Who knows what he will decide to buy but that is a topic for another blog post.) He bought an Xbox One X using the money he inherited from his grandmother.

When it came in and he told our son why he bought it, Jase said, “Why didn’t you just move the Xbox downstairs?” And I said the same thing when he told me. It is nice that Jase and I are so logical about the problem.

The new Xbox was placed downstairs and the Xbox 360 that we were rarely using was removed. So, did this fix the problem? Did it clear the kids out of our bedroom?

Nope. Not at all.

In fact, I think it made the situation worse. Now Lexie uses the Xbox in our bedroom, and Jase uses the one downstairs. And since they are playing on Xbox Live, they are playing the same game together – just in separate rooms.

Sigh. So, I still don’t have my TV or bedroom back – unless I boot the kid out of the room. It looks like it might be time to try something else. Perhaps it is time to address their video game obsession. But that is a topic for a future post. Until then, I guess I am hanging out in my home office.