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"My brother used to beat my mother at Pong \u2013 using his foot. He&amp;#039;d flip his toes over the controller, shoot the square white puck across the black and white screen and score while my mother frantically turned her dial up and down to no avail. I used to find the generation gap amusing \u2013 until my son kicked my butt at Wii. Then I stopped laughing. My mother had an excuse for her video game ineptitude. She grew up before computers and the Internet, her family didn&amp;#039;t even have a television until she was 10, and her first few cars all had AM radios. Pong was her first video game, played when she was over 40. No wonder she couldn&amp;#039;t stop my 13-year-old brother (or rather, his foot) from defeating her. She didn&amp;#039;t have much experience with electronics. When my son, Chris, challenged me to play our new Wii a few weeks ago, however, I thought I&amp;#039;d be a tough opponent. After all, I had played Super Mario Brothers back in the 80&amp;#039;s, when my best friend and I used to compete at Marble Madness at Chuck E. Cheese&amp;#039;s. Certainly, a woman who spent part of her teens playing video games in an arcade filled with screaming seven-year-olds could hit a virtual baseball, right? Wrong. Chris wound up the pitch, threw toward at the screen and I swung. &amp;quot;Strike one!&amp;quot; the announcer shouted. I readjusted my &amp;quot;bat,&amp;quot; the white controller, summoned up my Little League batting experience and hunkered down for the next pitch. He threw and\u2013 &amp;quot;Strike two!&amp;quot;  I got a piece of his third pitch, but the ball was foul. I did that four more times until finally, I struck out. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re not so good at this, Mom,&amp;quot; Chris stated the obvious. &amp;quot;How about tennis?&amp;quot; I challenged, figuring that the family&amp;#039;s only true tennis player ought to be able to win a video tennis game against a nine-year-old, right? Wrong. I swung madly and raced around the living room while my third grader swatted nonchalantly at the virtual ball. I was working up a sweat, while he was working on a big win. After a few minutes, he took the first game. &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t swing the racquet like on a normal tennis court,&amp;quot; I observed. Chris rolled his eyes and chuckled as though I&amp;#039;d just stated something tragically obvious. He beat me at tennis. And air hockey. And darts. And some weird bubble game, plus a cow-racing game, until finally, I found the one video game I could win: bowling. The final score flashed across the screen: Mom: 127, Chris: 98. My avatar raised her hands in victory, while he bowed his head in defeat. &amp;quot;Woooooo!&amp;quot; I shouted. &amp;quot;I won!&amp;quot; As in: Yay, me. I beat a child at virtual bowling. But it wasn&amp;#039;t just a victory for me. It was for my mom and mothers everywhere who have ever been shamed by video games and the children who play them so darn well. &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s next?&amp;quot; Chris asked. &amp;quot;Does this thing have Pong?&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a2261/wii-winning-strategy/?src=shelter_footer>