"Ya'lls"... great word usage, I know. :-P But yes, advice... I need some. But first, a little background information from me to you - I have a niece. She's nine, and (due to her mother's lack of disciplinary skills) is one of the most irresponsible people on this planet. Granted, nine year olds shouldn't be tasked with maintaining a household or fixing a car or something, but with simple tasks like putting a toy away when you're done with it, or NOT losing half the pieces to a puzzle you just opened five minutes ago - I don't think that's too much to ask. So, as I was saying...Irresponsible. Breaks things.

I'll give you a for instance. She got an MP3 player for her birthday (why a nine year old needs an MP3 player is beyond me, but there will be more of that nonsensical business in a bit). Had it for a matter of days. Broke it. While that shouldn't matter to me, as I was NOT the one that purchased it (hell, I predicted she'd break it before it was even purchased), I WAS the one who had to spend hours putting songs onto the thing in the first place, since my sister is computer illiterate. So, she breaks it, and my sister GETS HER ANOTHER ONE... Round 2 - Another few hours of my life wasted adding songs to the replacement.

Now, my sister says that she's going to buy her a DS. Where purchasing a $19.99 MP3 player (it was on sale) is something I could look past - spending $129 on a DS is something I can not. Not when she IS going to break the thing within a matter of weeks... I would bet you money on that fact right now.

See, I'm good at predicting such things. Another for instance. When my nephew was three, I predicted that he would end up in a load of trouble his first week into kindergarten cause he's not made to behave at home, so why would he around other kids? Three days into the week, my sister gives me the news. Should've bet money on that one.

But back to the matter at hand. Finances. To put it bluntly, my sister is worse off financially than my mother and I are (and that's saying something), so she really doesn't need to waste the money on something that will be trashed so quickly.

So, there ya go. I've tried convincing her that a DS is a bad purchase - that my niece will either lose the stylus, snap the two screens apart or scratch the screen by using a real pen thinking that it's a good alternative to the stylus she just lost. Either that, or my five year old nephew (cute kid when he wants to be, but causes severe migraines when I am with him for extended amounts of time... cause, you know... I'm the only one who actually disiplines the kid) will get ahold of it and feed it to the dog or something. Drop it in the tub like a boat. Shove it in the fireplace to watch it burn. You get the idea.

I've even tried the whole "Get a GBA, it's cheaper and more durable" line, but that seems to have failed. What to do, what to do... Maybe I should just stop caring about my sister's lack of funds and laugh when I'm right... But before I go that far... Got any ideas?

Before I go - new reviews!

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