SWF: 33 Florida

So there I was yelling at Lauren a few weeks ago to get off of Webkinz World.

Webkinz, for those of you who have been living under a rock, are stuffed animals whose main attraction is a secret code on their tag. Once the recipient opens the tag, the secret code is revealed. The secret code is then used to create a VIRTUAL pet on Webkinzworld.com. This pet needs to be "fed" "exercised" and taken care of daily.

The pet is fed by the user buying virtual food at the virtual store and exercised by the user taking the virtual pet to virtual charm school. It's all a big conspiracy.

Lauren started with two Webkinz. She fed them daily, always put them to sleep at night, and kicked their virtual butts in weight training. Then she found the arcade. The arcade is an area where she can play games to earn Kinzcash- which is virtual money needed to buy virtual food.

Once she found the arcade, and received 10 more webkinz for her birthday, she all but forgot about her virtual pets. She now logs on to play games, send notes to other virtual pets, and beat high scores of her kindergarten friends.

So...these virtual pets get virtually sick. Their virtual noses turn green and they have ice packs on their virtual heads. Why are they sick? Because my daughter is too busy buying virtual furniture for their virtual rooms.

The other day Lauren told me that Sunshine (her chocolate lab) was very sick, because he was starving to death. I told her to feed him. She said she didn't have enough Kinzcash to buy him food.

My daughter's pets are living on virtual welfare!

I, being the mom that I am, logged on to her account after she went to sleep. I played all the games, putting my 5 and 6 year old opponents to shame. I earned a butt load of Kinzcash, then proceeded to the virtual store to buy virtual food to feed her starving menagerie.

When all was said and done, everyone was fed, exercised and happy. I put them all to sleep and logged off.

The next morning, while Lauren was at school, I logged on. Just to check on the gang.

I found myself in the arcade, winning more Kinzcash.

I am now addicted. Instead of playing blackjack and craps on GoldenPalace.com, I am playing Cash Cow and Space Ranger Roundup on Webkinz. I am constantly trying to beat my high score and proud of myself when I do.

What I FAILED to realize is that some of the games have limits. They can only be played a set number of times per day.

When Lauren got home from school yesterday, she logged on to play her favorite game. "Mom! It says I already PLAYED wishing well today, but I didn't!!" She whined.

BUSTED.

She asked if I had gone on and played, to which I admitted guilt. I explained that I was just doing it to earn HER Kinzcash.

She changed her password last night, with the help of Joey. He agreed with her, that a mom of two has better things to do all day than play on a children's website. It's not like I was virtually setting the animals on fire, or chatting up pre-pubescent boys in the chat room! I was just trying to get to level 10 on cash cow.

Guess I will be heading to buy my OWN webkinz tomorrow. Then I'll head over to the local McDonald's to let Anthony play on the playground while I take advantage of free WIFI and play Webkinz.

It's virtually insane!!