(MONEY Magazine) – In 1999, when my son Jake headed off to kindergarten, he started receiving a $1-a-week allowance. As an added enticement, I told him that for really big purchases, I'd match his savings, 401(k)-style. And then I put my money where my mouth was. When he was desperate enough to save for two solid months for the Pokemon: The Movie 2000 video (not an item on my list), I ponied up half the sticker price.

Today, as a second-grader, he gets $2 a week. And he has bigger aspirations to match: "I really need a game system," he said more than once. Again, I wasn't thrilled. But at prices ranging from $199 for the Nintendo GameCube to $299 for Sony PlayStation 2 or Microsoft's Xbox, I figured he'd burn out on saving well before he got there. Wrong. It took him six months, but by stockpiling his allowance, tooth-fairy dough and Hanukkah gelt, he racked up $118. He was going strong. And he said he had done enough research--scientifically polling his friends Spencer, Ben, Aaron and Evan--to know the Xbox was what he wanted.

Now I had a real problem. It wasn't that I probably wouldn't be playing along with him. He has his dad for that. Besides, it was his money. My beef was with that particular system. Says Corey Greenberg, tech editor of NBC's Today show: "Xbox tends to be more blood and guts." Even the p.r. folks for Microsoft noted that the suggested starting age is 16. Jake is going on eight. After reading studies suggesting that violent video games lead to aggressive kids, I knew I had to do something.

Rather than trying to bribe Jake into one of the other systems ("Mom's more likely to buy you games for PS2 or GameCube, blah, blah, blah"), I asked the manufacturers to let us test each system and a selection of "age appropriate" games. At first, everything Jake played was "very cool." Then he got discriminating.

Here's what he had to say: "On PS2, Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 had good action and great flips and grinding. But I could play the game I liked best--Spyro, about dragons--on PS One." (Note: The folks at Sony suggested he might be best off with a $99 PS One, so they sent along Spyro and some other PS One games. And they were right--it was these simpler games to which Jake was drawn. But he wasn't into buying yesterday's technology.) "The GameCube controllers had more buttons to do more tricks. I especially liked Super Smash Bros. Melee and SSX Tricky because they go from easy to medium to hard. The Xbox was frustrating. I played Fuzion Frenzy and Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2x at my friend Ben's, and I had a really tough time. But I tried again later in my own basement, and I rocked."

Clearly, my scheme had failed.

Or not. Turns out, when Jake said, "I really need a system," he meant, "I really need a system now." His deciding factor wasn't graphics, game selection (PS2 has hundreds of titles, the other systems, dozens) or whether he could use the system to play DVDs (as you can on PS2 and Xbox). It was price.

"I have enough money to buy the GameCube today, right?" he asked. I nodded. "And, Mom, do I have enough for a memory card too?" In our family, there's no doubt he got his computer savvy from his dad. But it's nice to know he got something from me too.

Editor-at-large Jean Chatzky appears regularly on NBC's Today. You can contact her by e-mail at moneytalk@moneymail.com.