My sons, who are 12 and 14, continue to come up with new reasons why I should buy them an iPhone. The “everyone at school has one” approach has failed, as has the “I could help you remember to do things” argument. After reading about Ethan Nicholas, however, I may give in.

According to an article by Anthony Castellano from NBC New York, when Nicholas wasn’t working as an engineer at Sun Microsystems, he was spending his evenings watching his one-year-old son … working to develop a little game for the iPhone that he called “iShoot.” When his game was perfected, he began selling it in Apple’s App Store.

Nicholas doesn’t sell the game for much. (In fact, you can download the app for $2.99 right now.) But because his game is one of the top 20 games selling in the App Store, he’s earned already earned a whopping $600,000 in sales … and counting.

Sadly, most of the time when I was watching my babies, I was wiping dried milk off the counter, trying to sleep when my boys slept, or letting our annoying dog in and out of the house. I didn’t have much energy to do anything else. I much prefer the Nicholas model: he’s the perfect example of someone who can make money at home, even with the family around.

It sure makes you think twice about long commutes, obnoxious co-workers and a boss looming over your shoulder.

Maybe I will buy my sons iPhones after all. Just as long as they promise to apply themselves..