(note: I’ve challenged myself to only devote 10 minutes to writing this post, because I edit too much and I’m trying to break the habit)
I love video games, but sometimes I wish they didn’t exist.
In our house, we’ve always had limits. The kids generally have 15 minutes a week of video games, but sometimes a month goes by without any. I’m cool with that, because I’d rather my kids spend their time reading books, or comic books, or drawing. I’d rather they were outside in the yard, playing with the soccer ball or scooting around the patio on their scooters wishing that they had more space to scoot on.
I’d rather they built Lego fortresses and pillow forts than getting a free animal jam membership and spending every waking moment obessed about it.
When they have video game time, they turn into The Sitting Dead. Zombie children fixed on a screen or two or three. Then once their time’s up, it’s always this palpable moment of disappointment. And it’s harder to get the kids to go back to their usual stuff. You’d think they got enough to satisfy them, but it’s really never enough.
Recently my son visited a friend and had hours of video game time. It still wasn’t enough. He asked for more in the evening.
It’s not that I think video games are inherently bad. I don’t, really. I loved them myself as a child, playing on our old Ataris and then our Commodore 64. We never had the most current system, so I was often jealous of what friends had. Yet because we didn’t have the best video games, I think we were just more naturally inclined to have some measure of a balance.
Maybe I’m remembering it all wrong. I do know we played a LOT. A LOT. I suspect the reason I need glasses that I don’t always wear are a direct result of playing Mindshadow in a dark basement with the lights off. Help me, Condor!
My kids eye the Nabi tablets, inquiring if they are charged. They are circling like vultures, and I just start having this feeling like I wish video games only existed for 15 minutes a week. That the rest of the time, they just wouldn’t exist. No such thing.
Somebody ask God to make that happen.
2 replies on “the problem with video games”
Even adults can get sucked into video games. I had to stop playing because I could play forever. Lookin’ at you, Diablo 2.
I remember you guys playing and how hard it was to get you way from them. I also remember you and your brother fighting over turns.