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Most Parents Don't Game With Their Kids
A recent study, reported on by MSNBC, has found that a sizeable percentage of parents don't play games with their kids. Of those that do, many only play for a small portion of the time their kids are gaming, or have no real understanding of what their kids are playing. "Besides those who simply don't play the games with their children, another 30 percent say they spend less than an hour a week doing so. All told, about three in four parents of young gamers never or hardly ever touch the stuff. 'I don't think it's good for them, the violence, the obsession,' said Karen Kimball, 55, of Hale, Minn., another nonplayer who estimates her 17-year-old son plays 25 hours weekly. 'No longer is it, Let's go out and throw a football.'" I wonder how many parents object to their kids watching 20-25 hours a week of television. Is this a sign of current popular attitudes towards games, or honest parental concern over the 'dangers' of gaming?
Those kinds of comments from the mother talking about obsession etc are born of ignorance. For my generation, the past ones and the coming ones gaming is just going to be part of life (barring some kind of theocrat take over....*gets plane tickets ready*). I would want to see what games my kids were playing, yes, but more out of an honest curiosity and yes...a want to play the games with them (multiplayer is more fun!)
One of the first things my dad did for me was help me get our 486 to play the games I liked. This involved going into config.sys and autoexec.bat and REMing out a bunch of entries. That not only taught me critical thinking skills (as at a point he just said "ok, you have to figure it out from here") and made those hours upon hours I spent with my dad doing that very fun and rewarding.
Current parents...give the games a chance, try them, you might find out you actually *shock* like them too. What's the worst that could happen? You could only be as screwed up as your children are, and lets be honest, most kids are allright.
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being attached to little.
These days, I often find myself watching or helping my kids play and less time playing myself.
Last night I had both kids playing Garry's Mod (a HL2 mod) against each other. Emma, who's four and a half, was having a great time spawning in odd things and making rebel companions. I did have to step in and mediate Emma wailed "Sam's murdering my buddies." Ah, parenting.
They also both spent a lot of time playing the experimental game Darwin Hill. Emma requested it, "The one where there's the bugs and you get to squish them!".