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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?
In the article, it says 43 percent don't play with their kids, that means 57% DO play...seems MOST parents play games with their kids....Of course, this is coming from MSNBC.
Is this really surprising? Who here DID think parents game with their kids??
"We can categorically state we have not released man-eating badgers into the area." - UK military spokesman, July 2007
Of course I don't game with kids. I'd pwn their n00b 455es all over the screen.
The guild I help lead currently has several parent/child members. I think its great. I just have to remind our 16-22 age crowd that there is a 12 year old in the guild and please be mindful of that fact.
:)
I can't wait till the day I can play games online with my kids. I'll finally have a 2v2 partner for Arenas who I can ground if they suck
I think the gaming generation (those who grew up with video games being ubiquitous) are just now approaching parenting age. I'm thirty years old and I can't wait until my two children are old enough to play video games with. This is something Nintendo noticed, and so they created their system so that a 30 y/o parent can play along with their 5 y/o child. That parent has been playing video games since Atari, and will continue to play. Ten years from now parents and children will all play together and it will be the norm, and not considered some "gimmick".
I grew up watching my parents playing Pacman and Asteroids on the venerable 2600, and got my first chops on a computer by making levels for Lode Runner with my dad. My childhood's filled with those kinds of memories, along with the fishing trips and the amusement parks and all the other usual stuff. So it's no wonder that my son's growing up dancing along to Guitar Hero, rolling around the pretty shiny ball in Metroid, and learning his alphabet by playing online games (Fisher-Price and Starfall are his favorites)
I do all the usual Dad stuff with him too; we throw the ball around, I read books to him, we push around toy cars (Vrrooms, as he calls them), we hang out the park on weekends. But it's the digital age, and the generation that grew up with the Video game industry is going to incorporate it into their children's lives just as our parents grew up in front of the TV. The interactivity of video gaming just makes it a much better bonding experience -- it's something we do together actively, not passively.
I actually grew up gaming with my dad. He, naturally, was the owner of the PC and he and I played various DOS games together starting when I was about 6 or 7. When the SNES came out we played a lot of Super Mario Kart together and on the N64 we played Goldeneye and Perfect Dark non-stop. It was a blast. There's no reason playing with your parents can't be fun. Of course... I had to take it easy on him, otherwise he'd get mad and stop playing. :)
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
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.
Is anyone really surprised by this? After all most video games aren't even designed to support 2 players.
Even those that can usually do so by splitting the screen, which just causes confusion and even headaches for most adults.
Besides, I can't see it being that fun for either the kid or the parent, especially if the parent is a non-gamer in the first place. It really isn't very fun to get continually pwned by your opponent while you're still trying to figure out how to even hold the controller, much less which buttons do what. And the parent's aggravation will just aggravate the kid. "No, daddy, hit the X button! X BUTTON!" "Uh..." *looks down at the controller* "Which is the X button again?" *splat*
Yeah, that sounds like fun for all.
If anyone wonders why the Wii is doing so well, this is why. The controller and included sports games are easy enough to handle for newbie and expert alike, so at least the parent feels he can give the kid an appropriate challenge.
Would kids let their parents play with them? It would probably depend on the game.
- Little kids don't like being beaten at a simple game consistently
- Older ones can be impatient attempting to show their parents the ropes.
- Sometimes parents want to play when they see their kids playing with their friends. The kids don't like to have their friends see how much the parents suck at the game.
- Stereotype of parents not being cool *period*
Disclaimer: I'm talking about parents born during the 50s through to the early 70s.
"It's just such a waste of time," said Lackman, 47, a power plant operator from Center, N.D. "I tell him, 'Do something that has some lasting value.'"
And what, exactly, has he accomplished with his life that's got lasting value? The article declines to mention any charity work, artistic endeavours, or community programs he's involved in that his son's neglecting. Odds are good he spends his spare time in front of the TV, watching football and drinking beer.
News flash for parents: if you want your kids do great things, first you have to do great things with them. If your son's more interested in slaying monsters online than spending time with you, it's probably because whatever he's doing is more engaging than what you've got planned for "Quality Time".
"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 really hope this is misquoted, because if this 55 year old mom is disappointed that her 17 year old son to offer to go outside (where his friends can see) and throw a football with her, she's got more problems than video games. How about challenging him to a game of Madden? Would it kill you to try and engage your teenage son on his level, rather than guilt him into breaking social norms? I'm not saying there's anything *wrong* with throwing around a football with your mother, but try explaining that to the pimple-faced horndog who's just trying to survive the pressures a high school social fishbowl.
many only play for a small portion of the time their kids are gaming
I know I do, because my kids spend more time gaming in a day than my total free time. I find it hard to believe this is unusual.
`Anyone else out there gaming with their four year old? Wii Play has finally found its perfect audience! My son will play it for hours if I let him (he's beaten me quite a few times on that cow riding game).
At times, I'll also let him run my orc shaman (usually in Ghost Wolf form) around Thunder Bluff in WoW. He loves to make him swim through the pond on the lower rise. He learned to spell his first word - "dance" - by making my orc dance. So if you're logged onto Trollbane and you see an orc dancing in the middle of Thunder Bluff, it's probably him. Feel free to say hi - I'm standing right next to him at all times.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
My sister-in-law isn't allowed to play Xbox with her son because she makes him cry. "Get the powerup, Tyler! Get it! You missed it! Jesus, Tyler, it's like you're not even trying..."
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
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!".
There is no qualification of the participants. I'd wager a guess that these numbers include a large number of parents that don't play with their kids AT ALL.
Let's see some numbers on parents that actually have a history of interacting with their children to begin with, then I'll be more interested.
My son and I have a shared WoW account, and I try to play most of the games that I buy him for our game consoles and computers.
... "Dad! Can you make sure I don't die while I go to the bathroom?" "Sure, np".
But outdoors? Um, dude, he has friends for that. We live in a city, not the country.
When I grew up in the boonies on a tree farm I played games with adults and older kids a lot more - because there were fewer kids my age in easy distance to play with - in a city, as our society has moved from a farm-based agrarian culture (1900) to a city-based culture (2000) it is very easy for kids to find nearby kids who are the same age to play with - who don't live (true fact) 25 miles away (most of my girlfriends since I was 10 lived about that far away).
Plus, in some online games, we even coexist on the same server and sometimes run each others characters
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Well, that seems to be easy then. Make the kid a mage or sorc and tell him/her that fluffy is a familiar. People tend to take care of those, what with the penalty for getting your familiar killed.
;)
'Course, I guess it can backfire. Next thing you know, the kid could decide he/she wants a bat or a pig as a familiar. And may Mielikki have mercy on you if your kid wants to be a Druid or Ranger
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I am their parent.
We don't have to share interests, although it is nice. However my main priority when it comes to my kids is gaming in the real world.
One time I caught my son chasing his sister with a whiffle ball bat -- it's not heavy enough to really hurt somebody, but it certainly can sting like the dickens.
"Here, give me that," I said. "We're going to play a game. You are going to take this bat and tap me on the shin. But the rules of the game say I can tap you back on the shin just as hard."
So, my son takes the bat and gives me a tiny little tap. I take the bat and give him a tiny tap. Then he gives me a slightly harder tap which I return. Then he gives me a look that plainly says he doesn't believe I'm serious, then gives me a painful whack in the shin. I take the bat and promptly give him an equally painful whack in the shin. He then gives me light tap which I return.
This goes on for a while, and my son is literally whooping with laughter, when my wife walks in to see what's going on. She snatches the bat out of my son's hands. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she yells.
"I'm teaching our son about the Golden Rule," I reply. "Also, that it hurts to be whacked with a bat."
One other time, I walked into the room and caught my daughter calling my son a "shithead", for which I remonstrated with her.
"Do you want me to apologize?" she asked.
"Of course I want you to apologize," I replied," although I realize I can't keep you from insulting each other."
"You mean its OK to insult each other?" she asked.
"Of course it's not OK," I replied. "I simply recognize I can't stop you from doing it. I insist, however, that we don't use potty language in this house."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," I replied, "let's play a little game. Try insulting me without using potty language."
"Er,'You are a stinky idiot.'"
"No, playground language isn't acceptable either," I said. "How about, 'You are a fetid addle-pate.'"
We went back and forth a few times, and were just getting into the swing of things when my wife came into the room. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" she cried.
"I am teaching our daughter not to use vulgar language," I replied. "I am also working on her vocabulary."
Sometimes I wonder if women understand child-rearing at all.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
30 minutes a day is plenty of computer time right now. They get more on Saturdays. As they get older, computer time will increase, but it will have to be productive computer time. Programming, typing, i.e. learning...
Life's 90% work and 10% play. The kids that learn that early on have a better chance at being successful and self-controlled.
The kids and I play catch with the football. As soon as I stop watching, they're crashing into each other and dragging each other to the ground. That's the way football is actually played competitively. They see that and imitate it (without pads of course).
I understand what she's saying, but what an ironic choice of non-violent activity. I know I'm coming off like a weird hippy, by sometimes I see football games and think that we're not nearly as far separated from the Roman crowds watching the gladiators as we pretend.
-Dave
It started with Pokemon on an old Gameboy. I wanted him to start reading more and thought one of the ways would be to simply get him interested in playing a game that he could relate to because he was watching Pokemon on TV all the time. That's all it took. Soon, he was kicking my ass in Quake2 and Quake3, owning me in Unreal Tournament, and by the time he was 11 he was playing tournament grade Counterstrike. Then came WoW, Halo, Halo2, Halo3, etc. We play a lot of the same games together and his skill and understanding of game dynamics is far beyond mine. Now if I could only get him interested in hot rodding...
-Phil
To avoid corruption, one must remain dishonest.