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Swedish Dad Takes Gamer Kids To Warzone
Z00L00K sends this excerpt from The Local:
A Swedish father has come under fire for taking his two sons on a trip to Israel, the West Bank and occupied Syria in order to teach them the reality of war. [Carl-Magnus Helgegren is] a journalist, university teacher, and proactive dad. And like so many other dads, Helgegren had to have the violent video-game conversation with his two sons, Frank and Leo, aged ten and 11 respectively. "We were sitting at the dinner table last autumn, and my kids started telling me about this game they wanted to play, the latest Call of Duty game, and told me about the guns and missions," Helgegren told The Local on Friday. So Helgegren struck a deal. The family would take a trip to a city impacted by real war. The boys would meet people affected, do interviews, and visit a refugee camp. And when they came back home, they would be free to play whatever games they chose.
I love how people insist on commenting on what fathers or mothers do to teach their children about reality. If you did not hand them weapons or put them in the line of fire (keep in mind in some countries even that is perfectly acceptable for a 12 year old), then mind your own freekin beeswax. Why is this even a /. story?
Side note? I would do the same with my kids if I actually got up off my ass and stopped typing on computers for 10 minutes. Sad.
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
Back in my day, parents would say, "you want that? Save up your money! I'll pay you 50 cents every time you mow the lawn, now get to work." And I was grateful!
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
No, seriously. This guy was thinking of his children.
I think it's great that he wants to give them a dose of reality. I think a lot of us in the US (and not just kids) could use that kind of experience.
Does it pose some risk to the kids? Yeah, sure. Growing up has all sorts of risks.
Which is why some of us never do.
because we all grew up playing violent video games and studying it's impact and how we handle others growing up on them is worthwhile; even if the impact is nil.
"A Swedish father has come under fire for interacting with the real world."
We discussed all kinds of issues:
Bombings, genocide, gas chambers, blockades, dictators.
They get it. They know war is horrible and they know what a game is.
It's called parenting. I applaud this guy's efforts.
I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
If he did then he wouldn't have been able to come up with the idea of teaching his kids the difference between fantasy and reality.
So, I say this sounds like a perfect education. You kids like playing war? Lets go see what war really is because games & stories don't do it justice. Look it in the eyes and you won't treat it like a game anymore.
When they're adults, these kids will be able to look back and use this experience to make an informed decision on whether or not to fight in whatever conflict their country gets into. Sweden's next generation of decision makers will be better equipped because of the presence of these kid's experience.
Ask someone, anyone, who has been to a region in which people fight to survive, and has to the smallest extent, even by simply talking to those people, shared their experiences. Unfailingly, the person will tell you that the experience changed his or her perspective, and that since then he is better, larger, more generous.
If you starve for a few days for the lack of food, a spoonful of plain, white, unsalted rice will taste better than the richest gourmet meal. My memory of the bowl of rice I had after 4 days of hunger is a calming, delicious memory. It was not the relief of having got food - but my whole body rejoicing from the taste of the soft, wholesome, starchy taste filling up in my mouth - a taste that I had not recognized until then.
We in the west are shielded from the harsh realities of life, little do we know that we are not exempt of them, we only ignore them, until one day it becomes impossible to do so. But if you have to face such realities then the perverse suffering caused by banalities - Internet connection going down, personal relationship problems simply dither away into insignificance.
I think it would be beneficial to society as a whole if every education included such encounters which teach people that life cannot be compared to the boom and splat of video games.
I'm going to guess that the video game angle is kind of irrelevant. He took his kids from a very wealthy, stable country -- to go see how the other half live. They received first hand, a very real lesson in the way the world works.
Kudos to the dad.
Typical American - "You're not raising your children the way I think children should be raised, so you're wrong!"
At least, it sure as hell seems that way. It's understandable to want to call obviously bad parents on obviously egregious acts, like beating a child, but we 'Muricans take it to the next level, demanding government action any time someone wants to rear their own offspring in a way that certain segments of society have deemed unfit.
Let your kid walk a 1/2 mile to the park and play by himself? We used to call that normal, now it's a criminal offense.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese