TheBanyanTree: Friday Night Lights

[Julie Anna Teague]

Quoting NancyIee at aol.com:

> It IS sad that kids these days don't know how to play, unless it's a game
> box.
> I have a friend whose son only plays video games. Some of the most violent
> kind, and the kid is only seven.
> He doesn't play board games, or run  in the
> neighborhood.

I don't blame it on the kids.  I don't buy into the thinking, "Kids 
these days are such-n-such..."  Kids are kids.  They learn what they 
are taught, pretty much.  Yes, there is peer pressure to know and play 
video gaming systems, but that doesn't mean parents have to buy them, 
or allow their use for long periods if they do chose to buy them.  I 
finally bought a low-end gaming system when my kids were 10 and 13.  
They were not allowed to buy overly violent games.  They had games like 
baseball and soccer and frogger and some others.  They were only 
allowed to play it for a certain length of time, like half an hour, and 
not every day.

So where are this seven year old kid's parents while he only plays 
video games?  Are they offering to play other games with him?  You 
can't play board games by yourself, and even a group of seven year olds 
would have trouble getting through a board game without a little 
assistance from a parent teaching the rules.  I was as tired as the 
next working parent, but I always tried to engage my kids in other 
activities that were fun and healthy.  We had board game night.  We 
took hikes.  We thought up art or cooking projects.  They took music 
lessons and did sports, all of which required time and effort on my 
part.  There weren't a lot of kids in our neighborhood their ages, so 
we invited kids over a lot, or met friends at parks or the pool or the 
skating rink.

A kid will rise to the expectations of a parent, especially at seven 
years old.  A young kid will be excited about things a parent shows 
excitement over--cooking, yard games, gardening, hiking, you name it.  
A kid just wants to be in on the action.  Yeah, sure, sometimes a 
parent has to push a little.  Sometimes a parent has to pull the plug 
on something and put out the extra energy to engage a kid.  But that's 
what parents if they want their kids to do something other than play 
video games all day.  A seven year old, or young kids in general, are 
not to blame for this problem, in my opinion.

Julie