Comments on: The Cat’s In the Cradle and the PS3

By: Zorro

Zorro — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 21:34:22 +0000

One could start with chess and move over to the strategy computer gaming side of things. Playing StarCraft2 and other computer strategy games might be possible to slip in with it’s requirement of critical thinking and outwitting the opponent. Starting with checkers on the iPad might establish a grey zone, where do normal games end and video games begin? The difference between a virtualized world and a virtual world?

By: Simon Carr

Simon Carr — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 01:31:59 +0000

You can pretend you are someone else around your son, but he’ll know and likely won’t appreciate it. As far as influencing his behavior goes, consider this; I was the first generation in my household to own a console and I didn’t have to observe behavior to know that I wanted to play.

And finally, we encourage gaming in this house, of the non violent variety. Our kids are fluent using all sorts of technologies, and even so my oldest son (5) is currently obsessed with paper cut-out people I made earlier today.

It’s difficult to control their interests, and helicopter parenting, even with the best of intentions, won’t work in the long run. THEY really decide what they like, and what draws their attention.

By: Johnnie

Johnnie — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:23:40 +0000

While I obviously am exposing myself to a sexism accusation, in my own experience, there’s been a gender divide in enjoyment of activities like computer games. obviously no line is hard and fast, but there is a general “average” one can speak of.

My wife and I had the same disagreements over the years (I’ve got 4… oldest now 12, youngest 4)

Ultimately, there’s an element to both sides of the argument. It’s silly of her to think that this type of activity is fun only when one is “trained” to think in such a manner, however it’s also naive of gamers to constantly insist that we’re not affected by what we expose ourselves to.

Ultimately we compromised (as most of us do). Games play a role in the family, the kids are on a timer… they can pick when they play (as long as homework is done) but once the timer dings… that’s it. Also, we didn’t let them start actively playing until they were a bit older… 8 ish. I forget the specific line we set atm since it hasn’t been an issue yet for the 4 year old. I’d agree it shouldn’t play a significant role during some of those formative developmental years. Get good at reading first… then branch out to other forms of entertainment.

Now… just to toss one thing out… this was exclusive to games. We did allow the kids to use educational software early on so the line did get blurred at times. For example, my oldest started asking what letters were on T shirts at age 3, so we let her use some of those learn to read programs and she taught herself to read chapterbooks before entering preschool. No credit to me… it was her own motivation, though we were at least involved parents. Still, looking back on it close to 10 years later, I feel pretty good about the decision to let them use those. 2 of the 3 school age kids were student of the year at a recent award ceremony for their grade, and the third was deans list. Obviously it helped rather than harmed.

By: kstagg

kstagg — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:26:25 +0000

My wife doesn’t like video gaming at all. She just doesn’t see the point. Not sure she ever had an pong, intellivision, or the like growýhhing up like I did. We had a PS 2 just recently for a couple years but the games are so behind the times in terms of tech and graphics.
I finally was able to talk her into agreeing to PS3 this past Christmas. WOW. Night and day tin terms of graphics. Pick up Little BigPlanet. The game is awesome!

Loving it. One of best tech decisions I have made.

By: dlormand

dlormand — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 01:15:22 +0000

To the extent that I’ve tried to interest my kids with my TI-99/4A and Atari ST with vintage games (with varying success), I agree with your sentiment. On the other hand, modern gamers have trouble seeing the difference in moral character between “Basketball” (or just about anything on the Atari 2600) and “God of War” (or just about anything on modern consoles).

By: Claudia

Claudia — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:48:27 +0000

Oh, What a pity. I would rather have my future child play video games with me, than let him watch those soap opera that will still be airing episodes long after I am dead.