Video Games and Parents
Video games are a parents good friend and their worse nightmare at the same time. Today it seems more and more common for adults to shut up their children with a video game and let them go at it, and not giving a damn about what they play and just give them what they ask for. Other parents hate the idea of their kids playing games and so they get them the bare minimum and rarely get them new games to play and limit their playtime to an incredibly low amount of game time. I have rarely seen a parent who does it right and really “gets it” in what gaming is like and what proper monitoring of what they play is. My mother is a mom who did it 100% correct, even my grandparents. It’s not hard, so why does no one seem to understand?
Let’s focus on the first type of parent I mentioned. The mom and dad who just buy their kids whatever games they want and don’t even look at the box. Typically I see these children are either overweight or being incredibly snippy towards their parental figure and usually end up with a mature rated game in their hands in the checkout while only being around 12 years old. Something is wrong here, a mature rated game is for 17 years of age or older. A 12 year old can never be mature enough for this content, and if they are something is seriously wrong because the parent has allowed them to be that desensitized at such an early age. I can understand as early as 15, within 2 years of qualifying age as some mature faster then others and by then we have been exposed to elements of war and possibly personal loss. But 12? Someone call social services, cause something isn’t right here.
Now I am not saying all cases end up bad, no, but clearly if a lot of parents are not even looking at the labels then there is a problem and it needs to be fixed. I understand if employees do not speak up, as they have been trained to make the sale, but we still have a right to out fellow person and out own society to at least speak up. I don’t mean enforcing our own views as I would not want that personally, but at the checkout just making sure the parent understands what they are buying and if it is for their child. Principles first, sales after. It’s just like government, the people and society should come first, it’s the right thing. In my business we do the same, we don’t sell a thousand dollar piece of equipment if someone truly does not need it, and show them a $400 would be better, even if we could have tricked them into thinking the more priced one was the way to go. It’s not right.
Let’s focus on the first type of parent I mentioned. The mom and dad who just buy their kids whatever games they want and don’t even look at the box. Typically I see these children are either overweight or being incredibly snippy towards their parental figure and usually end up with a mature rated game in their hands in the checkout while only being around 12 years old. Something is wrong here, a mature rated game is for 17 years of age or older. A 12 year old can never be mature enough for this content, and if they are something is seriously wrong because the parent has allowed them to be that desensitized at such an early age. I can understand as early as 15, within 2 years of qualifying age as some mature faster then others and by then we have been exposed to elements of war and possibly personal loss. But 12? Someone call social services, cause something isn’t right here.
Now I am not saying all cases end up bad, no, but clearly if a lot of parents are not even looking at the labels then there is a problem and it needs to be fixed. I understand if employees do not speak up, as they have been trained to make the sale, but we still have a right to out fellow person and out own society to at least speak up. I don’t mean enforcing our own views as I would not want that personally, but at the checkout just making sure the parent understands what they are buying and if it is for their child. Principles first, sales after. It’s just like government, the people and society should come first, it’s the right thing. In my business we do the same, we don’t sell a thousand dollar piece of equipment if someone truly does not need it, and show them a $400 would be better, even if we could have tricked them into thinking the more priced one was the way to go. It’s not right.
The other kind of parent is one who does not seem to understand that buying 2 games a year isn’t enough, and they can always buy used games, or that all games aren’t bad and can be cleaner fun. A game can be beaten from 7 hours to 100 hours depending on what they buy. A kid might not understand how long a game is until they beat it, but a parent can look online to see how long the game can last and say okay, this game is $50 and lasts 40 hours, and this game is $50 and lasts about 8. This would easily make your child happier, as playing the same game over and over isn’t always fun. Give an 8 hour game to a kid and it could be beaten within a week or less. Some parents make it last 2 weeks by only giving their child a half an hour of gaming at a time. I never understood this, as sometimes a level can be 45 minutes! Or to really get into a game you need two hours of time to play it. Two hours is reasonable without a doubt, especially if you had lived in my home. When I got home from school when I was 12 to 16, I recall having a snack and being home just in time to watch 15 minutes of cartoons. Then at 3:00 PM 15 minutes later, I would do all of my homework. All of it. Then when it was done I was allowed to play my games until supper at 5:00 with my grandmother, and my mother picked me up from my grandparents house around 6:00 pm afterwards. Then when I got home I did a couple chores if there were any, and would game until bed which was around 9:00 pm. In a really good day I could game for 4 hours total, with breaks in between as you can see. With proper breaks and having homework and chores done before I could earn the right to play, it seemed like a fair deal, and I had to keep my grades up in order to earn those hours. If I slipped, I did extra credit if available as part of my requirements when I got home, or made to study when I got home with my mother and do flashcards on the subject at hand. Honor roll was the goal, and I had a good motivation to stay on it. So it was easy in a way.
Clearly there are ways to work with your parents and earn the right to extended gaming. Good grades, chores, extra credit, and I was fed right so I was never overweight, and I did BoyScouts and that kept me away from the tv too, and got to socialize and talk games with friends and do other fun things outside the living room. It was great, my mother understood how games worked, especially when I got into MMOs and she understood what it meant to do quests because I would show her. Then she understood and would say, “Okay, I see you will need an extra 30 to 40 minutes tonight to quest with your pals, so tomorrow you’ll help me in my gardens for an hour. Deal?” I would of coarse agree and the next day I would do my duty as agreed. Fair is fair, and she cooperated with me and was still a parent and did her job.
Between the two types of cases I mentioned above and my own personal story, I feel we really can change how ignorant some of todays parents are and can restore a good name to gamer parents and not feel angry when we see an uneducated mother walk into a game store. There are easy tools at their disposable and are very easy to implement. You want game time? Earn it first. You want a new game? Earn it first. You want the bloody game at age 12 that everyone else has? Let’s see, you’re not mature enough yet, but I can buy you this one instead. Sure the kid will be upset for 10 minutes, but he or she will be lost in the game once they start it and be happy you got it for them. Really want to blow the kids mind? Try playing with them and starting when they are younger rather then putting it off till it’s too late. You might learn something from spending time with your child, and even connect with them.
Clearly there are ways to work with your parents and earn the right to extended gaming. Good grades, chores, extra credit, and I was fed right so I was never overweight, and I did BoyScouts and that kept me away from the tv too, and got to socialize and talk games with friends and do other fun things outside the living room. It was great, my mother understood how games worked, especially when I got into MMOs and she understood what it meant to do quests because I would show her. Then she understood and would say, “Okay, I see you will need an extra 30 to 40 minutes tonight to quest with your pals, so tomorrow you’ll help me in my gardens for an hour. Deal?” I would of coarse agree and the next day I would do my duty as agreed. Fair is fair, and she cooperated with me and was still a parent and did her job.
Between the two types of cases I mentioned above and my own personal story, I feel we really can change how ignorant some of todays parents are and can restore a good name to gamer parents and not feel angry when we see an uneducated mother walk into a game store. There are easy tools at their disposable and are very easy to implement. You want game time? Earn it first. You want a new game? Earn it first. You want the bloody game at age 12 that everyone else has? Let’s see, you’re not mature enough yet, but I can buy you this one instead. Sure the kid will be upset for 10 minutes, but he or she will be lost in the game once they start it and be happy you got it for them. Really want to blow the kids mind? Try playing with them and starting when they are younger rather then putting it off till it’s too late. You might learn something from spending time with your child, and even connect with them.