Parenting and Video Games

Going into a full rant about how video games get all the blame for all the perceived terrors of "kids these days" is of little use. It would really be nothing more than preaching to the choir and regurgitating what everyone else has said already. I have little patience for just telling an audience what it wants to hear (and knows already).

I also rather like Obama. The more I hear from him, the more I like him. There's something very powerful about a charismatic, articulate leader in a real position to become president. I think there is wonderful potential in his chance of combating apathy and ennui in the US.

But I must take issue with a recent speech where he said "...parent better, and turn off the television set, and put the video games away..." and not because it's the usual "video games and TV are to blame for the terrible state of our children" blame-shifting.

Taking away when your children enjoy is not, in itself, good parenting. Most parents would have no idea how to interact or relate with their children if they took the TV remotes and controllers away. Most of the kids probably wouldn't know what to do with their parents either. Just because you took your kids to the park instead of letting them watch MTV doesn't mean you actually are the World's Best Dad. It means nothing.

What parents should be doing is playing those video games with their kids. Don't take what they enjoy away from them just because you don't understand it - try to get involved with them as best you can. You don't need to love it or even get it. Your kids probably won't expect you to. But if you at least give them the chance and play a bit of Halo with them and treat their interests with at least a semblance of the respect you expect them to treat your own interests with then you're already doing a much better job of helping your kids grow into respectable adults than hundreds of "You're going to have fun and enjoy yourself whether you like it or not!" trips to the park could ever do.

Remember: don't just take the video games away from your kids and expect them to grow up properly. Play the games with them and show them how to treat other people properly.

Who knows. Maybe if you're lucky your kids will have Rock Band or Guitar Hero or some bullshit on the Wii that you might actually end up enjoying yourself.

Of course, then it'll be that much harder to blame video games for ruining the children you didn't know how to raise yourself in the first place.

This all stemmed from an article on Kotaku about Obama's speech.