Video Games and Children

[thebiblicalway]

At church on Sunday (two days ago) I had a conversation with a young, blonde-haired boy named Luke, which I don’t do very often. He’s attending a public school. That fact alone is sad, considering the barrage of liberal philosophy and socialization he faces every day

Comments

[arcticfidelity]

I would say that in general, we as parents, who wish to be responsible for such matters, for the sake of both safety and the general fact that video games are not a necessity in life, ought to limit exposure and interactions with most forms of entertainment in general that are specifically geared towards the modern American way of life, or such, which in general tends to eliminate most forms of electronic entertainment. I would say that most of the times during the most formative ages of a child, this should be done, and that the child should be nurtured into enjoying the pleasures of life that do not revolve around computers.

There is a danger in this as well though. I am not sure that it is so much something the parents can control as it is in the hands of the child, but all in all, I think that parents should be aware of it. My brothers and I were raised with limited electronic "interference" in our lives until I was about 13. We had played video games and such plenty of times before that, but we were still relatively limited and my mother did an excellent job of having us do other things. However, nearing those ages where we were given a looser reign on such things, I would say that we took three different directions with it. THe middle of us went downhill and became downright addicted to it. I rarely fell into the "gaming" trap, but I did manage to catch myself getting caught up in the "geek" world side, but this was evident in me long before that, so I would say that really the computer (specifically) was just another outlet for some of my problems. All in all, I don't think that having that freedom itself really did not create a problem that was not already there. For my youngest brother, he more fell in between the two of us, where he was no where near the addicted stage, but where he would tend to let himself go into the games when there was little else to do, rather than choose something else. However, I would say he is also the most focused of us, and as such, is much less susceptible to the "charms" of games and entertainment than the other two of us.

All that is to illustrate that a simple "rule" for monitoring the entertainment of one's child is not good enough. Different responses and situations are needed for different children, and it would be foolish of us to make blanket statements about admittedly fairly amoral issues. Granted, there is nothing wrong with outright refusal to allow your child to invest his time into games and such that are downright blasphemous to God and probably can and should be viewed as a moral issue rather than amoral. Still, this is a judgment call, especially since children are not all the same.

And finally, we ought to watch ourselves that we do not come down and condemn many of the parents who may not handle parenting in the same manner that we do. While certainly we can view the effects it may have on the children, and we can approach them humbly with concerns, should we turn a critical eye their direction too sharply, we are harming ourselves and them. They still have the responsibility over the children, and not us, so we should definitely avoid the common action of "backseat parent".

[thebiblicalway]

Good comments, Aaron. I read them twice. Your writing style is excellent.

It's hard to add much to what you said, so I won't. I'm agreeing with 99% of it.

[arcticfidelity]

Why thank you. :-) I have had it drilled into me since a young child. :-P