I might be that mom
Growing up I lived in the cool house. Make no mistake, my mom never let us do anything crazy. She had no desire to be our friend. She was a vigilant parent. There were no wild parties on her watch. What we did have were less restrictions. She was pretty tolerant of kids' stuff and laid back as far as day to day parenting went. As very young kids, we had the sugar cereals and cookies we could help ourselves to after school. We could watch television or have water gun fights (outside of course) all we wanted. My mom raised six kids (and countless neighbor kids) and her motto was always, you knew your kids weren't in trouble if they were in your house. So she kept us close and by default she had a house full of our friends most of the time.
I wanted so badly to be that mom-the one who has a house full of kids (preferably not all my own). I wanted to have the house where everyone gathers after school. I hoped to run the house on the bike route that became the unofficial drink stop.When I decided to work from home to be around my kids more-that is what I envisioned. Now, I think my dream might prove illusive because of one little hiccup. Hiccup thy name is Video Game.
I am not against The Wii or Nintendo as a concept. My kids have been known to spend time on my laptop playing games on Nick Jr or the PBS Kids website. I have even loosened my demand that all games must have some educational component. (You can be sure they are not sharpening their intellect when Sponge Bob chucks a crabby patty at Squidward.) I don't mind when they go to other people's houses and play. What I am still (trying) to stand strong against is buying an elaborate game system for my house.
I have a few reasons for my stand. When I hear myself say most of them, I think I am a big, huge weenie mom. And yet, I can not make myself change my mind. Right or wrong, this is what goes through my mind:
- At 7, 4 and 2, my kids are too young to already be filling their sweet little brains with images of violence.They already, quite naturally have a propensity to wrestle and play superheroes with fake guns and that is without being bombarded with the sight of explosions and guts. Even the games I have seen that should be innocent (skateboarding) are filled with blood and agony. Why?
- I have two boys that need constant motion and activity if I want them to be at all productive and calm when it is called for. Why would I encourage sitting unless it is to finish their cereal?
- On the flip side, I have a girl with a propensity for all things sedentary. She does not need another reason to be still.
- I know my limitations as a mom. I crave time alone to get chores or work done. My kids probably watch too much television because of this. If I had a video system to fall back on for uninterrupted quiet time-I would abuse it and my kids' brains would further turn to mush.
- I also know that when faced with running these systems, I am clueless. My kids are far more skilled in getting games on and figuring out how to play than I am. When I give in and buy the system, I will officially lose them a little.
- With the way technology changes by the second, if we buy them an expensive system now, when they are young, are we starting down a crazy spiral of the next and the biggest and the best way too early?
Follow Technorati