: or otherwise, the core activity of their lives. My own kids are going to
: be kept pretty busy, and when they are able to safely cut down a tree and
: properly sharpen the ax afterwards, I'll let them play Marathon. OK,
: Susie, this is a SPNKR. Don't use it in corridors...
I'd like to raise an issue with the concept of "keeping your kids busy". Kids don't need to be occupied. People in general don't need to be kept occupied. There is far too much focus in our society on everybody always having to be doing something or else there's something wrong with you, you have a bad work ethic. Even when people are doing nothing, they're still pretending to do something - zoning out in front of network TV or with loud music or a even a mindless video game (as differentiated from good TV, good music, and good games). Take some time to stop, sit in silence - no TV, no music, not even neccesarily a "good book" as is always suggested. Sit somewhere peaceful and just think. Watch the clouds float by, if you live somewhere you have puffy white clouds. Watch the waves roll in if you're lucky enough to live by the beach. Listen to the wind in the trees. Remember what it was like to be in grade school on summer vacation and have absolutely NOTHING to do. Don't you miss that?
Give your kids that opportunity too. Don't keep them busy with constant events and activities. Heck, maybe even take some time from your own busy schedule to do nothing with your kids. It'll probably make both of you feel better.
Anyway, that's not the point of this post, I just got sidetracked. The main thing I wanted to relate was the anecdote of a man I met in my Multimedia Practicum course the other day. He's rather older than I am and already has a girl now entering junior high. We were talking about video games and he related to me what seemed like something of a disdain for them, and the intention to keep his daughter away from them. I objected to that (nothing inherantly wrong with games) and he clarified what he meant. He doesn't buy his kid games, or game systems. He doesn't but her anything to keep her occupied. He pays her a good allowance for doing well in school and helping around the house, and lets her buy the things that she wants to entertain herself.
She doesn't buy video games. It's not that she can't afford them, she's very prudent and can easily save the money to buy a system and some good games. She plays them at friends' houses and what not, but it's not important enough for her to have games or a game system of her own. And I can totally understand that. The newest game I own is Halo. Before that I hadn't bought anything since around 1999, when I started to get out of the media-induced haze I'd been in. That's also about when I stopped watching television. It's not that I don't *like* any of the new games, or anything that's on TV. I still play them and watch them with friends. It's just not important enough for me to spend my hard-earned money on something that will only, in the end, waste my time. I'd rather make games, write, draw... or if I want to "veg", I'll talk with friends, go outside for a walk, or sit and watch a sunset. You don't have to pay to do nothing, and the time you spend in quite reflection will probably serve your time-out needs much better than any of the myriad of mindless time-wasting activities you could be paying to do would.
