Video Games — Not a Bad Thing

It is no question that we live in a technological age. Now, I do believe that being active is very important. I also believe that teaching our kids to be active is important.

My son enjoys board games and arts and crafts. He is also involved in Lego League and band. He loves to be outdoors, playing at the park with other kids. And I encourage this greatly.

I also don’t ignore that he also enjoys video games, like most kids these days. It just so happens I have always enjoyed playing video games as well. Actually, I taught him to play them. I realize that not all adults like video games, although I think as parents we should make an attempt to enjoy them too. It can become something that takes over their lives, but it does not have to.

My son and I play many games together, such as Minecraft and Roblox. We also have PlayStation games that we enjoy playing together. And we are in the works of creating a YouTube channel to put videos of us playing these games on.

We live in Arizona, so when it is summer time, indoor activities are what we prefer. Playing these games together allows me to spend time with him, to monitor what he is playing, and to teach him self-discipline.

I make sure he knows that it is not a great thing to spend all day playing video games. That doing other activities is important as well; that the games should not be highest priority.

I know not everyone is into video games, but it won't hurt to try. It can be fun to let them teach you how to play. My son loves when he gets to teach me some things. When we are involved in doing the things they like to do, then we can make sure they are being safe, and teach them to be safe.

From my experience these games teach many skills. The games we play, mostly require team work. And you do better when you get help and help others in the games. They also learn math skills. Minecraft has many complex things to build and to make things work, like you can make a security system for the houses. This requires some programing knowledge. It keeps both my son’s and my brain working. So video games do not have to make us mindless.

We need to keep our kids safe as well. It is important not to treat these games as babysitters. There are known dangers out there, especially with the online games. Being involved with these games myself allows me to always know what is going on; to make sure I have good security measures set up to keep my son safe, and allow him to enjoy the games. We cannot simply ignore the dangers that are out there. We do not have to be afraid of them, because it is possible to be protected from them. I have made personal/private servers on these games so that my son can invite his friends from school to play on them, and that keeps strangers from talking to them. I also pay attention to the rating on the games, to make sure it is appropriate for his age. Some of the cool crime fighting games, like Batman, are rated not for kids.

We as adults should embrace the changes happening, it is nothing to fear, and we can teach our kids to be responsible with the new technologies coming out. I am 30 years old. I find technology to be exciting, and the fact that it is changing and improving every day is wonderful. Part of that technology is video games. Kids will be attracted to them, and parents can use that as one of many ways of spending time with their children.