I’m rather liking the idea to tell you the truth but I hesitate because I’m not really sure if I’m being a pompous ass.
So the folks in my neighborhood want to do a “Game box black out”. The program is being targeted for this summer.
The idea is everyone in the neighborhood restricts their children from playing with their gameboxes in an effort to try and get children to actually go outside an play (gasp God forbid) The benifits to which are obvious; exercise.
I’ve told my kids on numerous occasions to go outside and play for a change. But when I do, it’s useless, because all they do is go over to their friends house down the block and play games over there. Or sometimes all of my kid’s buddies will come to our home. It’s rediculous; sometimes my livingroom looks like a frick’n arcade! (Jeesh)
So what say you folks? Impose our will on our children? or let kids be kids?
I think parents should constantly limit their children’s times playing video games and watching tv, and encourage more time spent outdoors - not just during some publicized blackout period. I’m all for letting kids play games, etc - I was the biggest video game junkie of all when I was a kid (and hell, even now) but it’s a parent’s responsibility to put their foot down and make sure their kids are leading balanced lives, and actually educating them as to why there are benefits to doing more than just playing GTA all day.
Why not organize some kind of evening games with parents taking turns volunteering to referee, as well as use of their yards while you are at it? Not only take away one of their reasons for being indoors, but get out there yourselves and show them (via soccer, basketball, flag football, volleyball, baseball etc.) that it can be fun to be out in the fresh air on a summer day. Get together a “bug spray/sunscreen/lemonade” fund and go all out to try to at least give them a chance to acquire a taste for fresh air. You could all take turns, with not just the people who own the yard being referees, but one or two other parental sets, and alternate. It would be good for everyone.
Adding, there are probably activities you could do with younger children as well, things like nature hikes to collect bugs to look at and learn about then set free, or a trip to the zoo.
To be honest with you, there’s nothing to do outdoors in many places. When I was a kid, I could always go over to someone else’s, grab them, and play a pick-up game of something. Once we moved, all that stopped. There simply wasn’t anyone close to my age around any more. I used to bike over to a friend’s house, but it was a couple of miles away through a busy intersection. But even then,it was just the two of us. There wasn’t anyone our age we knew in the entirety of two large subdivisions. So what could we do?
Kids are famous for coming up with crazy games and crap to do outside. That is, when they are not allowed to spend their day vegged out in front of the television.
I wish people would have a video game blackout all the damn time. It really seems like they could be doing something more productive, not to mention more interesting, with their time.
Growing up, we didn’t get Atari until I was in high school (I think – we had some computers, but there’s only so many times you can play thermonuclear world destruction, or whatever it was called), so it’s a bit of a different perspective. But our TV watching time was limited (it couldn’t come on before 5pm, we could watch one hour a day on weekdays and two a day on weekends). The result was more reading and more playing outside.
I’d favor trying it, but with some reasonable restrictions, like no video games between 9 and 5 (or 7 – daylight hours, generally). And teach the kids some of the outdoor games we used to play. The ones that involved nothing but sneakers and imagination.
I am so old now that I don’t remember what any of them are, but I do remember that tired, vaguely stinky, wholly satisfied feeling after a day spent outside running around for no particular reason – and then hearing the call, “Diiiiiinnnnneeerrrrrr!!!” echoing down the street. We’d all trudge home at about the third call, promising each other we’d go back out again as soon as we’d eaten. Throwing food down our throats as fast as we can, then begging to go out again because “it’s still light outside!”
