Just one more game?

I'd never have thought that in my twenties I'd be starting sentences with 'when I was young'- but...

When I was young, my friends and I used to spend all of our time playing outside.  I had a bike, a skateboard, a pogo stick, skates, stilts and when we'd tired of those things we'd just use our feet!  We'd run, hide, climb, skip- anything but go back indoors.  I'd often be called inside still protesting "Just 5 more minutes Mum, it's not that dark yet!".

On rainy days and dark evenings when we had to stay in, I'd spend hours in my own imagination.  I'd make homes for my dolls from shoe or cereal boxes, complete with furniture!  I'd cut out the shape of a person from cardboard and design them a whole wardrobe of clothes with tabs on so you could change their outfits depending on the next adventure.  I'd grow the tops of carrots in a dish on the window-ledge, collect snails and keep them as pets and race them (if they were lucky enough to survive!).  I'd make toys for the cats and play with them- even dressing them up and pushing them around the house in a pram!  I'd have a walkie-talkie and my friend up the road would have the other and we'd talk for hours and hours in silly codes, making plans for how we could get our parents to take us to the park so we could skate some more- even if it was still raining!  We had computers, Sega, Gameboy... but these were a treat and I don't ever remember sitting in front of them for hours on end until I was much older.

My point is, we used our imaginations.  At times of course we still drove our parents crazy with that famous cry, "I'm bored... what can I do?" but on the whole, we kept busy!  Time has passed and I now hear those words on a regular basis. 

Today, our children seem to be obsessed with computers and consoles.  I was genuinely concerned that the youngest of the three goblins appeared to have an addiction to the Xbox360.  Of course we only have ourselves to blame for making the introduction between them, but what started with educational games soon moved on to shoot-em-up and racing games.  Tantrums ensued whenever he must switch it off, he will literally play for hours on end, only stopping when absolutely necessary- such as for toilet breaks.  He loses the ability to hold a conversation or even look away from the screen.  Worrying, but familiar, I'm sure you'll agree.  Whilst home alone with the goblins this weekend, I decided to try and change this behaviour.  I decided that the best approach was not to ban the consoles, but provide alternatives to see if I could entice them away.  So this evening, the smallest walked in, greeted me with a hug, kicked off his shoes and turned on the Xbox.  I proceeded to clear the table, make us all drinks, unpack 'The Game of Life' board game and settle down to play.  Within 10 minutes, the Xbox was off, the goblins gathered around and we were enjoying a game- together.  No complaints, no tears- just chatter and laughter.  We played the game until bedtime and still they wanted to pick it up again in the morning!

Tomorrow we're going exploring.  We're taking the dog for a long walk- we don't know where yet, we shall see where we end up.  After that, we may collect some pet snails.

I love the goblins.  We grown-ups shape them for the future. I want them to have the same happy memories I have of growing up, not how many zombies they shot that day- unless, of course, they are imaginary ones in the garden.  There really is no excuse for allowing endless hours of video games for a quiet life.  Yes, we're all busy, no there are not enough hours in the day, but if you take the time to do something fun with them, you might realise, like I did, just how much we've all been missing out.

The ironing can wait, as can that paperwork- I have a game to finish!