A.M. Rothbottom: News and Views

So, if a kid is particularly athletic or musically talented, say, no one says…ahh, what a great job of parenting that child those parents did. They say the child was born with that talent. When a child has no talent, say, at sports or languages, people attribute it, again, to the child’s genetic traits. But when a child is, say, quick to anger or perhaps not the most smooth at social skills rarely does anyone—parents, teachers, neighbors—say, oh that child has an in-born challenging personality. They say, what did the parents do? How’d they mess up that child? What did they do to that child? And sometimes, that unspoken and sometimes even spoken criticism and judgment gets old.

One of the children around here, who shall remain unnamed, wants a ‘Wii.’ He wants one, of course, because he played with one at a friend’s house. Boxing! He won a boxing tournament. I myself probably want a Wii, too. At least part of me does. I can imagine late nights up playing games, the thrill of the competition, the fun of learning something new. BUT! I also am already worn out with negotiating how much time they spend playing games on the computer, Webkins and PBS kids. Imagine if there were another thing to monitor? It’s not that I don’t enjoy computer games–heck, I spent hour upon college hour playing Tetris. It just seems like there’s got to be limits: time to do all the other stuff that can be done in a child’s life, including doing nothing. And I, for certain, hate enforcing the limits, especially when I understand the fun. But I, Amy, all in all, would rather walk in the countryside—note the trees on my blog—then feed my hours into a video game. And I’ll try to guide my child, who shall remain nameless, along that route.