Kids should have a childhood like I experienced/like I wanted, or else it will be a wasted childhood.
I don't think that kids should play a lot of video games (I don't know what they should or should not do, since I'm not a child development expert). But this whole adults looking back at their "organic" childhood as the one true way to grow up ever is getting kind of old.
Lego? Damnit, take those silly toys away from him and give 'em a garn and let them make up their own games. I tell you these advanced toys destroys the natural creativity of children. Give 'em a stick and some garn and they will make up their own games; that's how kids are SUPPOSED to be.
I was working as a City Planner and an elderly black man was sitting in the visitor chair across the desk and looking out the window. He'd come there so I could say "no". He wasn't a first time developer. He'd known he'd get no when he'd been sent to the office with my desk. That's why he hadn't come there first and now that we'd gone through the motions and. the anticipated "no" had been said he asked if I fished.
A little. I like to take my son.
You will never regret a moment spent fishing with him.
I'm not waxing wistful for my childhood or for one I didn't have,. I'm waxing wistful for my first years as a parent and for the things I did and wish I had done more
Same still applies, though: You're jumping to conclusions about what is important to others.
I play video games with my 4 year old. He loves it, and he loves doing it with me more than the games themselves. We take him out lots too, but I have equally fond memories of times I've spent playing games with him as the ones I've spent with him on outdoors activities.
I can second this. My 7-yr-old daughter and I started playing some RPGs on the Xbox360. She enjoys it, but only if I'm playing with her. She almost never plays by herself, and half the time she'll have me do difficult parts. She'll often crack jokes about parts of gameplay. Or when looking at the save game list, look back at a part we played months ago and exclaim "Wow, remember that place!" (Eternal Sonata has great scenery.)
On a tangent: She's very sensitive to the gender of the characters in-game and really insists on playing girls. We were both rather disappointed that GTA V shipped 3 player characters, all male.
Three years and two jobs later we were picking up dinner from the grocery deli on the way home from work and preschool and up he came and asked if we were going fishing and it wasn't for a day or two that I remembered who he was and what he had said the one time we had met.
It's hard for me to keep priorities in order sometimes. Even when I know, I just forget what really matters. Good luck.
> Three years and two jobs later we were picking up dinner from the grocery deli on the way home from work and preschool and up he came and asked if we were going fishing and it wasn't for a day or two that I remembered who he was and what he had said the one time we had met.
What is this, a novel in the making? The whole strange-person-who-makes-an-unforgettable-impact has to be tied with some actual event, not just a random person who impacts some sage advice, with no build up or context for imparting that sage advice. Being old doesn't quite cut it.
If it's from your own life, then well... I guess we all know one or two eccentric elderly people.
The top level comment struck a chord because my son who used to be four was sleeping down the hall when I read it. Then in the morning a clarification that jumping in puddles is not something I claim by entitlement but something I can strive to create.
A lot of people came through my office to hear "no" or "yes" or "it depends". Only one of them had much impact on my life and that of my family and that's because the moment wasn't about making money or rather his not fixing to be not making money with his bright idea that wouldn't fly. He was fully present. That's why he could pick me out later in another context and remember what he had said and that's what makes it stick.
Deciding to put aside all the bullshit and be present for a child in a way that sticks is what matters. And it's hard sometimes.
I'd say taking away Lego occasionally and going out to a park or a river or a museum or a swimming pool or wherever else is a good thing. The point is moderation.
Garn? Apparently it is a NASA unit mockingly for the level of space sickness.
"Jake Garn was sick, was pretty sick. I don't know whether we should tell stories like that. But anyway, Jake Garn, he has made a mark in the Astronaut Corps because he represents the maximum level of space sickness that anyone can ever attain, and so the mark of being totally sick and totally incompetent is one Garn. Most guys will get maybe to a tenth Garn, if that high. And within the Astronaut Corps, he forever will be remembered by that."
They are only four once. It's right now or it doesn't happen. There's no second chance.