In the last twenty years we have seen computer game technology advance into a multi billion dollar / pounds industry. It seems that computer games have become more realistic in their graphical presentation and choice of experience is extremely varied. You can be a hardened military veteran fighting in some distant land with a variety of automatic machine guns to an assassin from a distant past fighting oppressive forces in the name of good. It is a completly different to what I experienced via my first computer which was a Sinclair ZX81 with 16mb ram pack. I would spend hours writing basic code to create a game of breakout, and I was happy to do it - The geek inside me was born! I remember my upgrade to a ZX Spectrum and the opportunity to load my games via a cassette player, putting up with the horrendous screeching and whining that signified that my game was loading and the feelings of frustration when my little brother had pulled out the connecting lead and stopped the upload after thirty minutes had passed, being so close to the gaming promised land and having it cruelly denied by my sibling.
Yes, computer technology has come along way in a relatively short space of time!
I was never consumed by feelings of wanting to play on a computer all the time though. I had friends and would not think twice about leaving my home and "playing out" all day, popping back for some lunch and then back playing until the call of my Mother's voice would signify that it was time to come in. Tree swings, mud bomb fights, football (or soccer to my American friends), riding bikes all held high appeal for me. The local woods were safe to play in. No rampant perverts praying on the innocent (or at least it wasn't highly publicised then), nice green fields that provided ample space to allow kids to run off their energies and have good old fun. My circle of friends was enough for me and I have happy memories of the time I spent just "playing out" and the tomfoolery we got up to. It was nothing illegal, we didn't go looking to vandalise some poor people's property because we knew that we would get a clip round the ear from the owners and everybody knew each other in our area so you could pretty much guarantee that it would get back to your parents or grandparents if you did cause trouble.
It was not just about my circle of friends though. I found great comfort and excitement in literature. By the time I was thirteen I was consuming books by Henri Charriere, and in particular Papillon which is an outstanding read even to this day. Enid Blyton, Roald Dahl (particularly Danny the Champion of the World) increased my literacy abilities and created a strong imagination, one which has given me great skill in thinking outside of the box within my media career.
Looking at my own children I see a completely different attitude to the one I had during my childhood. The emergence of Xbox and PS3 games consoles onto the market has bred a generation of children that I think have just lost that spark. Trying to get my children to go out with friends is a difficult task. "It's cold" or "I'm tired and I just want to stay in" are common phrases that my children have become experts in utilising. I never felt the cold when I was younger. I never wore a coat much to the displeasure of my parents who could not understand why I had not died of pneumonia by that stage in my life. As for tiredness, I had bundles of energy and I simply did not want to stay in with my boring parents. I wanted to be out in the open air, enjoying football or chasing girls (who were the enemy then). My children class reading books as a chore, particularly my youngest son. He thinks that it is homework and that he has done enough reading at school. My oldest son, who is twelve has just started to experience the wonder of books and is going through a stage, right at this moment, where he is consuming large amounts of them. However, if I was to give my children the opportunity, they would spend every waking moment playing games on their games consoles. It is not just those either. Social media sites, where all their friends "play out" all contain games. My oldest son spent a couple of hours on his games console and after being told to come downstairs, promptly grabbed a laptop and explained that he "needed to check to see if his cafe was okay" on a game via Facebook....aaaargh.
Myself and my wife realised that we had to change our children's viewpoint on games console consumption. We wanted them to earn the time that they obtained as we were not spending time together as a family and we would never see our children because they spent their time in the black holes that were their bedrooms.
How many of you with children are reading this and have the same problem?
We decided to put in place a strategy that would ensure that our children earned their time on the consoles. We constructed a table of chores that could easily be done around the house. This table also included reading tasks, homework tasks, playing out tasks. For each task that our sons completed they would receive an amount of time on their consoles. So they may wash up and get twenty minutes of time, they may play out and get an hour of time etc.. It has also stopped them disappearing into thin air. It places the control back in the hands of the parents without having to go to full scale war with your children because they realise that if they have no time then they cannot play. We have found that our children are keen for reward and have embraced this parental strategy which is why I wanted to share this with you all. Give it a try and see for yourself.
Reclaim your children back and teach them to earn the rewards they receive...just like we had to in bygone days.
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