From the ArcaMax Publishing, Parents Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/parents/s-83154-865590
When video games first came out, I warned my readers that they were
not appropriate for children. I maintained they were not games;
rather, they produced stress and were addictive, literally. It was not
a popular stance. Even my home paper, The Charlotte Observer, wrote an
editorial critical of my position. Since then, my opinion has been
confirmed by research, and hundreds of parents have shared with me
their negative experiences with these nefarious devices. Their stories
go in my "I Told You So" file. The following, written by the mother of
several young children, is the latest addition.
The parents in question have always limited television-watching to
weekend nights. Furthermore, their children have very few toys and
those they do have are traditional and promote creative play (e.g.,
Lincoln Logs, "Legos"). The kids spend lots of time doing arts and
crafts, inventing things, and making up games. For the most part, they
get along very well. They have their squabbles, but they are rare and
brief. The older children get good grades in school, do their chores
without protest, and are respectful and obedient.
A while back, Dad said he wanted to buy the kids an X-Box for
Christmas. Mom resisted at first, saying she'd heard that kids can
become addicted to video games and that playing them can lead to
aggressive behavior. In fact, the research indicates that those
outcomes are fairly common. Nonetheless, Dad continued his campaign,
and Mom finally relented. They agreed that the kids would only be
allowed to play for a few hours a week.
Things started out fairly well, but went rapidly downhill. The
children quickly became obsessed with their new "toy." Within a week,
the first thing they were asking when they woke up in the morning was
"Can we play the X-Box today?" When they played, there would be
fighting and tears. When the parents turned it off, the kids would
mope around and complain of having nothing to do. Were these the same
children who, pre-X-Box, had never had a problem entertaining
themselves? Actually, they were not the "same" children at all. They
were beginning to exhibit addictive behavior, and as anyone who has
ever lived with one will testify, an addict and the former non-addict
are two entirely different people.
"Then," Mom writes, "my 5-year-old started telling me he didn't like
school and didn't want to go. He even cried one morning. Only a few
months previous he had loved school and couldn't wait to go. Needless
to say, I was very alarmed.
"Keep in mind that my kids used to wake at 6:00 am and immediately
dress and head down to their craft area to start building things and
playing together. They always found ways to entertain themselves and I
used to watch them and be amazed at how many different things they
could dream up and how many games they could invent to play.
"I talked to my husband and he admitted he was beginning to question
the wisdom of our decision. So we packed up the X-Box and put it away.
There were some sad faces at first. This morning, however, we were all
in the family room; my husband was reading the paper, my boys were all
building a huge tower with their magnet building blocks and laughing
and talking. It was just like it used to be on weekend mornings in our
house."
I said to my husband, "Isn't this so much nicer than, 'Can we play the
X-Box'" He said he was thinking the very same thing.
Mom ends her story with a warning to all parents: "I firmly believe
that video games are dangerous to children and families. Do not buy
one. You cannot control it."
Yep. I told you so.
*About the Author: John Rosemond has written nine best-selling
parenting books and is one of America's busiest and most popular
speakers, known for his sound advice, humor and easy, relaxed,
engaging style. In the past few years, John has appeared on numerous
national television programs including 20/20, Good Morning America,
The View, Bill Maher's Politically Incorrect, Public Eye, The Today
Show, CNN, and CBS Later Today.
Click here to
visit Rosemond's Web site, www.rosemond.com.