Last night, our Filipino neighbors had a birthday party for their son, who was turning 12. They also have a little girl who is 5 or 6, and my boys are over at their house to play several days a week. The party ran from about 5PM to past midnight. There was a huge crowd of people and a bunch of kids running around like crazy. And there was food. Piles and piles of authentic Filipino food. It was delicioso. B asked me later if I realized that we were the only white people there. I didn’t. I was too busy inhaling lumpia.
Anyway, their kids are mega spoiled. The boy plays video games 24/7 and must own every game ever made, by the way that Einstein talks about it. Just the same, the little girl has just about everything any female child could ever dream of. Their house is also filled with junk food. Pop tarts and microwave popcorn and chips and soda and juice drinks. Obviously, my kids think they are the coolest parents around.
Last night at the party, we were speaking with the mother. We asked her if they always have a huge party for their son’s birthday. She said that no, this was the first time. And then she said, “Usually we just buy him whatever he wants. But this year there was nothing left that he wanted. He just sits in front of the TV all day anyway.” Then she shrugged. There wasn’t even a hint of guilt in her voice. It’s as if she was proud of herself, of her boy that is losing valuable brain cells every second that he wastes away with a controller in his hand. I was shocked. Neither B nor I had any idea what to say in response, so we just smiled politely and the subject was quickly changed.
This morning, all Einstein has talked about is video games and about how many things our neighbors have that we don’t. It’s really getting to me. My child is becoming materialistic and being brainwashed by commercialism and I feel like there’s nothing I can do to stop it. The history of video games in our house has been nothing but struggle. A few years back, B’s cousin donated his Playstation 2 and all of his games to my boys. We had so much fun with it at first. The time was always limited to one hour per day. But I started to realize that two things were happening. 1. All my kids could talk about were those damn video games. They were obsessed. 2. After playing for their allotted hour, they became cranky and irritable. It just kept getting worse. At first, I took away the games that were rated Teen. There was a huge argument over the Smackdown wrestling game, but we talked our way through it, and replaced it with a rated E game. And still, the problems continued. Finally, I could take no more. I loaded up the PS2, along with every game we owned, and passed it on to my brother.
Well, as you all know, we’re now living with my parents. And my brother. Which means that the video games are back. The situation is made even worse by the fact that our belongings are in storage. And so, the boys play video games. They fight over the games. They whine and complain and freak out when their time is up. They get bored easily. They talk about nothing except game strategies. They ask how they can earn money to buy the next game. As soon as they have $6 and some change, they buy a used game and play it to death. They write down nothing but games on their Christmas wish lists. When friends come over to play, they immediately want to go downstairs to turn on the Playstation. Same thing when they visit their friends. What is the point of a playdate if it’s with a playSTATION?
The whole situation is giving me grief. I feel like I’m the only parent who gives a shit that we’re encouraging our children to rot their brains right out of their heads. I feel like the bad parent. I always feel like the bad parent! I feel like I will never be able to teach my kids to enjoy life, to cherish the simple, when everyone else is pushing them to consume.
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