GekiritZ: Games and parenting

“Have they all gone batshit insane?”

Working in a store selling computers, notebooks and consumer electronics (including games and associated gear), I see your average John/Jane Doe coming in and asking me about and/or buying their whining, nagging children a new videogame or Nintendo DS. Nothing special, am I right?

Let’s roll back a decade or two.

It was around my sixth birthday that I’d been fooling around on my father’s computer for around two years then, playing games such as Alleycat, StarGoose and the classical Tetris. That’s when I saw it… The awesome Nintendo Entertainment System. It worked with a plastic cartridge, like, a huge, sturdy floppydisk of shiny goodness and joy, that you jammed into this grey, black and red monstrosity that swallowed the damn thing whole, and lo and behold, it magically portrayed interactive moving characters on your TV! In full color!

Being the little computerjunkie that I was (and still am, mind you), I begged and pleaded my daddy to get me one for my birthday. The answer was a resolute ‘YES! My son!”, followed by a less pleasing; “IF… you turn in your life savings, wash cars around the block for a week or two and do some extra chores around the house!”,. A NES cost around 250 guilders back in the day, a solid 100 euros in today’s standards. I had 50 guilders in my piggy bank which I gladly handed over, and a total of 12 cars and two weeks doing the dishes, which I, not so gladly, took care of.

The sweat on my brow and the sorrowfull black hole that now stared me back in the eye from the bottom of my piggybank were a reminder that if you want something good in life, you have to get up and earn it.

Back to the present day.

I asked if it were anything special that a parent buys his kid a Nintendo DS, right? Here’s the thing… it’s not, anymore. Just out of curiosity and aiming at selling a little bit extra on the side, I inquired on what occasion the little youngster was getting a shiny new DS. The answer was; “He passed his swimming exam…”,. I smiled, wrapped the little box up in giftwrapping along with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games for DS and handed it over to the young mother, I’m guessing she had to be in her early 30′s.

That’s when my gears started grinding. I remembered passing my swimming exam and getting five guilders so I could go and buy myself icecream, or a big bag of sweets! Awesome! Icecream!!! Sweets! And what do they get now? A Nintendo DS? 5 guilders (2 euros) worth of candy is 150 euros worth of gaming goodness today?

Another nice example, again concerning the immensely popular Nintendo DS. Again, I’m faced with a young couple, begin 30′s, perhaps even late 20′s. They were walking around the store, looking around for a new digital camera. With them were two children. One around 3 years old, the other clearly around 10 years of age, both boys. The older of the two got tired of the cameras real quick and wandered off to the games. The younger brother, however, sticked around his parents, obviously shy and introverted. A few minutes later, the older kid came running to his parents, in his hands the latest Pokémon Mystery Dungeon for DS.

A barrage of sobbing and whining unfolded. I mean, seriously, take The Escapist’s Zero Punctuation, add a cartload of whine and rinse it down with a familypack of crocodile tears. And… get this… the parents cracked after a mere two (!) minutes, inspecting the game’s case in an uninterested glance and walked up to the counter. “Could you ring this up? Gotta do something to keep him quiet, right?”,. Of course, the younger brother picked up on what was going on, pointed at the game and broke into tears mid-sentence, yelling out; “Me toooo-hooohooooooohoooooo”,

Yes, the parents broke, AGAIN, rolled their eyes, and kindly asked me if I could point out a nice game for a boy his age. I quickly pointed out a kiddy-friendly game, hell if I can remember which, and added it to their receipt. The parents sighed in relief, said they’ll return without the kids for a camera, and left.

The second they were gone, I thought to myself; “Have parents gone batshit INSANE?”.

Not only do they exaggerate any little accomplishment to an epic achievement of a lifetime of anguish and willpower, they also make it clear to their kids that if they ever want anything, all they have to is whine and cry. Kid crying like no tomorrow? Easy! Give the little tyke a DS, jam in a Pokémon game and go back to watching TV or driving to granny. It’s a sad, sad development.

As gaming evolves, it seems that parenting has DEvolved. Let’s hope the current, digital, generation will treat their offspring otherwise.

Author: Stijn van den Corput / GekiritZ