About the mother’s reaction: Yes, there were better options

I have two children, a boy, 11yo and a girl, 12yo. they love playing video games but I sometimes get worried about him. She loves playing Nintendo Ds and loves her fashion games, so It’s perfect for us, their parents.
About him, he loves playing the Xbox 360 but he’s not allowed to play everything he wants. He has also time limits.

And I’d like to share with you what I do if it’s interesting for someone, in order to not get as crazy as that mother from Boston.(although sometimes I undersand her).
I play with my son the games he likes so I can control what he plays, I can control how much time he’s playing and he has fun with dad. Most of times he forgets he’s not allowed playing what they want to play.
Well, we like playing MMO games, so we have become crazy about World of Warcraft, we love this!! and we are now playing the game from the movie Planet 51 http://www.planet51online.com

Well, in conclusion: you have to establish some rules before so they won’t become crazy and if they become, you should show you are the father/mother and face him/her in order to make some disciplined behaviour because kids can’t do whatever they want whenever they want.

hope my comment is worthy for you and thank you for this space to give my oppinion.
happy new year to everyone, and bye!

Videogames aren’t the source of all evil, not will they be the downfall of the western world. Just like many other things, its effects depend on how it’s used. You can use it to make friends, as you have shown, but for socially inept people who don’t have/want any friends, it can be a way to drown themselves further in a negative spiral. People who see that say “Playing video games helps develop poor self esteem and social skills.” In a way they are right. Videogames can do that, if you use them for that. But videogames won’t make you do that.

For the people who don’t understand much of videogames, you can sort of compare it to alcohol (might not be a very good comparison). That can be used in those two ways even more, it can help you have a good time with your friends, or, when abused, it can make you addicted, constantly drunk and help you completely throw away your life. Does that mean alocohol should be completely forbidden? No, it should be used sparingly. Just like videogames. Too much of anything is never good.

Secondly, I get the idea some people don’t know these days how to lead a family, how to do parenting. When both parents have a full time job, they usually have just enough time left to raise their kids, but not to teach them how to raise kids themselves. I can understand that that mother wanted to do something about her kids videogame-obsession (which she should have done before, actually). But calling 911? That’s a sign that you’re really desperate, and you probably don’t know anything better. That’s why in my opinion, in secondary school / college / university / whatever there should be about 1 hour per two weeks dedicate to learning how to run a family, ie: how to raise kids, how to cook, and other practical things. I find that I don’t know enough of these things, but luckily my parents are teaching me how to live by myself more.

I swear, we wouldn’t have half the problems we have today if everyone just had some common sense.

Whenever this new fangled stuff comes up and bad stuff happens, Brad and I chalk it up to stupidity or ignorance. Either the parents didn’t clarify things to the child or the kid’s common sense just wasn’t there.

I’ve just seen so many parents blame their childrens’ problems on outside influences or OTHER people, and it drives me nuts.

Continuing on with the low intelligence theme, I think a lot of parents today just have no idea how to raise a child. Which is why you get stories like this, where the parent was simply too stupid to just unplug the TV or have a serious discussion with their child. The only thing they can think to do when something goes wrong is to call 911. Because clearly they know everything and can solve everything.

Also, I agree with you 100% about gaming being a scapegoat. Although really this applies to anything that the previous generation didn’t know about. Like how every parent blames AIM/Facebook when their child does badly in school. I remember times where parents have at least cut them off from these (it’s even happened to me once), even though that may not have had anything to do with the grades.

I know the generation from the 60′s had similar problems, where parents hated the whole hippie movement and all the ‘rebelling’ that was going on, just because it was different. And that’s why video games get the blame, because they’re “new”, and can easily take the blame.

Also, I’m sure you and Brad will make great parents since you won’t be idiots like this.

On a different note, any news concerning world three?

Happy Holidays!