The e-Game and the e-Mail

This was the conversation, I’m sorry, the panic-stricken, terror filled, pleas I heard coming from the upstairs of our little suburban home recently.

“Maddie, save me. Please hurry. I’m in your house. Come get me. Quick.”

“I’m coming Izzy. Where are you? I don’t see you. Izzy, Izzy, where are you?”

“Maddie, come back to your house. I’m dying.”

Oh good grief. I showed up in the hallway between their bedrooms to assess the situation. No one was dead, or even injured for that matter. No one seemed in trouble.

“And for Pete’s sake, this house belongs to Daddy and me (well technically there’s a bank involved too) so what on earth are you talking about? Your house?”

Both girls were sitting quietly on their bedroom floors. One on the iPad. One on the laptop. The yelling had stopped. No one even looked panicked.

Maddie looked up: “What’s wrong, Mom?”

“What were you yelling about? And why is Izzy dying?”

“Oh Mom, it’s not for real. It’s a game. Mine Craft. We’re playing Mine Craft.”

“Super. What’s Mine Craft?”

With smiles that lit up their bedrooms, and with a look that said, Oh Mommy Dear, pull up a seat and we will show you this most amazing electronic game, I stepped in for a closer view.

I can’t say I understood much. There were no birds having temper tantrums, or cars needing to be parallel parked into tight spaces. Nope. It was pretty much a game that required building a house, a yard, and perhaps a pool. It took skill, creativity, some brief combat with zombies, but mostly it seemed harmless.

I’m not going to get on a soapbox and quote statistics about how the Internet, electronic devices and the Media are taking over our children’s minds, because they aren’t taking over my children’s minds. I can only speak for our family.

Yes, we’ve established a few rules about when and how long electronic games can be played. But for the most part, I’m not concerned. For a few 20-minute periods, on any given day, you might find Mine Craft being played by my girls. But what you may not see is the brilliant ways they use their imaginations in between game times; pet store, vet clinic, school, dress up, dance company, rock star,  and the list goes on and on.

I’ve seen different versions of an “email forward” from a disgruntled child of the Sixties who has a beef with how our children of this generation are entertained. It goes something like this, “When I was a kid in the 1960’s, we drank out of the garden hose, and we didn’t come home until after dark, and we didn’t wear seat belts and bike helmets, and blah, blah, blah.”  Has it popped into your in-box yet? Just wait.

You know what? Each generation is different. And what entertains each generation is different. I’m sure the kind, nostalgic soul who drank out of the garden hose as a young child didn’t mean to get me fired up with that email, but he or she certainly got me thinking.

My kiddos love life. They are each other’s best friend, and on occasion, worst nightmare. They are having fun this summer. They are using their minds and their imagination—even if it comes in the form of an e-game once in a while. The truth is, they don’t know any better. This is how fun looks to them.

And that’s okay.