So this is something pertinent to me, and possibly some others, although I'm well aware it may be a limited number, just due to the demographics in e-sports.
Let me start by saying I'm nowhere near pro-quality at SC2. I just play occasionally in my little Bronze bracket for fun. I game a lot in general, when I can, but as the stay-at-home of a Toddler, I can usually only play stuff that can be paused during the day, with the exception of naptime.
Obviously, this leaves a lot of free time for browsing forums, finding interesting stories, keeping tabs on newegg sales, and so forth. As it turns out, watching old archive footage of the Day[9] daily and VODs from tournaments is a great way to pass the time. I love watching high level SC2, it's exciting. My son actually watches with me sometimes, which is incredibly cute.
So with all that out of the way, it's my experience that toddlers, even ones too young to really understand computers properly, can already be experiencing computer gaming somewhat. My wife found an awesome keyboard and mouse designed for baby and toddler use, and there's various downloadable and flash games that are just fun noises, numbers, sounds, letters, and so on. Kneebouncers.com is one site for various flash games.
So the cool thing is, my son, even though he won't be 2 until July, has been playing computer games, using his own keyboard and mouse, for almost 6 months now, along with sometimes watching me, or watching parts of SC2 tournaments, or Day[9] dailies while his attention span lasts.
My wife, being a geek too, wants to build him his own PC soon (not much, obviously, since he won't need a real gaming rig until at least 1st or 2nd grade.) While I kind of want my son not to be too overtly geek, and have trouble with other kids, at the same time, I recognize the high odds of him following a bit in the footsteps of his parents and grandpa and loving computers a ton.
I'm hoping to find some balance, and of course, teach him how to use his PC for educational purposes as well, and make sure he still plays outside and whatnot, but in the meantime, I just think it's really cool that even as a toddler, e-sports and gaming can be a father/son activity, especially since my disability will make outdoor sports more involved than swimming hard for me to do beyond a certain point.
Either way, if this is part of your life, and you have children, this could be relevant, or if you know someone else in that situation, it could be, so I just thought I'd pass along my experiences with this side of things for people to be able to see.
I never had any kids, but from 1997-99, I "babysat" my then 10 year old nephew for 2 summers. It was something I'll cherish for a long time. We had 2 computers setup with a null modem cable lol.. anyone remember those? Anywho, mostly we played compstomps and games like diablo, AOE, RedAlert, BWar, and some mean SNES games like Total Carnage which were impossible! Ah the good ole days of impossible games.
We spent most of our daylight hours however playing golf, surfing (boggie boarding in his case), bicycling or just being outdoors. I'm not saying that kids can't get a lot out of computers, but don't let video games or even the internet for that matter consume them. You're only a kid once, don't let the computer steal that from them. Just putting that out there.
On March 26 2011 02:36 Bajadulce wrote: I never had any kids, but from 1997-99, I "babysat" my then 10 year old nephew for 2 summers. It was something I'll cherish for a long time. We had 2 computers setup with a null modem cable lol.. anyone remember those? Anywho, mostly we played compstomps and games like diablo, AOE, RedAlert, BWar, and some mean SNES games like Total Carnage which were impossible! Ah the good ole days of impossible games.
We spent most of our daylight hours however playing golf, surfing (boggie boarding in his case), bicycling or just being outdoors. I'm not saying that kids can't get a lot out of computers, but don't let video games or even the internet for that matter consume them. You're only a kid once, don't let the computer steal that from them. Just putting that out there.
First, be glad I don't take offense at that, plenty would, for the implication that they might be a bad parent, and with decent reason.
I grew up outside. I didn't get my first PC that was actually mine (and thus not running Linux, since my dad uses it exclusively) until I had my first summer job. I won't be that extreme, but I'm a firm believer in outdoor play and other stuff. I expect when he's older, there will be fishing and swimming, bicycles, and good, old fashioned changed passwords as needed.
I just also know that computers will be a part of his life, and am relating the enjoyment that can come from sharing gaming with your kids.
I apologize if my comment about making sure kids enjoy an active outdoor life sounded directed towards you, it certainly did not. Interestingly enough, I had this same conversation with his mother (my sister) now almost 12 years ago in regards to a few of our (nephew and I) marathon late night sessions.
Video games are awesome and such a fun part of life! Hell, I've been enjoying video games since the 1970's, run a SCWeb site at age 45, and promote/suggest video games for my friend's kids all the time. At the same time, I read posts on this forum all the time of kids (pre-teenagers even) that admit to playing video games 10-15 hours a day? I suppose this is fine on a rainy day or now and then, but not on a daily basis.
Anywho, enjoy the time with your kids man. I miss those times playing computer games with my nephew for hours on end! Great times.
If you combine the discipline of tiger mom with your love of games, you could possibly have the next child prodigy on your hands!!
ive always wondered about that stuff too, how much is too much. Especially since I'm a nerd on a video game site, so i know how addictive games can be....
and as computers, techonolgy and gaming becomes more ubiquitous in our society, our kids our going to be inundated with that more than ever, whereas we grew up in an era were it was only starting to become so prevalent. Not even just addiction, but like you said, you dont want to socially stunt him by having video games being his go to choice of entertainment, you want to make sure there's a balance as far as physical exercise vs games, etc etc
Man, I will worry myself to shit when I have a kid. You certainly seem cognizant of all these things tho, so i'm sure youll be fine
im curious about being a stay at home dad. that's probably blog worthy on its own too
eh some might oppose your idea, but he is your son and you can spend your time with him how you want to. Maybe he'll do something with it when hes older, maybe he'll hate it, who knows. OP will just have to wait and see.
im curious about being a stay at home dad. that's probably blog worthy on its own too
Honestly, I don't think it really is. There have been stay at home parents for a long time, last I knew. The fact that I'm a male instead of a female doesn't really have much bearing on it yet, at least this young. Maybe when he's older, during the summer, he'll get some different experiences than with a mom, but right now, it's all the same to him.
I don't know, maybe it's weird for an American male to see it this way, but I just don't see gender and domestic role as being intertwined by some divine mandate, so whichever of us stays home is just a fact of life.
I dont particularly see it that way either, but my point is that it's still fairly atypical in the sense that it's a bucking of societal norms (stay at home dad, shit it's probably more typical to have two working parents now, who knows). I saw some column a few weeks ago about a writer (a profession which produces a lot of stay at home dads) who just talked about how it's still odd even if you and your spouse dont necessarily perceive it as such.
ie., the writer mentioned his kid would go on playdates and he'd be the only parent not invited when the parents all hung out in the other room. when kids reach the age where they become aware that the situation at their house is different than others. That kind of stuff
On March 26 2011 05:39 Hawk wrote: I dont particularly see it that way either, but my point is that it's still fairly atypical in the sense that it's a bucking of societal norms (stay at home dad, shit it's probably more typical to have two working parents now, who knows). I saw some column a few weeks ago about a writer (a profession which produces a lot of stay at home dads) who just talked about how it's still odd even if you and your spouse dont necessarily perceive it as such.
ie., the writer mentioned his kid would go on playdates and he'd be the only parent not invited when the parents all hung out in the other room. when kids reach the age where they become aware that the situation at their house is different than others. That kind of stuff
Possibly, but by the same token, it's what you make of it. It's only strange if you let it be. Odds are, if there's playdates, it'll be people who we actually know fairly well, none of whom would create an awkward situation.
As far as the situation at home being different, we'll have an easy explanation for him, regarding my disability and my wife's better education. And if kids at school bother him about it, well, his daddy will be the one around for more of his free time, and doesn't see a kid knowing basic self defense as a bad thing. He won't be bullied (at least not for more than a few days) and I doubt that he'll have trouble making friends with the less aggressive kids over it.
On March 26 2011 05:01 Hawk wrote: Man, I will worry myself to shit when I have a kid. You certainly seem cognizant of all these things tho, so i'm sure youll be fine
im curious about being a stay at home dad. that's probably blog worthy on its own too
A tad off-topic but the same subject came up when I was at work yesterday.
One of the office manager was spying/worried about her 16 year old daughter and found out she had like 4 additional emails that her mother did not know about. So the office manager decided to enlist the help of the IT department to break into the accounts to see what she was up to.
(By breaking in, he is basically using the "forgot my password" options for the sites and praying that she entered those security questions with real answers. He was only able to get into 2 of the accounts. This isn't something we usually do as in the department but my co-worker has been working there for 6 years, knows the manager well and was doing her a favor.)
I thought that was a little crazy but my co-worker told me that I should ask our network manager on his opinion since he has 3 daughters. I talked to the network manager and he jokingly said his daughters won't be dating until 40. He told me that spying isn't that bad and that he's much worse (his oldest daughter is 6). He started telling me that when his daughter was first born, he literally followed the nurses up the employee elevator because he refuse to lose sight of his daughter until he memorized her body (birthmarks, etc) and until they put the name tag on her wrist so that they won't swap/mix up babies by accident. When his daughter learned how to walk, he said he used to clear a path and literally push people out of the way in malls because he thought they would walk too close to her and knock her over (lol).
Then we started about putting GPS chips on people and he said he would if he could because the first thing kidnappers do is strip people of their clothes/jewelery/belongings. His oldest daughter currently has a watch with a GPS chip embedded in it, and if you press certain buttons together, it will emit a loud shrieking noise...
Kinda makes me wonder how crazy I would be if I ever have a kid >_>.
Well, luckily on the spying department, I have a son, so I'm a little less worried. After all, if he's 15 and some 19 year old college chick is jumping his bones, as a man, it's my job to congratulate him.
As far as your colleague and her daughter's emails are concerned, this is a great little product. Just plugs in in-line between the keyboard and the PC. Easy to catch passwords.
But yeah, I'm glad I had a son. Just got to worry about him pulling all the dumb stunts I did, but hey, sometimes practical experience is the only way to learn about life.
EPT
