Wednesday, June 29, 2011

A fundamental difference

As a parent-figure, I try to limit the time that my kids spend doing things that I see as being a waste of time. I try to get them to do things that require effort, either mental or physical, and that will eventually give them a feeling of accomplishment, if they put some effort into it. For that reason, I limit the amount of time they can spend watching TV or playing video games, because there is really little value in either. Unfortunately, they believe there is some fundamental difference between things that I don't see. A couple of examples: Watching television versus watching YouTube videos, and playing video games on the computer versus playing video games on the Wii. And then, somehow, watching someone else play video games doesn't count as either. I say watching someone else play video games counts as both watching television and playing video games. I don't know, I guess I'm just struggling here with trying to instill in these kids a desire to excel in something worthwhile, so that they don't grow up, suddenly become an adult, and don't have the time or energy to do the things that they wish they had done when they had the time and energy.