Saturday Silence


It's Saturday morning Donna has left for a Bible study with three friends and the kids are still asleep. I was going to start vacuuming the house, as I do every Saturday morning, but I thought I'd sneak a post in while it was quiet and before the shooting starts.

Ben has a new video game called Brink and it entails the good guys trying to maintain an area (the Brink) which requires killing the bad guys with much gunfire. It is obnoxiously loud and frankly, stifles any creative thought coming from his father. It's a bit like trying to write a novel in the middle of Baghdad during Desert Storm. I tell him to turn it down, but then it's just like I'm hunkered down a bit and the bullets are flying over my head.

The game is rated "T" for Teens. That is one of the rules we laid down when he bought the XBox mostly out of his own pocket; No "M" (Mature) games!

Now has he tested us about getting M Games you ask? "Why, yes he has," I reply. Like every other week or so.

He uses many tactics and arguments to try and get us to cave.

"All my friends have Call of Duty: Black Ops."  To which I reply, "Would you like to go live with your friends?"

Or the old "There isn't much blood in this game." To which I ask, "Is it rated M?"

"Yes," he replies

"Well, it's M for a reason, be it blood, language, violence or others, so the answer is no."

He's tried: "On this game, you can turn off the swears," To which I ask, "Is it rated M?"

"Daaaadddd!"

Now I'll admit I'm a softie. I cave more often than I should with some disciplinary things. Fortunately though, I know that the problem with a lot of kids today is that their parents want their kids to be their friend, not their kid. This is tough to do when you feel strongly about something and you stand up to it. It's our JOB to try and instill good values and choices in our kids. If that means keeping them from that which was deemed offensive by a panel of people designed to QC such things, then so be it. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me. I'll continue to use their recommendations to block TV channels, movies, web content, video games, and any other infiltrating attempts. Crap, most of it!

So I'll stand with the "No M Games Declaration" for a few more years. He may hate me for it now, but my guess is that when he's old enough to understand, he'll thank me for it, or at least begin to see why we made the call.

For now though, he's awake, fed and the battle is about to begin. I'm going to fire up the Eureka and run for cover.

Blogging off...

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