Latest video games + kids = MTB threat?

[Schrute]

I wonder if part of it is parents know how distracted drivers can be these days? I know statistically crime is lower in the states these days but I don't know off the top of my head if accidental deaths are higher? I mean you don't have to look far past road cyclists experiences you know? When we were kids we didn't have drivers with their noses in hand held devices constantly. Just goes with how times and technologies are changing..

[Chief]

On 9/23/2018 at 9:53 AM, mack_turtle said:

Sorry, trains just are not fun!

They are if you're Uncle Fester! I should say Gomez Addams. Either works.

Edited September 24, 2018 by Chief

[crazyt]

My dad was a professor at UIUC and then started his own company and so I had access to the PLATO network which was a graphical networked computer system that predates the internet. They had very addictive graphical multi user games in the early 80s (I was about 12 at the time). My dad had multiple employees that dropped out of the CS PhD program because they were so addicted to a game called avatar. He was worried about that for me and so never had a single computer at home.

I still managed to play at my high school (which had a terminal) before and after school and many times for 48 hours straight at his office. Because Ive always played multiplayer games at such a young age, I skipped the entire single player game revolution of the late 80's/90s because they were boring in comparison. I then never really got into games once multiplayer games became mainstream.

My two oldest, 10 & 5, love roblox, so much so that I have had to restrict internet access from 6am to 7:30am each day. This means they choose to go to bed early so they can get up early to play before school. One requirement is that they are fully dressed and ready for school, which they are every single day. Before this it was a struggle to get them up in the morning. Another requirement is that they do extra math, reading, and guitar practice.

In addition, I can pretty much get them to do anything extra without complaint by offering up more internet time.

 

If you aren't using it to your advantage you are missing out.

 

My dad also would regularly say playing games is a waste of time, but building them is incredibly valuable. So I did build a popular game on that system. I also wrote the first online texas holdem game which I stupidly failed to monetize. I have offered my kids unlimited roblox time if they choose to build games.

 

 

Edited September 24, 2018 by crazyt

[notyal]

I didn't get into video games until college when I lived with a couple other guys, so there was always a game of Madden to be had. We didn't get much done. The loaded bong on the table 24/7 probably didn't help either. Well, at least I don't play video games anymore. 

[AntonioGG]

crazyt, did you ever do D&D?  I skipped that and went straight to MUDs, but it has me curious.

[Cafeend]

I didn't get into video games until college when I lived with a couple other guys, so there was always a game of Madden to be had. We didn't get much done. The loaded bong on the table 24/7 probably didn't help either. Well, at least I don't play video games anymore. 

But the loaded bong?

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[mack_turtle]

if you're board games, the downtown library has an extensive collection of rad board games that you can borrow. the games cannot leave the building though, so you need to bring some friends, find a room or a quiet table, and play while you're there. they have a lot of the "expensive," complex games like Pandemic and Settlers of Catan that are tons of fun but you might want to try them out once before buying them. the library also has a cafe with a bar downstairs now, so it's a great way to spend an afternoon with friends. I don't think many of my adult friends play a lot of video games but opening a bottle or two of wine for a late-night session of Dominion is a blast.

[Chongo Loco]

Here’s the deal plain and simple. Don’t want kids addicted to playing games all day? Gotta get off YOUR ass and do things with them. For over 25 years I’ve worked a job that for several months a year I work 50+ hours so I go weeks without getting to spend much time outdoors, but I always steered my free time to taking my daughter outside. I was intentional about what I did because I had kids at almost 40 and saw friends and relatives with mindless gaming zombies with zero social skills that can’t ride a bike, throw a ball, ID poison ivy, etc. Wasn’t gonna happen.

 

First off, I bought a house on a greenbelt with a playground and a 3+ mi hike n bike out my back door. From about a year old I’d load her into a bike trailer and go to the play ground, go feed the ducks at the pond, go to a neighborhood cafe for Sunday breakfast. It was also a way to give the wife a break when I was working a ton and pretty absent. It slowly morphed into her riding her bike with me to do all those things. Yesterday I got home around 6:30 and needed to do a spin to loosen the legs and we hopped on the cruisers and did a lap. Still amazed a h.s. freshman still likes doing a bike ride with dad. She bugged me again about planning a camping trip once I’m passed my deadline.

 

Now I’ve never banned a thing. She’s had her own iPad since about 8 or 9, and is a teen girl who can spend hours on instagram, snapchat, etc. I just never emphasized games. She used to play endlessly on an architecture app that allowed you to decorate w/furniture, change floor plans, etc. She showed me some messaging pool game that’s going around, but it’s not a problem.

 

Another must, there has always been an extracurricular activity. From 4-5 y.o. to middle school she played in a kickball league and tried various sports at the Y. There was never a killer spark at sports, but getting out and playing with a group, a different group than school, is important to social skills IMO. She still chats with girls she played on a team with 5 years ago. She moved on to drill team in middle school, and now is in the sports med program in HS, so not a ton of time for games, but it’s not really a passion.

 

The point. You want kids to not be stuck in one thing, do multiple things with them. It can’t be a knee jerk reaction to not liking a new thing. It’s a 17+ year commitment to throwing as many new things at them to help them find their way. They call it parenting.

 

 

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[Shinerider]

My kids are banned from video games during the week, and have to "earn" screen time on weekend (i.e. chores/grades/projects/etc). 

[crazyt]

15 hours ago, AntonioGG said:

crazyt, did you ever do D&D?  I skipped that and went straight to MUDs, but it has me curious.

I did, but we never really managed to play much. We mostly hung out instead. I have to say my youth and friends was pretty much just like stranger things.

If you want to see what kind of people play, you can go to the gamer shop on anderson ln (dragons lair?)

Edited September 25, 2018 by crazyt

[Chongo Loco]

My kids are banned from video games during the week, and have to "earn" screen time on weekend (i.e. chores/grades/projects/etc). 

You’re also out there doing non-game, non-bike riding things with them.

It still amazes me at times the blank stares you get when people ask you about kids and games and I ask them what they do with the kids outside for fun.


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[Shinerider]

5 minutes ago, Chongo Loco said:

 

You’re also out there doing non-game, non-bike riding things with them.

It still amazes me at times the blank stares you get when people ask you about kids and games and I ask them what they do with the kids outside for fun. 


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Yep.  Two weekends ago we had a great time in Kayaks and hiking the shoreline of Mansfield dam park during Keep Austin Beautiful cleanup in conjunction with my son's scout troop.  Daughter and I decided we needed to go back to explore more in the 'yaks.

[AntonioGG]

Crazyt, you nailed it with the Stranger Things analogy.   I have a buddy at work that goes to Dragon's lair.  I've seen the games.  It looks pretty involved and fun.  The coolest thing is that both my kids have re-discovered their bikes as a mean to ride to their friends' house in the neighborhood.  We have not been able to ride trails, but they are using the bikes almost daily.

Chongo, I was most definitely that kid that needed a kick out the door and strict enforcement.  I thank my dad for that.  Not all kids are the same.  We adopted our kids 4 years ago and we're in our 40's but they were already 7 and 9.  So we had to deal with an adjustment period and a whole lot of stuff that zero-day parents probably get slowly used to (we got to skip the poopy diapers and the loss of sleep though!)  Talk about drinking out of a fire hose!  Our oldest can totally handle boundaries.  He can stop a game when he has to, follow the rules, etc.  The youngest is a completely different story.   The oldest can do OK with 6-8 hours of sleep.  The youngest is a handful if he gets less than 8.

Shinerider, I think we will be the same here once we get a console.  We don't have TV for the most part during the week.  I can't see how you can do screens + outdoor time and get all the homework and studying done during the week.

 

[fontarin]

32 minutes ago, crazyt said:

I did, but we never really managed to play much. We mostly hung out instead. I have to say my youth and friends was pretty much just like stranger things.

If you want to see what kind of people play, you can go to the gamer shop on anderson ln (dragons lair?)

Hopefully minus the creatures and tears in reality.

I played probably too many video games in my youth, but I was also outside a ton riding my bike.  I was always good in school and never really had to study much so that left me more free time, I think.  A small group of friends and I played D&D pretty often - that honestly took the most convincing with my parents because at first they thought it was satan worshipping, etc, etc (ah, the late 80s/early 90s).

Someone mentioned earlier about how kids stay close/indoors these days.  i was reading a thread on Reddit about that a few days ago.  Basically either a) parents are worried that it's unsafe or b) you're judged harshly and there's a stigma about your kinds running around (and sometimes people will actually call police or CPS if they see a kid being unsupervised outside).  It's ridiculous.   I lived in a rural area when I was younger, which may have been safer, but I was generally riding my bike between my place and friends 2-4 miles away, or down to the river for fishing, or out 2+ miles in the middle of the woods building trails or riding the atv.  Pretty sure my parents didn't have any idea where I was other than 'out in the woods somewhere' - thinking back that was remarkably unsafe considering I was using sharp objects to chop down trees or riding something I could flip and be stuck under.

[FJsnoozer]

On 9/22/2018 at 7:25 AM, Tree Magnet said:

 

My question to this motley crew is do you think that this represents a threat to mountain biking? Seriously. When these kids should be out breaking bones and building jumps out of scrap wood, they are battling some 35 yo Swedish dude living in his parents basement on their stupid phones.

 

I have kids, grew up with video games, and choose to spend as much of my free time outside that I can. This sounds like a well represented demographic on this board so I’m floating this out there looking for some wisdom.

 

I grew up in the Nintendo era. We had Awesome games from the age of 6 on. We would slay away on Zelda, then my parents would get on it after we went to bed and be confused as to while the world map had been inverted.  I could list all of the amazing games we had all the way to Gran Turismo and eventually Grand Theft Auto through college.  Every hour of video game play had more hours spent outside doing awesome stuff. 

Athletic people will always want to play competitive sports and might enjoy beating their friends up in a game, but soon will venture outside. 

My mom would always tell us to "take a break and go outside" and we would go out and explore and do stuff until it was so hot we had to come in for some koolaid and a little debbie.  

These two things are what it comes down to. Shut-ins will always be shut-ins, and parents need to grow a pair and  tell their kids  when to take a break. 

 

 

 

 

[jcarneytx]

On 9/23/2018 at 9:57 AM, mack_turtle said:

s. That's sad that parents are so paranoid.

Not just paranoid. In some cases, can be illegal. Was reading up on stories and laws regarding "free range kids." In a lot of circumstances, just letting kids go around the block will get CPS called on you, and they will show up and check. 

[mack_turtle]

damn, my '80s/'90s parents would have spent most of their lives in jail for the way they let me roam around. I didn't get into (much) trouble and they always had an idea of where I was and with whom I was hanging out, but they trusted me and our neighbors to be relatively safe. on the other hand, I knew some kids who. it seemed, had parents who didn't much care where their kids were and what they were doing. I think that thirst for exploration is what led me to mountain biking. I never tire of finding new places. in fact, the technical skills of mountain biking are just a fringe benefit to the satisfaction I get from exploring and covering long distances.

Edited September 25, 2018 by mack_turtle

[taco_junkie]

1 hour ago, FJsnoozer said:

I could list all of the amazing games we had all the way to Gran Turismo and eventually Grand Theft Auto through college.

Are you me?

1 hour ago, FJsnoozer said:

These two things are what it comes down to. Shut-ins will always be shut-ins, and parents need to grow a pair and  tell their kids  when to take a break.

Truth brother.

Summer break for us was building and riding trails in the woods until it got hotter than we could stand. Shark Week was about the time of year we gave up and did more indoors stuff, like watching Shark Week or MTV when it was still a thing. I also knew every kid in the neighborhood and had a close group that was together 24/7.

I had more range than my kids have now. But the whole culture has changed. It's all about scheduled activities. Soccer practice, yoga, gymnastics, cooking classes... I wish I could tell them to go play outside but it's not where their friends are. Gotta send them to those after school camps. Only $90/wk. If I keep my kids at home and tell them to play outside they become the weird ones. For better or worse it's where we are.