Boggle the 3 minute word game.
A few days ago William, the husband of Cupcake, introduced me to the game of Boggle. It was one of those games that escaped my childhood. Mastermind, Monopoly, Pay Day, Life, Trouble, Connect Four, Stratego, Battleship, Admirals, Mille Borne, even Holy Cow!, games I've played but Boggle nope. I heard of it but wasn't really sure what it was. As a single child playing board games became relegated to being used when friends or cousins came over to visit or your parents could put up with entertaining you.
Come to think of it I had heard of Boggle recently on the "King of the Hill" tv show. There was an episode where Peggy goes to a Boggle championship. "Whooo Aahh!". It was a show in one of the earlier seasons.
William, the husband of Sara, noted that with all the other things for kids to do these days, video games, scheduled after school events, and other mindless activities, kids just don't have the time for the old board games. Some games, like Trivial Pursuit, have incorporated DVDs while playing the game. I wonder if this is recapturing the market? Are games too primitive for our brainy, MTV lack of attention kids of today?
Then again when I was a kid I remember collecting bottle caps, bubblegum cards, and sharpening popsicle sticks on the side walk. It wasn't like I wanted to use the sharpened sticks as weapons and jab someone. I think, as a kid, I just gravitated to sharp, pointy objects. Either that or sharpening a popsicle stick just seemed like what a kid was supposed to do in the neighborhood. That and putting bubblegum cards on your bike so it made a clacking sound between your spokes when your bike was moving.
For those of you that thought being a kid sucked it probably sucks more today to be a kid. Sure there's better technology, more sophisticated toys, and the all powerful computer. But do kids even know how to interact with other kids any more? We're becoming a society of thoughtless, uncreative, blobs with short attention spans, starting with our kids.
9 comments:
Because of such a current play atmosphere you describe childhood Bagelhot, it falls on the parents to raise children with a bit of awareness about such things. I'm currently reading a book called, "How to Raise Self-Reliant Children, in a Self-Indulgent World." Basically, it calls for healthy deprivation of such excess of "fun". How to teach children to have inner initative and that the world isn't created so it's there for their amusement with no effort on their part to contribute something to make it better. Anyhoo...
So then my question is who motivates the parent?
I guess that's the scary part. The parents, who are the supposed adults, must motivate themselves. And you've written in your blog, from past entries, how many unmotivated adults with children you've already seen.
I just hope there are more self-aware grown ups in our generation. But why do I feel so helpless now despite my desire to be a good parent? What kind of peer groups will my kids encounter when they finally go to school?
There's just too much in the world out there! I'm glad I'm just a Sock Monkey, and I don't have to worry about growing up. My Mum is probably glad, too.
Hey, Sock Monkeys are very good for children... of all ages, too! You should get one of your own!
Did you set that boggle up so it would say your name...?
Hey its says "Derek was here hoho"
I was wondering if anyone would catch that.
Or it says "oh oh, here was Derek"...
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