Children waiting for pizza

Now I am back home. But earlier today we had the last five events of the Olympic decathlon game we, my grandchildren and I, created. After a week of watching my grandsons play Wii video games, especially the Olympic events, I challenged them yesterday to a set of 10 athletic events. We invited the three children, 5, 8, 10 from the dairy farm across the streets and the games began.

On all the events that depended on weight and strength — tug of war and hammer throw — I was clearly the winner. On events like the race events, 100 meters, half mile and quarter mile, I was dead last. The final results of the four of us that participated in all 10 events was that my 9 year old grandson was first, I was second and my 11 year old grandson third and 10 year old neighbor fourth. Age and weight have advantages and disadvantages in playing with children.

After the Olympic events (which were heightened by my oldest grandson’s imagination, even to the point of making awards), we all, including the two 5 year olds, went out for pizza and ice cream in the nearby town. Eating our ice cream while waiting for the pizza, all six of the children were having a good time and were well behaved. When I went to fill my soda cup at the machine one of the other men in the restaurant asked me how I did it, take care of six young children and be so relaxed. I did not tell him this, but thought to myself, that it helped to be a kid myself, 66 years old, but still a kid. (This prompted this picture of all six children taken with my cell phone.)

My daughter-in-law put a temporary ban on Wii game-playing last night, but before that I figured out the three main characteristics of video games that have influence on children’s lives today. One is competition. Many video games are based on competition, fierce competition where losing is not acceptable. The other characteristic of many video games is violence. Many games you must kill or be killed. The third main characteristic of video games is acquiring stuff, points, treasure, new lives or arms. I see these three characteristics reflected in young children, even though they remain innocent good youths. When someone takes a play gun and shoots me, when I hear someone calling another person a derogatory word they do not even know the meaning of, talking about acquiring stuff or being unnecessarily competitive, I try not to overreact but if possible explain my feelings on the issue.

Kids will be kids and I can recall my own children, including the father of my grandchildren, standing around a video game with brother and cousins to play a primitive version of electronic ping pong. I myself played with toy guns as a child. But with the modern video games, as well as TV, there is something more real about this kind of play and the line between the real world and virtual world becomes unclear. Thus playing games carries over more into everyday talk and behavior.

But there is always nature and imagination, like employed in the Graf Kids’ Olympics today, to call us back to a more real form of play.

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