Help a parent, ok for a 6 year old?

[c4ridw3n]

My 4 and 6 year old have our old laptops and they LAN Minecraft together- It is hillarious... they play tag, they drop creepers on each other and run away... they build crazy things. We have numerous worlds that all of us have made and I think I will treasure them always. Sometimes my 6 year old says, "Mom.. can we go to that first world we made? You know.. the original one." I am convinced that the neural development that Minecraft sparks is a very good thing. Most often the game is set to creative or peaceful- If we want to fight the monsters, we generally gear up all uber and go slaying.

The 6 year old actually does play online- he has had a fairly good experience but there are times we have to stop and talk about his feelings when he goes rage or whatnot; most typically with the modded minecraft fair such as hunger games etc.

I do allow him to play TF2 (no gibs) and same story- a lot of discussion about his feelings related to the game. He is extremely empathetic (heart on his sleeve kinda guy)- so I really did consider that heavily in my choice to allow him to play an FPS.
He had played Minecraft for 2 years and really seemed to be growing bored of it; thusfar, he has handled it pretty well. During the week he plays TF2 offline (bots) and on weekends he can go online.

Infact... steamwallet has inspired him to want to start earning money- yay.

caridwen

[kkpyro]

Way to go, Cari. ^^ Parenting done right! ^^

I have so many great memories of gaming with my son and my daughter. They are both grown now, a 26 year old firefighter/EMT and a 25 year old anthropology/archaeology major. We still jump into games together when they are not working. Having fun with your children keeps your relationship strong through the tougher times.

I love hearing the stories of solid parenting here at the Ville. I think that you'll find on our Minecraft server that there are many parents who game with their little ones. You're in good company.

Keep up the good work. If you see me on, give me a shout and jump into Team Speak with Giz, Flash, Stevo, Ladeee and I (and an assortment of others) sometime. It's a blast.

[YoullNeverWalkAlone]

Hadn't thought about a LAN for the boys. Great idea!

[F13ND]

My dad set me up playing games like Unreal Tournament and Age of Empires when I was 5 and I have very fond memories of playing LAN with him or my cousin. I'd have to say that playing more complex games like Age of Empires definitely worked in my favour because, like guardian said, it's challenging and encourages development of problem solving skills which sets you up well for education and all that good stuff!

I'm not sure how the whole seeing gore/violence thing translates into real life, I found that at a young age you can still tell the difference between blood or shooting in a game and the actual thing. I mean I'm mega squeamish and I was able to play Unreal Tournament just fine!

But this is just from an inside perspective so I'm not sure if it's really relevent

[kkpyro]

Unreal Tournament and Age of Empires....LOVE!

[F13ND]

Unreal Tournament and Age of Empires....LOVE!

My dad chose well!

[Boss Llama]

I remember playing this game in reverse as a teen - finding games appropriate for my dad He would give me grief about how much time I spent gaming, so I resolved to get him addicted to a game in return. Civilization provided the key, followed by Age of Empires shortly thereafter. He ended up better than me at both, and I'd be headed to bed at 1am while he "one more turn!"ed his way along for another hour or more

[The Domer]

You could get around this whole issue by returning your kids to the store and using the refund to buy more games for yourself. Just saying...

[YoullNeverWalkAlone]

You could get around this whole issue by returning your kids to the store and using the refund to buy more games for yourself. Just saying...

Hmm. Think Mrs. YNWA would go for it? WOuld it be Steam money or real world credit?


AF, funny thing is, I did the same for my dad, but it was Colonization that did it to him. I swear it contributed to his second divorce....

[FingerDemon]

Yeah, the only thing I would add is that when my kid when he was younger would get pretty freaked out if he lost precious resources like diamond armor and/or tools. So, if your kid is like that, have them play on Single Player with cheats enabled. Then you can always turn on creative mode to solve any critical problems, but they can still play in regular survival most of the time. Peaceful is good too if they just want to build without interruption. Again, with cheats enabled you can turn that on or off at will for them.

[jettah]

I will say that I am very envious of all your kids. I wish that I grew up in a house where my parents played video games with me and encouraged me to play in a creative environment. I grew up playing an Atari on occasion, and then Nintendo and on up through the consoles. My entry into multiplayer FPS and Half Life in High School was an awakening to games where problem solving and team-work were paramount.

Your kids are very lucky that you are introducing them at a young age to this kind of fun problem solving and creativity. Keep up the great gamer parenting!