The gaming era has arrived.
Last year, I inherited a Wii from Uncle Scott that we gave you and Eliza for Christmas. You two enjoyed playing Mario Kart right away, but never caught the gaming bug from it. You’d play now and then when friends came over. Your Mom and I didn’t mind that because we’re not trying to glue you to the big screen either. You also get to play games on your Kindle Fire, which is immediately juvenile compared to other gaming systems, and we like the relative safety of that.
Over the summer, Uncle Sergio offered us an old Wii U — still more than a decade old — as he said that some of the games were better, and it came with a Nintendo Switch-like GamePad controller. We waited until the Fall months to give it to you and Eliza as a surprise. You jumped into Super Mario World and never looked back.
You and Eliza play the game together every day you can, usually after the school day. Mom will let you sneak in some gameplay on late start Wednesdays, too. Both of you are of equal skill and seem to take turns getting through the hard parts of levels. Because the game is such a hit, it’s also created a new punishment tool when you act out, taking away minutes or days of the game away. Fortunately we don’t have to do it too often. When we say time is up, you’re good at saving and stopping the game, knowing there’s always more to play tomorrow.
We have fun watching you play together. It’s the best part. You are the talker in the family, and there’s no exception here. You often say, “Eliza, Eliza, Eliza!” without anymore context and probably say her name 100x more a day when you’re gaming. It’s like the number or tone of saying her name explains everything in a level and the help you need from your sister. She seems to understand, only replying with the occasional, downbeat, “Muh-tay-oooo.”
Looking back at being your age, I played a lot of Nintendo systems up to Nintendo 64. I remember getting thumb blisters from playing too much. I also know that gaming helped me with problem solving and some other tech-comfort that later helped me with computing. Although I stopped gaming after college (basically beating Uncle Scott at Halo for four years), a lot of smart people I know still love gaming as an adult. We’ll see how much you continue to play. Our near-term parenting challenge is metering how much you play and what games and systems you play that are age appropriate. You’ve gotten a taste of the Oculus and other fully immersive VR sets. We’ll make sure you find the balance of virtual games and real-world games in fresh air.
Love,
Dad