I feel like we’re on the same page with a lot of what you said. I can’t play Minecraft because of the motion sickness. They sometimes show me what they’re doing, though. I’ve never limited my kids’ tech time but have always talked about being mindful of how you’re feeling throughout. I still feel good about that. We all have a pretty good balance between books and tech. We have to work a bit more at physical movement and meeting up with people in person.
I love how you looked deeper beneath your reasons for gaming, rather than quickly minimizing the reason you might choose gaming over reading. Blame screens can take over so quickly instead of trying to understand. Thanks for helping me to think more deeply about this.
It’s been interesting for me to sit with what it means if I am more drawn to play a video game than to read, craft, or get outside - things that all feel like part of my identity. Honestly I suspect at some point I will decide it takes more time than I’m willing to devote to gaming… but for now it’s been really helpful to get inside their world and see it from a different angle. Plus it is just great fun, when the game is a good fit.
Oooh you've taken me right back to when I used to play Minecraft with my girls. I was never a natural either! I'm going to check this new one out, thanks!
For us Minecraft Dungeons has been a great facilitator of connection (and I find it much easier to orient in than vanilla Minecraft - totally understand the motion sickness experience of others). When my son was starting to come out of burnout we would play for 2-3 hours a day, he is way better than me so was having to be the one with the calm head, coach me through and revive me often when I died, which provided a good dose of healthy, therapeutic equalizing! It also provided an organic way for me to narrate observing has calm in stressful scenarios and my feelings of threat, overwhelm, and frustration while playing which has been very helpful because direct conversations about emotions and internal experiences just doesn’t work with our PDAer. The educational value has also been immense - he’s profoundly dyslexic but recognises many words now from MC Dungeons and his memory of all the different items stats, strategising and decision-making on how to combine them for maximal effect (displaying some decent algebra and even probability statistics in his head) and persistence to achieve certain items have all been added bonuses. He’s pretty much at the end of MC Dungeons now but we still play the new Dungeons Tower together as a family every Sunday when it comes out. Our Sundays wouldn’t be the same without it 😁
I love that Amy. Thanks for the tip - I’ll have to ask about that one and see if my crew is playing it.
Sasquatch is the only game I’ve managed to really join on, but they have several others going at any given time. :p I’m finding that even being able to join in on one is giving me a very different perspective on when they are playing other games together.
I also LOVE your reflections on talking through the threat response with a PDA kid through gaming, when that kind of discussion is not accessible in relation to other parts of life. Super relatable and such a good example of how we can help our kids grow when we join them in what they love.
I feel like we’re on the same page with a lot of what you said. I can’t play Minecraft because of the motion sickness. They sometimes show me what they’re doing, though. I’ve never limited my kids’ tech time but have always talked about being mindful of how you’re feeling throughout. I still feel good about that. We all have a pretty good balance between books and tech. We have to work a bit more at physical movement and meeting up with people in person.
I love how you looked deeper beneath your reasons for gaming, rather than quickly minimizing the reason you might choose gaming over reading. Blame screens can take over so quickly instead of trying to understand. Thanks for helping me to think more deeply about this.
It’s been interesting for me to sit with what it means if I am more drawn to play a video game than to read, craft, or get outside - things that all feel like part of my identity. Honestly I suspect at some point I will decide it takes more time than I’m willing to devote to gaming… but for now it’s been really helpful to get inside their world and see it from a different angle. Plus it is just great fun, when the game is a good fit.
Oooh you've taken me right back to when I used to play Minecraft with my girls. I was never a natural either! I'm going to check this new one out, thanks!
For us Minecraft Dungeons has been a great facilitator of connection (and I find it much easier to orient in than vanilla Minecraft - totally understand the motion sickness experience of others). When my son was starting to come out of burnout we would play for 2-3 hours a day, he is way better than me so was having to be the one with the calm head, coach me through and revive me often when I died, which provided a good dose of healthy, therapeutic equalizing! It also provided an organic way for me to narrate observing has calm in stressful scenarios and my feelings of threat, overwhelm, and frustration while playing which has been very helpful because direct conversations about emotions and internal experiences just doesn’t work with our PDAer. The educational value has also been immense - he’s profoundly dyslexic but recognises many words now from MC Dungeons and his memory of all the different items stats, strategising and decision-making on how to combine them for maximal effect (displaying some decent algebra and even probability statistics in his head) and persistence to achieve certain items have all been added bonuses. He’s pretty much at the end of MC Dungeons now but we still play the new Dungeons Tower together as a family every Sunday when it comes out. Our Sundays wouldn’t be the same without it 😁
I love that Amy. Thanks for the tip - I’ll have to ask about that one and see if my crew is playing it.
Sasquatch is the only game I’ve managed to really join on, but they have several others going at any given time. :p I’m finding that even being able to join in on one is giving me a very different perspective on when they are playing other games together.
I also LOVE your reflections on talking through the threat response with a PDA kid through gaming, when that kind of discussion is not accessible in relation to other parts of life. Super relatable and such a good example of how we can help our kids grow when we join them in what they love.