Recently I wrote a guess post for a friend’s weblog - Mark Salinas : Healthy Living Today on issue Video Games and Our Children.  I can see that most children in this modern living can’t live without video games.  This is also one of the many challenges that we need to overcome in nurturing our child.   Children are playing video games using computer, playstation and even mobile phone.  Do you have children who are showing addiction to the video games?

Recently our family celebrated our father’s birthday.  We went out to a restaurant.  We got a room with two big tables.  One table was seated by all adults; the other table was seated by children age from 6 to 15 years old.  I was exceptional because I was sitting with the children.  All my nephews are playing with their individual mobile phone, either games or MP3.  They do the same at home as well.  It seems games are more important than interacting with each other.  Family gathering like this supposed to be a time where everyone is able to chat and catch up with each other’s life.  Therefore, I instructed my nephews and niece to put away their mobile and talk to their cousin sitting next to each other.  Initially they just reluctant to do so.  I’m sorry, but I have to use a little force - command!  Finally, they put away their mobile and in moment, I see them interacting with each other again - talking, playing and laughing.

If our child is overly indulged himself in video games, this can be very harmful in long run.  The damage can be physically, mentally and socially.  Playing video games only involve movement of fingers and hands.  Children should be jumping, running and cycling in the nature instead of just sitting at home in front of the computer or mobile phone.  Physical movement or games such as basket ball, football, badminton and so on are healthier and help children to sweat.  Sweating is a way to eliminate toxins from the body.  Moreover, lots of physical movement help children to develop better body coordination as well as overall physical growth.  Some research found that surgeons are encouraged to use video games to train their finger and hand movement.  However, do you think we should allow our child to miss out the beauty of the nature at young age?

I’m not against video games, but we need to be careful of the selection of games for our child.  Do you think violent games help motivate our child mentally?  I’ve seen children playing video games that consist too much violent such as killing, beating, gun shots and so on.  The children who are playing these games got excited and wanted to kill more in order to win the game or get the highest score.  For instance, wrestling games!  Children can even choose the characters that they want to fight with each other on the stage.  They can choose both same sexes or even man VS woman.  You should imagine how is their facial expression when one beating one another on the game especially man beats woman!  What do think the subconscious mind capture while these children are playing the games?  Beating is fun!  Watching man beating woman is just common and fun too!

If your child spends most of his time playing video games alone, he eventually lack of opportunity to mingle with real people.  He will be lack of social skills and might find himself having hard time to socialize with other children as well.  If this situation happens and adults are not aware of it, the child will find that video games are his best friends because he doesn’t need to waste his time and energy to socialize and be friend with others.

In the modern living, computer and mobile phone have been part of our every day live.  However, we need to educate our child the real purpose of these invention.  We can use computer to search information and knowledge online.  We use mobile phone to call our parents in case of emergency.  We do expose our child to these invention, but at the same time, we need to set our limitation on the usage of these inventions.

• Select the appropriate video games for our child.  There are many educational games out there in the market that can help improve our child’s mathematics skill or language skill.  Some of the games also help train our child to problem solving that benefit his intellectual development.

• Limit the time for playing video games.  For instance, an hour on weekend.

• Take our child out to nature.  Take him out to a park.  Do some outdoor activities together such as jogging, running, walking, feeding birds/fishes etc.

• Take him out for some game competition such as football, basketball and so on.  Let him have a chance to expose to different games and choose a game that he loves to involve in.  This will not just help his physical development, but also emotional and social development as well.   This way is to divert his interest and build a healthier hobby.

We should appreciate all the modern inventions, however we need to be careful not to misuse them.  Therefore, setting a balance and limitation are very important in order to nurture a healthy child.

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