When I was a child we played outside most of the time. When the weather turned fierce we would go to a neighbors basement and play, occasionally, we would watch a little TV. When I was quite young, army was a big game. We would establish teams and rules and then it was…game on!
There were several rounds of shooting, running, dodging, hiding, and feigned death. Sweaty children, out of breath, bored, hungry or thirsty, would determine the game had run its course. Victory was established when the most persuasive among us would provide a convincing argument as to why one team should win. The losing team would begrudgingly accept the loss and we would all live to fight another day.
Recently, I was sitting in the living room and heard Turner and one his friends laughing and cheering, while at the family computer. I was quick to peek in the door and saw that Turner and his friend were playing a shooting game at Lego.com. The little lego good guys had guns and they were shooting the bad guys. The bad guys, when hit, would fall apart …clearly dead.
I interrupted the play and asked to talk to the boys about the game. Turner was very irritated by the interruption as he was in the throes of battling the lego bad guys. I decided to let the boys continue and talk to Turner, later, alone.
A couple of days passed and Turner asked to play the lego game. I asked him to show me the game. Just as before, the lego good guys were taking out the lego bad guys. I explained to Turner that I wasn’t comfortable with the game. He proceeded to take me into his lego room and show me a lego gun that he has and how he could make his lego guys fall apart.
Now, he is seven years old, and I decided to have sort of an adult conversation with him. I explained to him that when I was young we would play war all the time. I also explained that we had guns and would pretend to shoot each other. Then, I took the plunge. He listened to me while I told him that in recent years there has been horrible violence with guns. Children have killed other children. I told him this makes me very afraid and very sad. He tired quickly of my words and asked to go play, a little less buoyant, but compliant.
My question: What has changed? How did we get to this point? Is it the games, the media, the movies, working families? How did those care-free days of childhood become a real-life battlefield where children kill children?