Joshua and Owen playing cowboys and Indians.When do we as adults loose this ability? What happens to us that we seem to get stuck in the reality of life. When do we decide that it is childish to dream and when does the dreaming stop. When do we lose the courage?
When my kids are pretend playing, I pretend, and this is about the only pretending I do anymore, that I am not listening. I don't want them to know that I am paying attention because then they get a little shy about their game.
O's and Joshua decided that they wanted to play Cowboys and Indians. I don't even know if that is a politically correct pretend scenario anymore. This is an an example of the adult world infringing upon the pretend play of children. I used to play indians when I was a kid. I loved to be an indian. My brother Rob, the yidda guy, and I made bows and arrows from branches and twigs that we found in our backyard. We had a ball. But apparently some people feel that pretending to be an indian can be offensive. I was surprised when the Claremont School District banned Thanksgiving Dinner celebrations at their schools because they felt it was offensive to people of Native American descent. There was no dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians in Claremont schools last November however, protesting parents enjoyed their turkey, stuffing, masked potatos and gravy dinners in the parking lot, outside of the schools, dressed as Pilgrims and Indians. Chalk one up for adults and pretend play.
When working out their game, Os and Joshua both agreed that they would get really tough guys on their teams and that they both would be able to fight bad guys, normal decisions when playing cowboys and indians, but then, what Owen said next, really blew me away. "Yeah, Joshua, and then on the NEXT LEVEL it will be really hard. Really tough!
What?
Next level?
Was he equating his playing cowboys and indians with a video game.
FOUL!
Alarms go off in my head. I chuckle to myself in disbelief. No way! I protest! My child's pretend play, especially connected with cowboys and indians, is not supposed to be set up like a video game.
Here Jushua pretends he has an arrow stuck in his leg. He had a whole posse trying to help him pull the offending arrow out of his leg. I finally became involved and extracted the deadly weapon from his leg.
Owen doesn't play a lot of video games, but he does play some. I am obviously not a fan of video games. Poor Mitchell had to wait until he was 8 years old before he got one and this only occured because he stopped asking for things for Christmas because he never got what he wanted anyway (a nintendo game system) He asked for 4 years before I finally caved.
I was abjectly against the parameters of Owen's pretend play. This is not allowed. Video games aren't allowed to seep their way into the innocence of my boys imagination. But then I realized that things were changing. The world is changing. Technology guarantees it. I've seen it before when I watched Owen hold up a pretend camera to take a picture, and instead of putting it up to his eye, he held it out arms length like he was seeing the picture from the LCD screen in the back of the camera.
Don't worry, I didn't intercede in the pretend play and tell him that his game can't have levels (although I don't like it one bit.) My little guys pretend world is his own. He can make it how ever and what ever he wants it to be. I accept it.
Now, how can I sabotage the X box?
O's and Joshua decided that they wanted to play Cowboys and Indians. I don't even know if that is a politically correct pretend scenario anymore. This is an an example of the adult world infringing upon the pretend play of children. I used to play indians when I was a kid. I loved to be an indian. My brother Rob, the yidda guy, and I made bows and arrows from branches and twigs that we found in our backyard. We had a ball. But apparently some people feel that pretending to be an indian can be offensive. I was surprised when the Claremont School District banned Thanksgiving Dinner celebrations at their schools because they felt it was offensive to people of Native American descent. There was no dressing up as Pilgrims and Indians in Claremont schools last November however, protesting parents enjoyed their turkey, stuffing, masked potatos and gravy dinners in the parking lot, outside of the schools, dressed as Pilgrims and Indians. Chalk one up for adults and pretend play.
When working out their game, Os and Joshua both agreed that they would get really tough guys on their teams and that they both would be able to fight bad guys, normal decisions when playing cowboys and indians, but then, what Owen said next, really blew me away. "Yeah, Joshua, and then on the NEXT LEVEL it will be really hard. Really tough!
What?
Next level?
Was he equating his playing cowboys and indians with a video game.
FOUL!
Alarms go off in my head. I chuckle to myself in disbelief. No way! I protest! My child's pretend play, especially connected with cowboys and indians, is not supposed to be set up like a video game.
Here Jushua pretends he has an arrow stuck in his leg. He had a whole posse trying to help him pull the offending arrow out of his leg. I finally became involved and extracted the deadly weapon from his leg.Owen doesn't play a lot of video games, but he does play some. I am obviously not a fan of video games. Poor Mitchell had to wait until he was 8 years old before he got one and this only occured because he stopped asking for things for Christmas because he never got what he wanted anyway (a nintendo game system) He asked for 4 years before I finally caved.
I was abjectly against the parameters of Owen's pretend play. This is not allowed. Video games aren't allowed to seep their way into the innocence of my boys imagination. But then I realized that things were changing. The world is changing. Technology guarantees it. I've seen it before when I watched Owen hold up a pretend camera to take a picture, and instead of putting it up to his eye, he held it out arms length like he was seeing the picture from the LCD screen in the back of the camera.
Don't worry, I didn't intercede in the pretend play and tell him that his game can't have levels (although I don't like it one bit.) My little guys pretend world is his own. He can make it how ever and what ever he wants it to be. I accept it.
Now, how can I sabotage the X box?
2 comments:
I love reading everything you write, Stacy!
Andrew and I used to play Cowboys and Indians, when we were just tikes. Perhaps 4 and 5 years old. He was the Cowboy, I was the Indian. I used to ride on our bouncy horse, with an Indian headdress and no shirt. I loved the freedom of riding shirtless through the prairie. This stopped abruptly when someone came over to visit my mom and I ran through the house after Andrew doing an Indian warcry, shirtless. Humiliation led to a more modest Indian princess.
Post a Comment