Originally Posted by: ddaloiaYeah. You can see that kids these days get hooked on the games and tv. My son is too young to do either (only 6 months), but I am an outdoors type person so I hope I can get him to be the same.

Hi, ddaloia. First, congrats on your son. Dunno if he's your first born, but being a parent really is a great life-changer, huh?

Far be it for me to tell someone how to raise their kid(s). But I beg you, for the sake of your son and yourself- limit his tv & vid game playing.

I have 2 kids; 14 yr old daughter, and a 10 yr old son. Unfortunately for them, I've been going through a tortuous divorce over the last 3 yrs- it's pretty much a done deal, but my wife keeps trying to change custody; we have joint custody, meaning I get them 1 week, she get them the other, and we alternate. I'm mentioning this because I have my daughter in therapy because it's been rough on her, and her therapist pointed out that this generation of kids are growing up in the digital age- something no other generation pre- 1990's have ever gone through before.

My daughter's shrink (not that I take a whole lot of stock in shrinks; I think most of them are nuts themselves), pointed out that this generation of kids uses the internet and tv to "disconnect" from life. Peer pressure like what the generations before the digital age is even greater because of the million channels on cable, and the internet is causing kids to "grow up too fast" without the capacity to deal with life. When the pressure gets too great, they "disconnect" by losing themselves in tv, the internet, and the big thing for young kids now- Facebook, or "Facebooking". Then it becomes a vicious circle. The very thing they escape into is also causing to a great degree their stress. And this isn't only for kids in the middle of divorcing parents. Parents I know with intact families have the same problems- they can't get their kids off the tv, game console, internet, txt messaging on their cellphones (if you live in a big city, you almost have to get your kid a cell phone to keep track of where they are.)

So my point is, set the limits early. Even if you don't get your son shoot-'em-up games, you can bet his friends will, then you'll hear, "but Johnny's parents let him play Grand Theft Auto." I have to admit I played that with my son. So it's a tough balancing act. Guys have it built into our DNA to blow things up, kill, go to war. I'm just glad my son is grounded in reality- when playing GTA, I said, "let's shoot a cop." He said, no, that's wrong, he's a good guy. Thank the heavens for that. I'm slowly trying to wean him off vid games by teaching him the guitar and martial arts. My daughter is another matter- she hasn't stayed with me in 2 weeks because I tried to limit her "Facebooking" and txt messaging!

Well, I think you get my point. Living through all this, I know first hand how tough it is trying to raise kids in the digital age. Hope you're not offended by my response- no one likes to hear how to raise their own kids. And apologies to all for going off-topic on this thread.

PS: don't think 6 months is too young. With my daughter, it was Barney which she got addicted to, and I'd play interactive sing along pc games with the words bouncing across the screen with her. She was able to read and speak before the age of 1. Same with my son (minus Barney, but it was some other kiddie show.) Little did I know what a can of worms I was opening up.