Kids & Parenting

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Let Children Be Children
by
Christina Weigand


Recently I was all fired up about a new video game that was released. It simulated the assassination of John F. Kennedy. I personally am too young to remember that day, but I have many acquaintances not much older than I that do remember that day with startling clarity. I’m sure the memory for these people is similar to my memories of the day my sister died or 9-11. These memories are so sharp and clear in my mind as if they happened yesterday. I still feel that fear in the pit of my stomach when the phone rings in the middle of the night, the moment when the dam of tears finally broke and having to explain to my children what was happening.

These are not memories I chose to have, but they are burned into my psyche, just as Kennedy’s assassination is burned into the psyche of people who are old enough to remember. The last thing the American people want or need is a video game to remind them of what happened that terrible day in November.

What were the people that created this game or for that matter many of the children’s video games on the market today, thinking. To recreate something that wounded this country so deeply is an abomination. What is next on their agenda, to recreate the terrorist destruction of the Twin Towers or Pearl Harbor?

Have we as God’s people and citizens of this great world become so desensitized that we sit back and let this game pervade the marketplace and eventually our children’s minds. The manufacturers will say it is their right to make whatever games they want. They may even say this game is educational because it keeps history alive. My response to that is there are less intrusive, much kinder ways to teach kids history. As a parent, I have the right and responsibility to protect my child’s mind from this type of intrusion. I feel that the manufacturers are hindering my right to teach and protect my child by placing this type of game in the market. They may say it is for older children and adults, but why should older children and adults be exposed to this kind of violence either. Let us get real here, if the game is in the home with younger children the younger children will be exposed to it.

Maybe I am living in a world with rose-colored glasses, but I would rather have a world where my child can be a child as long as possible and not be exposed to the violence and destruction that is on some of the popular video games. I want my child to grow up in a world that is not desensitized to violence, where school kids don’t shoot each other and their teachers and parents, where my biggest worry is about the scrape on her knee not whether the stranger she saw in the street is friend or foe. There is enough violence in the world that I do not have to bring it into my family room.

As Christian women and parents, we need to shake off our complacency and raise an outcry that will be heard the world round. We will not tolerate this type of invasion into our lives. I for one will not be purchasing this game or any other that promotes violence and unchristian values. My daughter will not grow up desensitized to the world. She will be a compassionate and caring adult in spite of the attitudes that are promoted by other people in this world.

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