Parent deletes his kid's Minecraft world as punishment for sleeping late, asks if he's the asshole

I've been thinking about the screens for kids issue lately. Got some friends whose 2,5yo already spends hours on the ipad, it seems totally horrific to me. Of course the friend tells me I'll do the same there's no other way blabla. Got some other friends whose kid is about 3,5 yo and most fun he has is chopping wood or cutting wood and that just seems absolutely cool to me. What do you guys think?

 

I'd slowly introduce my kids into gaming with old 90s PC games but also spend a lot of time doing other things with them, boardgames etc, buying them LEGOs and other physical toys, encourage them to play outside, read them stories and encourage them to learn to read (I learned to read when I was 3 because mom always played letter games with me, and I liked to sit on dad's lap when he read the newspaper and asked what those funny symbols were so he'd tell me the letter sounds), etc.

The biggest problems with kids glued to the screen isn't the screen itself, but parents using the screen as a virtual babysitter. As long as the kid's glued to the i-pad I don't have to deal with it!

Meanwhile my dad used to play adventure games together with me, we'd play games like Monkey Island or the Indiana Jones adventures and tackle the puzzles together, and we both had fun doing it. And two hours later we'd call it a day, go out and kick a football around.

 

School started at 7 back in my day. Goddamn millennials. Wish I could have slept like a goddamn sloth till 7.

 

The Internet is brain-melting cancer. Why would you give a 2.5 year old cancer?

 

I said nothing about escalating but I do assume that he still has other toys/freedoms/privileges that
can be removed. From his latest experience he might want to avoid that.
But let me repeat, i do not recommend it nor do i think that that would be good parenting. As
i mentioned earlier, something to deescalate and rebuild trust would be more appropriate.
My suggestion to play Minecraft with him is perhaps not the best way but i am sure there
are other means to calm the situation.

I still think you are overstating the gravity of this and that the text does not necessarily imply that
he poured all his heart into the lost Minecraft thing. Working for a year on something is not a clear
indication how important it was for him. That could mean that he played it for 10 min a day for a long
time or it could mean that he really invested all his time into it. Kids are distraught for the silliest things, throwing
a tantrum or crying can also mean anything. I saw kids cry for not getting their favorite gum at the supermarket,
saying they won't move from the spot unless they get what they want. That was my first impression when i
read the text. Your first impression was apparently very different.

 

I prefer the 'lol 9 year old child stop being such a pussy' for short.

 

thats a myth. My son is fascinated by screens he can push and than things happen, so we let him use (while sitting with him) the tablet to watch videos of elmo (one of his favorites) or play some coloring game were he can push that thing at random and colours appear. If you let him do that alone especially for a prolonged time he will probably use it to roder assassinations, call hookers and then destroy the evidence by smashing it into your tv (which he previously wanted to paint with his fists because he doest know the difference between touch screen and do not touch screen).

 

The mistake is to make him wake up at 7am but have no work for him to do. That oil isn't going to change itself, kid. Snap to!

 

Sounds like good preparation for a future career in politics. Maybe you should let him.

 

The story is sad actually.

Many parents are just driven by vengeance that their kids have so many faults. They fucked up and just want to take revenge. I sometimes think they even yearn for their children to fuck up, so they can punish them even harder.

There is a big difference between punishment and sadism. Punishment has to be direct, immediate and measured, not long after the fact and so cruel.

If your kid neglects his life and spends 1 year to build a world for himself, you don't just destroy that world.

If your kid does not pay attention to the rules you can slap him, directly after it happened, and in a way that does not physically hurt.

But you don't wait 1 year and then mockingly announce you have destroyed everything he created in his spare time, while you were not the center of his attention. This is just fucking wrong.

 

It's possible but hard work. I have collegues whose kids grew up without electronics. They had to read them stories every fucking night, and it is extremely time consuming because you have to replace the entertainment they could get from the computer with your own time.

The kids are amazing though. But it's really a lot of work, and I reckon it's impossible if you did not grow up yourself like that.

 

Many parents shouldn't have been allowed to breed in the first place.

 

Not to mention: backup everything you value. Multiple times. And have password-protected cloud backups.

 

In other news

 

Could have taken away kid's computer time at evening and only allow playing from 7 to 9-10 (because the kid don't seem to have anything worthwhile to do in the morning anyway) until the kid woke up on time for a week or something. Alternative was, as some said, to back up the castle and tech lesson on listening to the parent as well as backing your shit up.

 

Farmers don't need to

 

Its all a question of habits - and everyone else should bend their habits in favor of yours.

Fucking early birds, I hope you all catch wuhan flu.

 

Thankfully, at least for males, it just takes a pair of bricks to revoke their breeding license.

 

This will become the kid's moment of clarity when he's wheeling her off to a nursing home 40 years from now

 

Damn right. God bless digital nannies. If I'd ever have a misfortune to breed, I'd lock the little shit with a digital fantasy world and a feeder tub and kindly ask to never bother me until he's old enough to get a job and move the fuck out.

 

At least now kid can sleep as much as he wants.

 

again, the issue is that most people suck, which means most parents suck, and the driving force behind sucking is self-indulgence. Your friend tells you you'll be the same, and hes framing it as the kid being the problem and him being powerless to do anything about their demands. As fucking if. The real issue is its simply easier for him to let a screen babysit his kid, so he can do whatever he wants with minimal fuss and doesnt have to be involved. Lots of parents claim to love their kids, and they do, strictly in the modern sense of the word - an intense feeling of attachment or infatuation - but they dont do loving things for their kids, such as do whats good and right for them, not whats convenient, easy or desired by the child.

 

Disappointment is a formative learning event.

This will be an opportunity for the little guy to learn from it, do better next time, and never trust in authority ever again.

 

It just screams "single mother".

 

I think both of those parents are ridiculous.