Batteries Not Included

At the risk of sounding old here, things sure have changed since I was a kid.

Give us some chalk, a flat concrete surface, and other minor props, and we could entertain ourselves for hours… hopscotch, handball, even just letting our imagination run riot and create temporary masterpieces on the family carport.

It was humble, but we were happy.

And wasn’t mum happier still when the rain would eventually wash the canvas clean, given some of our artwork.

Yes when I was young, even the girls were content to take toy cars to school and we spent hours in the playground creating roads, housing estates, and entire back-stories for the little pencil-eraser-people we shoved into any cars with opening doors. (The boys, on the other hand, were more intent on seeing how many they could simply smash!)

And now- smack bang in the middle of the school holidays- I am reminded yet again how different life is, and these days almost every kid I know is completely ensconced in some electronic device. To the point where some might just have to have them surgically removed!

Unfortunately, they all seem to need to own said gaming gear, lest they miss out on a vital part of childhood and do irreparable damage to their developing psyches.

Oh and heaven forbid you buy the wrong one- it can instantly ostracise your child in the playground, and potentially lead to years of therapy. That’s despite the fact that the average game console costs the equivalent of a small car, and the price of a single game is more than what we used to get in a whole year of pocket money!

My Beloved and I held off as long as we could in getting a new console, using the excuse that the good ol’ PlayStation® had life in her yet. And she did, but naturally chose the exact period our son had another lengthy stay at hospital and home, to finally expire. (Lucky for us, it coincided with a mighty good ‘runout’ special on a PS2® and we were back in business.)

Now, as much as I hate to admit it (and here I go showing my age again), there are certain games that I just cannot figure out for the life of me - or for even my 5 or 6 'lives' granted to complete the virtual quest. (I am convinced though, that some of the characters are suicidal masochists in the way they insist on launching themselves off every available ledge or into the path of every incoming missile, or at least they always do whenever I’m playing.)

Mind you, it’s not just the little boys who love their toys. My Beloved is every bit as addicted as the younger ones, and just as competitive too. He has even resorted to commandeering the console and practicing his moves while I am busy packing our progeny off to bed, just so he can rub it in next time they meet on the multimedia. Or at least give them a good run for their money.

I must also confess that after one too many humiliations at the hands of my family, I happily if not humbly retreat to my laptop to squeeze in a few rounds of ‘FreeCell’. Sure that little King watches my every move (in our version), but at least he doesn’t laugh uproariously at me when I lose.

*sigh*

Give me a stick of chalk anyday...

Jx
©2009