Fathers on Playing Video Games With Their Children

To Julia Rothman When Shina FeinbergJune 17, 2022, 10:30 am ETimagePeople who grew up in video games are now introducing entertainment that is popular with children. According to a survey commissioned by the Entertainment Software Association, an industry group, 77% of parents play games with their children, a surge from two years ago. Here, three dads are thinking of handing over a controller."My wife and I consciously decide not to introduce gender-based things to our daughter. Introduce sports, dolls, princess clothes, etc. and see what she is doing. She really got into video games. As a kid I knocked off Atari. We had it first in my block so all the kids came to my house and played I was there. ""My daughter was adopted. I'm white. She's black and Latina. Identity is at the forefront of our parenting. We're happy with her identity. The great thing about the games she plays is that she can change her avatar no matter how she feels. In Animal Forest, there are days when she wears a dress and days when she wears a hockey uniform. There is also. ""Super Mario Galaxy is that Mario saves the princess. My daughter isn't interested in it. Her favorite game is Splatoon. You're a humanoid squid character. Pretty balanced from a gender perspective. — Lukeward, 45, freelance advertising writer, full-time husband, Montclair, New Jersey"I can remember playing a video game. If Mario was in, I would probably have played it. Do you know Mario? A plumber in a red hat.""My 3-year-old kid is playing video games now. I love sharing it with him. It's an easy way to sit and talk. You can learn a lot from video games Masu: You can lose with the coordination of your hands and eyes. I want him to learn that it's okay to lose. ""In August 2020, I came across a Facebook group called The Dad Gaming (Mom is also a member). Facebook groups can be super negative. That doesn't happen in this group. Most of them I think it's mostly parents. We're all on the same boat. We have kids, we have lives, we have jobs. "— Hector Ivan Reyes Jr. 30, Charleston, South Carolina Junior high school teacher"I don't call myself an avid gamer, but until the Sega Dreamcast, we always had the latest systems. We were at home and started playing again during the pandemic. . I have two kids playing together. ""We are an anti-gun family. More so than ever. We don't play shooters. But the correlation between video game violence and real violence isn't as serious as some people. I My wife definitely feels correlated. I grew up playing the shooter Contra. I also grew up in Mario. I didn't want to jump on animals and become a plumber. It's entertainment. "“I play this game with my kids, called Overcooked 2. In this game, I'm a group of chefs preparing food. I need to work together as a team.” — John Domingos, 38, Brooklyn Cartoon company Overcooked