Enter His World

At almost 9 years old, my son finally bought his first gameboy. It's a Nintendo DS Lite.

All his young life I have always been his partner in playing computer games. My husband and I like to play nice computer games as much as him. Before we give to him, we always check out the ESRB rating and read the reviews about the game.

So when he started playing DS last month, he also shares with me every detail and advancement he made. I didn't have any idea what he was talking about because some of the cartridges we couldn't share.

Finally we decided to buy another DS for me. Both of us enjoyed it so much that my husband also started to feel left out. In the end, he got one for himself, too. :D

You see, there is a feature where we can all play together wirelessly in one game, like playing chase or capture the flag. So it's really fun. We can even connect via WiFi.

I attended a parenting seminar at church by Wilson Phang last Saturday and the speaker said that for children below 9, we need to establish authority with discipline. A rod is needed.

But for 9-12 years old and teenagers, we have to maintain a close relationship with them. If we think preteens (before 9) needs a lot of our time, teenagers need a lot more. We need to enter their world and be their friend.

So I guess this is one of those things that needs to be done. Playing DS together, talking about it and having a great time together from time to time. By understanding his world, I can use it at our bible study time together to illustrate an application.

What parents had to go through for their children ;). No harm having a great time doing it, too.

So that's the story. No prizes for guessing which color belongs to whom. Let me just tell you that my son's got the silver one.