Forever Young – I KNOW, RIGHT? LULZ
My parents are odd. I know; everyone’s parents are odd. They had me at a pretty young age and while that would make you think the less despair of a distance in age we had would cause us to like more similar things, that’s only part true.
My father, for instance, is a drummer by hobby. He’s done it all of his life, and he’s tailored his abilities to be as similar as he could muster to the greatest drummer of all time; Buddy Rich. Now, of course he’ll even tell you he’s no Buddy, but he is pretty damn great. It’s just that for a man who isn’t even 50 yet, he’s a huge fan of Jazz, something you wouldn’t expect from someone who went to high school in the late 70’s.
My mother, on the other hand, is a huge fan of Barry Manilow. While this isn’t as odd of a liking for her period of youth, she is also a fan of Star Trek. Oh, and the movie Cobra. Things you’d never be able to guess by looking at her, seeing as she’s kind of a princess (figuratively, of course). She thought it was the coolest thing in the world that I went to the Motor City Comic Con last weekend and got to see George Takei and Brent Spiner.
The big difference between me and my parents isn’t musical interests (although I’m not a huge Manilow fan), it’s video games. Which is pretty understandable since the video game industry was developing just as I was. It’s something far more a part of what my generation is that theirs. My parents did a pretty great job of trying to understand what I was into, and while I’m sure they didn’t always get my music tastes or what video games were becoming, when they couldn’t understand it, they let me figure it out for myself.
I was thinking as I played some Gran Turismo 5 with my son in my lap, “I dread the day when he or my daughter says something hip and I’m clueless.” I know it’s inevitable, and I know I’m already not very hip so I shouldn’t be concerned, but it’s more about that moment in time when I feel like my kids are into something that I can’t connect with.
I have a theory that between the internet and games, I’ll be able to stay more relevant to my kids for a longer time, but I’m pretty sure that my theory will be proven wrong and I’ll be that weird nerdy dad with the super old arcade machine in the garage. It’s like a baby’s toy!
Kids these days.
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I am 48, will be 49 this year. I played drums in a Rock Band professionally for 3 years (i.e: it was my ONLY job).
If it wasn’t for computers though, I would still be trying to out do the Rolling Stones for age versus beauty and rock stardom.
But, I digress.
Like you, I am hoping I may be relevant to my 12 year old, as we both play in our MMO worlds together. I listen to current music, as I lost the will to listen to the tunes I played when I was younger. I keep up on current trends in both computers, the news and of course that social media thing..
There is no doubt though, having a family do gaming together is such a treat.
I hope as you progress you guys can do the same!
Rock the games, rock the little one’s world!!
I already think my playing games around the kids is working. They love watching me play, and want to participate more. I can’t wait until they actually get the hang of playing for real. Right now at 3 and 5, they’re not really so good. =P
I’m older than your dad, and I get you and them new-fangled video games!
I get what you’re saying those. I definitely suffered through many years of “gamer shame” in my 20′s & 30′s. “A grown man playing video games? Are you mentally deficient or something?!”
What you really need to do now is work on your txting skills, if you want to stay relevant. And stop using your phone to actually speak to other people… NO ONE does that.
And visit Urban Dictionary once in a while to keep up on the lingo!
Kidding aside, the gulf between my father and I was infinitely vast. He wanted me to go hunting and I wanted to stay home and leaf through the Edmund Scientific catalog. By the time I was 7 or 8 he gave up on me and we did almost nothing together for the remainder of his life (he passed away when I was 12). He had no tools to relate to me with. My mom, who died a little while ago, never had an email address. I was never able to convey to her what I did for a living…she really had no concept of what the web was. Nor was she interested.
I think these days, the generations are a lot closer together in terms of relating to each other, and parents are infinitely more involved with what their kids are doing (I’m not sure that’s 100% a good thing, TBH) so I’m pretty sure you’ll continue to be able to relate.
By the time I was 8 or so I was going out to wander the neighborhood unsupervised, and my case wasn’t at all unusual. By the time I was 10 I was coming home from school to an empty house, and again, that wasn’t strange to anyone…
Imagine if that happened today! Social Services would be called in before you could blink an eye!
hehe, yeah, I didn’t grow up in the nicest neighborhood and driving around it now I ask myself, “MY PARENTS LET ME RIDE MY BIKE AROUND HERE?!?”
I already have a tough time with my daughter. My wife isn’t very “girly” so when my kid freaks when she sees pink and purple shoes with Disney characters on them, it’s a bit odd to us. She must get it from kids at school. =P
One of my coworkers is in a raiding guild in WoW with his teenage son… and will even be taking him to BlizzCon later this year.
My boss at my last job used to log in to Habbo Hotel AT WORK to keep an eye on all the creepy pedos who were propositioning his 8 year-old… I wonder whether the kid actually knew Daddy was hanging around or not.
It’s gonna be really interesting if I ever have kids… “Son, sorry I had to lock down all those porn sites on you… you’re just gonna have to teach yourself to be a hacker now”
As a former teacher, I have to admit that I’m a big fan of parents taking an interest in their kids’ lives. Many of the problems kids had were from the lack of this. Some of the onus of this lies on the kids, for being too self-centered to notice or care when parents are reaching out; they may not have too many inroads into their children’s personalities, so they take whatever they like and try to introduce the kids into it. I know if I had kids I would probably try to get them into stuff I was interested, like music, comics, literature, RPGs, video games, etc. If they got into something like pop music, I might cringe inwardly, but I would try to be supportive and feign interest (as a former teacher, and currently a salesman, this is an invaluable skill, I assure you). Not everyone is capable of this, I know, but it could be worth the effort to try.
Oh, and nice picture. Freakin’ magic cards. That one was not particularly useful, but it WAS pretty common, I had a lot of those padding some of my earlier starter decks.
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I am 48, will be 49 this year. I played drums in a Rock Band professionally for 3 years (i.e: it was my ONLY job).
If it wasn’t for computers though, I would still be trying to out do the Rolling Stones for age versus beauty and rock stardom.
But, I digress.
Like you, I am hoping I may be relevant to my 12 year old, as we both play in our MMO worlds together. I listen to current music, as I lost the will to listen to the tunes I played when I was younger. I keep up on current trends in both computers, the news and of course that social media thing..
There is no doubt though, having a family do gaming together is such a treat.
I hope as you progress you guys can do the same!
Rock the games, rock the little one’s world!!
I’m older than your dad, and I get you and them new-fangled video games!
I get what you’re saying those. I definitely suffered through many years of “gamer shame” in my 20′s & 30′s. “A grown man playing video games? Are you mentally deficient or something?!”
What you really need to do now is work on your txting skills, if you want to stay relevant. And stop using your phone to actually speak to other people… NO ONE does that.
And visit Urban Dictionary once in a while to keep up on the lingo!
Kidding aside, the gulf between my father and I was infinitely vast. He wanted me to go hunting and I wanted to stay home and leaf through the Edmund Scientific catalog. By the time I was 7 or 8 he gave up on me and we did almost nothing together for the remainder of his life (he passed away when I was 12). He had no tools to relate to me with. My mom, who died a little while ago, never had an email address. I was never able to convey to her what I did for a living…she really had no concept of what the web was. Nor was she interested.
I think these days, the generations are a lot closer together in terms of relating to each other, and parents are infinitely more involved with what their kids are doing (I’m not sure that’s 100% a good thing, TBH) so I’m pretty sure you’ll continue to be able to relate.
By the time I was 8 or so I was going out to wander the neighborhood unsupervised, and my case wasn’t at all unusual. By the time I was 10 I was coming home from school to an empty house, and again, that wasn’t strange to anyone…
Imagine if that happened today! Social Services would be called in before you could blink an eye!
hehe, yeah, I didn’t grow up in the nicest neighborhood and driving around it now I ask myself, “MY PARENTS LET ME RIDE MY BIKE AROUND HERE?!?”
I already have a tough time with my daughter. My wife isn’t very “girly” so when my kid freaks when she sees pink and purple shoes with Disney characters on them, it’s a bit odd to us. She must get it from kids at school. =P
I already think my playing games around the kids is working. They love watching me play, and want to participate more. I can’t wait until they actually get the hang of playing for real. Right now at 3 and 5, they’re not really so good. =P
One of my coworkers is in a raiding guild in WoW with his teenage son… and will even be taking him to BlizzCon later this year.
My boss at my last job used to log in to Habbo Hotel AT WORK to keep an eye on all the creepy pedos who were propositioning his 8 year-old… I wonder whether the kid actually knew Daddy was hanging around or not.
It’s gonna be really interesting if I ever have kids… “Son, sorry I had to lock down all those porn sites on you… you’re just gonna have to teach yourself to be a hacker now”
As a former teacher, I have to admit that I’m a big fan of parents taking an interest in their kids’ lives. Many of the problems kids had were from the lack of this. Some of the onus of this lies on the kids, for being too self-centered to notice or care when parents are reaching out; they may not have too many inroads into their children’s personalities, so they take whatever they like and try to introduce the kids into it. I know if I had kids I would probably try to get them into stuff I was interested, like music, comics, literature, RPGs, video games, etc. If they got into something like pop music, I might cringe inwardly, but I would try to be supportive and feign interest (as a former teacher, and currently a salesman, this is an invaluable skill, I assure you). Not everyone is capable of this, I know, but it could be worth the effort to try.
Oh, and nice picture. Freakin’ magic cards. That one was not particularly useful, but it WAS pretty common, I had a lot of those padding some of my earlier starter decks.
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