As I’ve stated previously here, my teenage son is a big gamer. He’s been gaming since he was about 5, and one of his very first games was Pokémon, I think it was “Red”. At one point he was so besotted with Pokémon, he put crayon to paper and created portraits of every one of the characters. The portraits adorned his playroom walls for years. As he got older, he began playing older kid games. But, the moment a new Pokémon game came out, he was right there to get it. So, Pokémon never lost it’s appeal.
This week Pokémon Go was unleashed on the public. If you haven’t heard about this game, you’re probably living under a rock in some remote Tibetan village. Pokémon Go is sweeping the nation. Practically everybody is playing it. Young and old alike, you’ll see them wandering the sidewalks looking at their phones, stopping in public parks, squares and even cemeteries trying to “Catch them all”
My son is playing it, all of his friends are playing it, and yes he even got his Mom to play Pokémon Go!
If you’ve got a teenager, you know that their propensity for hanging out with Mom is not particularly high. So, when my son came home and said “Mom, you have to download this game! I’ll show you how it works and you can play it with me and my friends”. There was no way this mom would say no. So, my son downloaded the game onto my phone and showed me what I was supposed to do, then we went outside. Yes, you read that right, my cave-dwelling, video-gaming teenager took me outside to play.
We followed rustling leaves searching for Pokémon all over our neighborhood. We walked to the park, we walked to the grocery store. We walked four and half miles,. Talking and laughing for hours, we wandered until finally my phone battery died and we had to go home to re-charge. We had an absolute blast and we’ve gone hunting for Pokémon every evening since.
Hours of quality time spent with your teenager on a daily basis? Getting kids to play outside again? Making exercise a requirement to gain game goodies? Yes! Yes! Yes! 1000 times Yes!
Get out there and play! – Gotta Catch Them All!!
