I like to think of myself as a pretty easy going, laid back, slow-to-anger type of person. Sure I like to rant about video games now and then (don’t we all?), and when the Ice Cappuccino machine at Tim Hortons breaks down, I can get a little bit grumpy, but on the whole, I rarely get outright angry at anyone or anything.
That’s why what happened Monday stands out so vividly in my mind. What at first seemed a casual, fun, polite encounter with one of the residents in my lower middle class neighborhood quickly devolved into one of the most aggravating, insulting and down right stupid conversations about video games and kids I have ever had (and I’ve had my fair share on the subject).
Find out what the hell happened after the jump!
This past Monday was already pretty much a right off for me; a wicked migraine had been haunting my cranium since late Saturday night. Around 4pm I went for a walk to get some air and enjoy the beautiful +11 degrees celsius weather (<- insert a Canadian joke here) we had been having.
As I wandered around my neighborhood, one of the local kids, who could not have been more than 12 years of age (but looked 8 because he was so skinny), ran up to me and asked if I had my PSP with me. Luckily for him, I never leave home without it.
I handed over my PSP and let the kid play some Tekken. This is not the first time the kid, who we will call Chuck, because I’m not going to print his real name, has asked me to let him play with my PSP. Regardless of the time of day, or the weather outside, Chuck is always around. We’ll get into why this 12 year old is out roaming the streets at all hours of the night a little later on.
I have a couple smokes, refuse to give Chuck a couple smokes, and pass the time playing with my new Zune. About 20 minutes later, Chucks mom comes around the corner and literally dashes over to us like the hounds of hell were on her heels.
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Dude, I whole-heartedly agree. There are so many ignorant parents that care too much about the things that don’t matter. I actually wrote a paper in College about it. If you’re interested, I’ll send it to your email.
Bravo!!!!!
I totally, totally agree with you, but the problem is the same as always: your very well based, logical, centered opinion is only read by the people (us) who thinks exactly like you, while that kind of parents and many other pay much more attention to what is said on TV, where the exact opposite message is being sent.
I have to agree with everything you said here. Up until recently I lived in a house like that. I was locked out if I wasn’t home by the time the sun was down (which was difficult since I had an afternoon job), told I couldn’t do anything fun basically in my home, and then yelled at when I wanted to go visit a friend and get out of that house. People just want to put the blame on everything but themselves. The media is also to blame on this because of putting the ideas into the parent’s heads, but I won’t go into that.
You are now my idol.
Excellent!!! U hit it right on the mark there.
i am the same, getting fed up of having to defend video games from stupid, ignorant people who believe every peice of bulls**t the the media spills out.
Nice!
*Slow clap*
It sounds like he was a good kid, and you did a nice thing by letting him play your psp (and not giving him a smoke
it true what you said, when i was younger i was i bit out of hand, but my parents never ONCE blame my action on all of the violent games i played (alot by the way) but they took it upon themselves to personally make sure i knew the difference between right and wrong, and real and videogame. i turned out fine and havent murdered anyone so far.
now, back to RES5
Good work PacManPolarBear!
The level of ignorance of some people never ceases to amaze me… and video games (much like comics before them) are something they don’t understand and, therefore, are something they can easily blame. And, like Exiled Blood said, it’s easier to blame something else than take a good hard look at yourself as a parent…
And don’t even get me STARTED on the parents who buy their 8-year old kid copies of (for example) GTAIV and then proceed to whine about how inappropriate games are for kids… That’s a whole other rant!
Stay frosty, PacMan!
Studies have shown that nothing has an effect on a decrease in crime like some sort of structured home life. Bravo, sir. I applaud you for doing the right thing.
Alright, so you got pissed off… concidering what came at you, I do not blame you in the least. Besides, isnt it the ones who get quite when they really get mad that are scarier?
In all seriousness, though you sound like you were doing right by the kid, and maybe it’s not good to judge by one article, but I kinda wish the kid was in your household and not hers… he would have a much better future ahead of him.
Right on PacMan, right on. I wholehardedly agree with you and I’m sure millions of other gamers also do too. Bravo.
One of the best articles I’ve read, period. Great job, PMPB. Totally agree with you.
I love you
I was working on a blog about a dumb *ss I work with that told me yesterday how when his kids were growing up he didn’t let them sit in front of that “stupid box” (TV) and play video games because they’re a waste of time. I didn’t argue because people who are ignorant about gaming will never get it. It’s infuriating to try and speak to these non-gamers.
You’re a good person and his Mom is an ignorant POS. Good for you. Now stop smoking..it’s not healthy. Take up a better habit, like binge drinking.
Wow, just wow. Was hoping it was Friday; alas.
PacManPolarBear, you’re my hero
Bravo, well played Sir.
I’m going to print this out and take it to my local game store and share it.
P.S. How awesome is it that my “captcha” words are: game complete
Let’s hope chuck is alright,
Well done dude! if you ever find yourself in my part of the world theres a well earned pint at the bar for you!
very nice article, hope some of that people think more before they act.
i hope chuck goes fine..
well….. might aswell buy a butcher knife and some leather gloves. look for the man on the news known only as soupy bruno.
Damn straight. My dad is like that, but not to that extreme. He insists that violent video games does influence your sub conscience (which it does slightly) and that you become completely numb to violence in general. WTF?! If I see someone get shot in the F@#$IN HEAD, I WILL F@#$IN FLIP! Ugh. I have had to deal with this my whole life lol, even though I’m not outta my teens.
*applause* We’ve got him back! Seriously, her son smokes, spends more time with strangers than his parents, wanders outside during night time. And all his mom could talk about is him playing “violent” games.
Great article, PMPB! …but stop smoking.
Way to go Pacman!
Honestly, I know that this is not supposed to be funny in any way, but I find it pretty hilarious that the mom screamed that she did not raise her son to be a potty mouth, and proceeded to use the f word in the next sentence =/
Dude, that was a crazy story…good work for sure.
Wow this gives me a new found respect for my mom.
you know what PMPB, such commitment to video games is what will prevail at the end!
while you are not the only one, at least within SGC, with such spirit, what makes you special is that you pick your fights just perfectly.
if only Lano do the same, you can shift things to its right position.
i salute you
you have me respect PMPB
She probably got her period when this happened… Or maybe she is just bat shit crazy!
Nevertheless trying to blame videogames to cover up how she raised her son up to be is just unnecessary and plain irritating.
*applause*
Nicely done man. I’d like to say and do similar things sometimes, it’s good to see people with the balls to defend this kind of garbage.
I very rarely find myself at a loss for something to say, just usually electing to keep it to myself, but I am now.
On one hand, it’s everything I’ve been screaming from the mountaintop for years about parental responsibility and video games, not using games as a baby-sitter or substitute parent when you’re too lazy, etc.
On the other, I feel you were way out of line for calling child services. Not because the child wasn’t being abused, but because you did it out of anger and one can even argue spite and it’s never acceptable for a child to a weapon in an argument. Even though you had the best of intentions, I simply can’t condone that.
That said, this was still an incredibly powerful if sad article and a prime example of why I come to Sarcastic Gamer. Aside from hearing you and Lono yell at things. It treats gaming as a hobby in a real life, as it should be, and not as a substitute for a life.
Well done article PMPB.
Like this young lad, I used to roam my streets at late hours and smoking at a young age. Though I grew up with two loving parents, they never showed each other the love they gave to me. The arguments always got to me, and I would sneak out and have a few cigarettes, then come back and play some video games. My parents are doing alot better now, but can’t bring myself to quit smoking >.< lol
Poor Chuck…
*Smoker since 13 =\
Amen to that PMPB. I am so SICK of people acting like videogames will ruin our kids. When will people grow the fuck up and actually take a role in parenting instead of blaming everything else but themselves when things go wrong?
OWNED!! Some people are ignorant when it comes to problems, it’s easier to find a scapegoat then edmit to the real problem becasue in parents they proberly feel like they’ve failed in raising their children and by blaming a video game their ignoring this which means they ignore what they know is true.
Video games have been around for years and have had no significant damage intill now. If it did then why isn’t the world in complete apockalyspe as a million gamers all commit terriable hate crimes? I remember hearing how a gamer told a women who was buying GTA IV for her young son that it’s too old for him so she told him to F*** off and made he’s own business, if parents react like this when people catch them out then it’s obvious they knew it’s their own fault. If you shot yourself in the foot with a gun would you blame the company that creates the gun for doing so knowing full well you might buy the gun and accidently shot yourself in the foot? No, you blame yourself! And this should be the same situaiton. (Not that games should be compared to guns ^_^)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Agree with Timewarp, nice ideoligy (spell check) on the way crappy parents would like to blame games, or whatever, on the same things that the media “tell” them to put blame upon.
I musn’t allow my son to play gta4 because that will make him a serial murderer. LOL righty! ROFLCOPTER INBOUND!!!! Is that what the grups really think? NO. That is what they want you to think that they think, because it will (in they’re mind) make you believe that theye are an upright, upstanding pillar of the community, that will NOT stand for this discraceful abomination that is video games.
No differentiation on violent games and happy flufffy games here, oh no. Just games in general, because these parents are too lax, in the mind and in the brain to realise the difference between these two things.
These two things that many people have put a lot of effort into, and I’m talking about the age rating system for video games. OK its not perfect, but when you look at the crappy grups in this example, they have NO idea what this even is. They simply hate the idea of video games, this is down to the press to some degree, J-hole for example, will slag off gta4 then on the flip side you get some animal loving freak-ohs, that will slate a game because it involves cooking up some tasty animal corpses.
Back to the point, some people are using the mediablitzrageagainstvideogamesingeneral, to make themselves look good, and indeed doing it to someone like PMPB is a very stupid idea, because he knows what he’s talking about here.
It makes the so-called mother look like a TAWT (spelt backwards).
ROAR! this makes me angry, but the post by PMPB makes me feel better because he made her look like a piece of…
I used to have a neighbor who wouldn’t let her kids use computer because “I once read that using the internet makes kids bad”. That is about equal to who you were talking about.