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LIKE GTA, LIKE SON!
mood: 
nervous
nervousHe rescues his girlfriend Sweets from amidst a bevy of armed thugs after a marathon shooting spree and emerges unscathed. He meticulously plans and with utmost precision plants a bomb unnoticed under the car of the newly appointed President and walks off with a mindblowing sum of money. He closes a 2-million dollar drug deal and comes home to a swanky mansion and his own private jet. Finally, he shoots his boss dead for daring to scheme against him behind his back....
Plot of an action-adventure packed Hollywood drama starring Van Damme?
Wrong guess.
The hero is a soon-to-be 10 year old. My son.
And he does a hell of a lot more without as much as having to lift his arm, thanks to one of the most sought after Cyber Games of today - GTA aka Grand Theft Auto.
After its storming success with Liberty City and Vice City, GTA is now out with an even more adrenalin-packed drama titled San Andreas. But unfortunately, for my son, its curtains on GTA. At least for now.
All it took was a casual remark by him on one of our Sunday-eve rides. We were driving through a crowded locale where people merrily jaywalked and had a hard time differentiating sidewalk from the road and my hubby was having to keep his hand on the honk more than on the steering wheel. And my sonny says :
" These people need to be shot." ( !!!!!! )
Of course I was shocked more than I was surprised !! But yes, I guessed where that came from.
I asked him, "Is that what you do in GTA?!" and bang comes the reply, "Well, yeah."
And it didn't take me any longer to decide that GTA had to go. Down under.
Of course my sonny fussed, but I gently explained how living the life of a ruthless criminal (which is what GTA is all about) has tarnished his attitude towards people in general and warned him that in the long run it could actually end up making him a 'very bad person' with zero sensitivity. For a miracle, he could see sense in what I was talking and came around to abiding with my decision. And I whispered a prayer under my breath.
So, for his birthday I told Rahul that he had two genre of game CDs/cartridges to choose from: Sports/Kiddo games ( the likes of Mario, Pokemon, etc). With respect to sports, I was quick to add a Conditions Apply. No WWF/WWE or the likes.
Rahul decided he'd go in for FIFA 2007. And I was all smiles. At least a game was not going to have anything to do with shaping the personality of my son. Then he adds, "You know mom, I've played FIFA before. And its funny, but I kept getting shown the Red Card."
anxious parents!!. And sounds like your well-intentioned
resolutions passed :). Credits to you!.
Oh!!!!
Here are some purely random thoughts from a rickety old & haggard parent ,whose claim to parenthood, lies in that he sired a couple of kids now in their twenties . And yes ,they are very well adjusted, great young adults,who lead independent lives of their own, with arguably little parental influence from me !
Hurts tremendously when you see the widow panes of the car ahead roll down and a wad of trash thrown out .Or the door opened at a traffic light and a stream of paan juice squirted out ,expertly!!So if our kids dont do this, the influencers I'm sure, are the parents , school teachers and perhaps social messages on placards or in socially relevant commercials .
During a recent visit to Montreal ,saw a parent and son walking their dog along the street .The dog , as most dogs are wont to do , pulled it's way to the edge of the street and eased it's self .When all was done , the little boy dawned a single plastic glove ,collected the litter and placed it in another litter bag he was carrying for subsequent disposal .Now that's parental training on civic sense ,no ??
One cant over look the influence of environment , so tellingly portrayed in 'TIPPING POINT" on the influence of graffiti on petty crimes in the New York metro .
On now to social mal-adjustment & violence..Guess some of this is due to pathological reasons ,but much more I guess due to un fulfilled ambitions or aspirations ( the disappointments with self in life's battles) or may be just the genes .Parental behaviour in influencing childhood aspirations , sense of well being or disappointments , is very well researched and written about .Enough to say here that we parents are the prime influencers along with other family members and the over all moral values of the childs environment.
So too are behavior pattterns of over aggression ,timidity and so on, influenced by us parents, the larger family , school teachers ,friends circle and role models .
What then is the mantra for effective parenthood .Having already stated my position as a lousy parent , guess I cant in any fairness tell you that .I would say though that the kids of today have much higher IQ's than we do, have much more access to info than we had in our childhood, are much more tech savvy, generally have the confidence and attitude to take decisions regarding their lives on their own ...thank God for the kids of this generation !!!!
As regards "Thank God for the kids of this generation". I definitely wouldn't rule that. For the reason that, as much as they are intellectually way ahead and are great decision makers even before the little age of 10, they stand compromised on the fact that they unfortunately cannot think much with their hearts! (but of course by no fault of theirs but the materialistic world they are born into).. Something that would always be a trademark of kids of earlier generations.. yup, the likes of you and me. What says?