Parenting a Minecraft crazy kid...
Hello all, my name is Clint and I have a son who is just turning 12 and crazy into Minecraft. As a tech geek over the years, I am familiar with a lot of tech issues and as a newbie on this most excellent Steemit platform, I thought I would put this thought out to the masses.
Do you have a child who is wanting to spend their time Minecrafting with their friends? I do. He plays with his real, local friends on the main large servers out there. Really, I do think Minecraft is an amazing invention, digital Lego for the millenial child, but I am receiving a constant barrage of requests from him to be able to use his money to buy a new group of resources/items that will help him get to the next level so he can grow crops, mine, or build things more efficiently in order to make money within the game, etc.
I constantly fight off the urge to explain to him with too much force about the relative wisdom of spending his hard earned money on such things in relation to good investing principles (LOL). It's entertainment, and I get that. My question I suppose, is have any of you went through such discussions with your children? How did it go? Were you able to come to a compromise on how much should be spent on gaming like this versus saving or investing?
A good tactic I have used to promote saving is as follows: The next time there is a larger item he wants to buy, tell him that you will purchase half of the item if he is able to save enough to purchase the other half of the item. It is not lost on my son how this is an economically good deal for him, but even with that delayed gratification incentive, the urge to spend immediately on his Minecraft things is very compelling for a 12 year old mind.
Other things about me... I have been heavily involved in computer forensics and data recovery for the last almost 2 decades, so I have a lot of experience and knowledge within this field if anyone has any questions about such things. I am also enjoying learning on my own time about cryptocurrency and have had a passion for photography for many years. Maybe I will figure out how to upload some of my photo selections...
I look forward to spending some time with all of you!
Clint
Nice to meet you @clintformcanada🙃
Welcome to Steemit!
Try to get a profile picture!
Take one from Instagram using my post:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@heiner/how-to-use-a-steemit-profile-picture-from-instagram
Done! Thanks for that as I had JUST started to look on the web for an answer to that very question!
@clintfromcanada, my kids like minecraft. They just don't know that they can purchase online goods.
I give my kids allowance so that I can teach them money. When I distribute their allowance, I differentiate that a portion of their allowance is for
They do not understand the concept completely, but if I don't introduce these concepts now then they never learn.
I have not purchased a toy for them in a long time. They use their own money. When their funds are depleted then they have to make an important decision.
I do not agree with every decision they make, but I try to support them as they learn this important life lesson.
Thanks for sharing! I like the way you portion it out. It is hard - ourselves and the parents of my sons' friends work together as well so that there is not a sense of unfairness amongst the kids. I suppose we are fortunate that way in that the parents are all on the same page more or less. Inevitably some of the kids figure out from others than they can "level up" and this spreads like wildfire... My son is the oldest and has a younger sister. I have a funny feeling that with some of his friends having older brothers, influences and desires of a different sort will be coming into the picture in the not too distant future. Innocence - it doesn't last forever!
Cheers,
Clint
hello and welcome, @clintfromcanada~~
Hello!
welcome to steemit and cant wait to see more post!
Congratulations @clintfromcanada, you have decided to take the next big step with your first post! The Steem Network Team wishes you a great time among this awesome community.
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