Sunday 8 January 2017
Parenting Notes
- My oldest son just got a new phone. By mutual agreement, it's a dumbphone. He's trying to activate it and feels obliged to read the terms and conditions before agreeing to them. Somehow he's even more of a stickler for rules than I am; I've been trying to teach him how you sometimes need to break rules, but it's tricky work without wounding his conscience. He's struggling through the obtuse legalese. It's a real coming-of-age moment.
- My children don't watch much TV and their Internet usage is restricted, but they read a lot of books and I'm supposed to keep track of them. I try hard to get them to read books I've already read and liked, but I still end up having to read a lot of popular child-oriented fiction, much of which is trash. Why aren't more of the ultra-popular teen series better written? There are some good writers, like J.K. Rowling, but so many others just churn out formula with mediocre writing and people lap it up. Right now I'm in Michael Grant's Gone series, which has very average writing but at least combines some good ideas in interesting ways. Could be worse; there's Rick Riordan, who writes similarly but without the ideas. The same rubbish exists in adult fiction, but I don't have to read that.
- My kids don't like movies. I struggle to get them to go and see any movie, Star Wars, whatever, or even watch them at home. I don't understand it.
- On the flip side, they love modern board games. That's excellent because my wife and I do too. It's a bit tough trying to work during the school holidays while they're constantly playing great games like Dominion, Lords of Waterdeep, Settlers, etc.
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