Saturday, November 28, 2009

You can do what?

I have a tenant here at the rooming house that is most excellent at Guitar Hero. (That is a video game). She puts in two to three hours a day practicing her technique.
This is on a plastic guitar that plugs into a plastic box that plugs into the (mostly) plastic t.v..
She cannot play a real guitar, mind you. Just her pink, undersized, toy, plastic one.
I asked her how long she had been playing Guitar Hero.
A couple of years.
Now, if she had expended the same time and effort, not to mention money, on learning to play a real guitar, she would probably be a virtuoso by now!
She can not cook or bake. She can barely wash dishes...and then, only under duress. She can not sew a stitch. She has never gardened or raised livestock.
But, WOW!, can she play Guitar Hero!
Look, guys, the way I look at it, her parents did her a disservice. If the proverbial shit does hit the fan, her parents have condemned her to death. Or perhaps she can prostitute herself --there's a cheerful thought!--and in that manner keep a roof over her head and food in her belly.
She can always start learning some skills now. Except she has absolutely no interest in learning anything but the new riffs on her video game.

If you have kids, do them a HUGE favor.
No video games for Christmas.
Sign them up for a cooking class.
Or buy them a sewing machine.
Get them some cookbooks.
Get them a gun and spend time at the range with them.
Get them camping gear.

I sometimes despair when I see young adults like my tenant. They have absolutely no clue as to how really bad the world can be. They have been protected from harshness by well-meaning and loving parents their whole life. What a disservice to a childs survival that is!
Invest in your son or daughter's actual survival.
Yes, Junior or your Princess may be pissed that the video game or electronic doo-dad they coveted isn't under the tree, but let them be pissed. They'll get over it. Long after the video game or i-pod is useless and in the trash or stuffed in the back of the closet, they will remember going camping with dad, or sewing a dress with mom.

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Because of a couple of rude people that left comments that included links to porn pages and such, I have been forced to start moderating comments again.