This growing trend to shelter and protect our children is limiting their options for adventure until the only choice is inside the game world. Many moms like how games keep their children quiet and at home where they can be kept out of “real” trouble.  I would contend that the outside world is not as dangerous as an Xbox.

Here is a video about 5 dangerous things your children can do. Its not long and I think it offers a healthy perceptive on sheltering children.

If you want to provide opportunities for your children to do dangerous real world things I recommend buying a copy of The Dangerous Book for Boys and the Daring Book for Girls. These books offer fun real life adventures such as starting a fire, skinning a rabbit and building a tree house.

It is not fair to  tell you child to stop playing on the computer without giving him an alternative more interesting than homework and chores. Children long for adventure, they long to experience childhood. We need to stop protecting them from natural childhood experiences.

What do you think? Are children today to sheltered from the natural world?

Franklin Springs a family media company has put together a DVD on how to create an amazing tree house. In the sneak-peak they mention how the last several generations of men have missed out on the joy of holding a hammer and making something with their own hands. They even mention video gaming as one of the causes.

Many young men turn to gaming because they don’t have a father active in their lives. If you are a dad and want to help your son with his gaming addiction, buy him a power saw and a hammer and teach him how to use it. If you don’t know how, the Measure Twice Cut Once DVD may be just what you need.

For more information you can visit FranklinSprings.com or watch the DVD trailer.

This particular article was in response to a letter he received. The letter writer had already been convinced that his sons had created an idol of Playstations. This father’s question was about how to win his sons over to living a life apart from the Playstation nation.

You may have heard Thomas say: “Its easier to get the game out of your home than it is to get it out of your gamer’s heart.” Mr. Pearl has some advise on how to accomplish both: “‘Never take something away without replacing it with something more interesting and better.’”

“Rather than doing a police raid and confiscating the wicked thing, provide them with a more interesting alternative that will cause them to choose to walk away from the altar of digital deity.”

Some creative examples are listed:

“It may be that they do not find anything as fun as punching buttons and looking at a flashing screen. But I know some things that will get their attention—a day shooting guns, camping, fishing, hunting, fixing up an old pickup truck for them to drive when they get old enough—taking it out to the country on a Saturday and letting them drive just a little on the back roads. A normal ten-year-old will drop a Playstation to sit behind a real wheel and feel the power of the gas pedal. Skateboarding, paintball battles, rappelling down cliffs, making bows and arrows, and throwing knives and tomahawks are just a few of the radical things that will get a kid’s attention. You just need to think outside of your own box.”

As someone who was a ten-year-old at one point, he’s right. For me, it was speech and debate that really got my attention, I found that once you get the hang of it, research and public speaking can create a rush comparable to the one gamers experience. I’m serious. It’s addictive and productive.

Being a former gamer myself, I consider this to be true “Pearls” of wisdom. But don’t just take my word for it, read it for yourself.

Update: New Link for the Article entitled “Playstation” from the December 2007 edition of NGJ.