BrownSuga's sweet spot: Do you even know your neighbor?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And I hope that we can all remember the actual point of the holiday. The point being to be thankful for what we have. Because not everyone spent the day with family, not everyone had a meal to eat, not everyone could argue with family members about the lack of skill in the NFL, while eating 4 different kinds of pie.

But in the midst of the traveling and cooking many Americans do for the third Thursday, even more get up at 4am to be ready to shop for “Black Friday” specials. And this year a week before black Friday two video game consoles were sold by retailers, the much anticipated PlayStation 3 and Nintendo’s new Wii.

Retail prices for the PS3 max at $600 and the Wii at $250. But if you are one of the unlucky ones who couldn’t secure one of the 10 PS3’s available at each retail location, you can attempt to win an e-bay auction for one. I came across one that sold for $2000 and someone reported the sale of one topping $30,000.

Yes! That was insane. And this brings me to blog for tonight. What are these games doing to our society?

Growing up my family had an Atari, a Nintendo and a Sega Genesis. We went to Valley Forge, Pa to compete in the world premiere of Super Mario Brothers 3 before the release of the game and mastered old games. But there is no way you could even compare my childhood to that of children today. In the midst of our video games, my siblings and I spent at least 2 hours outside playing with our friends. And at least triple that amount of time on weekends. Every night we ate dinner together as a family, we always completed our homework and we had bedtimes. With 4 children, Christmas time was no cheap feat. We always got more than we probably deserved and everyone was treated equally.

I have a cousin who expects every new toy the day it comes out. He got every new pair of $100+ shoe that came out, he has an Xbox, Xbox 360, PlayStation 1 & 2 (he probably has the third one as well), Sega Genesis (whatever the new one was called). He has no respect for anyone. He steals money. He lies. He just turned 16 and should be in the 6^th grade. But because he moved to another state they let him enter the 8^th grade.

In college I knew people who failed out in 2 quarters because they were addicted to computer and video games. They spent so much time in their rooms and going to lan parties (if you don’t know what they are, trust me you don’t want to know) that they couldn’t recognize their professors.

The number one growing addiction in the world currently isn’t drugs or alcohol it’s not sex or food, it’s technology. Do you know anyone who does not own an iPod, computer, or cell phone? Of course I don’t believe by just owning one of these makes you an addict. But when they prevent you from socializing or taking care of your responsibilities then a problem seems apparent.

But again this isn’t about adults who have the right to make their own decisions, who make the money to pay for their addiction. This is in reference to our kids. In a society where recess is thought of as “wasting time” and the Arts are losing funding in public schools, how can our children learn how to interact with other children?

This year for Halloween a local news anchorman labeled is “Lame-o-ween.” He was referring to the litany of rules everyone spouted for parents to make sure no harm came to their children. I had to laugh and because of that I now only watch his news instead of the competition. I’m not saying don’t protect your children. But there is a point of absurdity. I went trick-or-treating every year I lived in Philly. I lived in West Philly, on a tiny street that was barely considered middle-class by anyone’s standards, in the middle of the city. Once my parents felt I was old enough to go with just my brother, not once did they follow me in a car or even run my candy through an x-ray machine for safety. And I’m still alive.

My mom was president of the block association. We knew everyone who lived on our block. We had annual block parties. All the kids would play together; during the day boys would play tag football and girls would jump double-dutch. At night we all got together to play hide-n-go seek in the dark or some other game that required a lot of running. We held racing competitions, Uno competitions, Acey-duecy (more commonly called backgammon) competitions. I had the chance to go to a performing arts school and a magnate school. I got the chance to join after-school programs some people have never heard of. I met people from all over the world and we learned about everyone’s cultures.

People ask my husband and I when we’re going to have children. And honestly I’m sad that I wouldn’t be able to raise children in an atmosphere like I was raised. I applaud my aunt and uncle who are raising three boys in a major city and they all excel in academics, sports and each plays an instrument. They always choose playing outside with friends over video games. They don’t ever ask for name brand clothes or shoes. They enjoy traveling and learning new games. They pray every night and they read for pleasure. They don’t overeat and they are considerate of others. I am so proud of them. If I were to have a child I would do my best to follow my parent’s footsteps and my aunt and uncle’s.

How many of you know your neighbors? Do you have to stop your newspaper delivery when you go out of town? On Saturdays do you see kids outside playing together? Every heard the phrase It takes a village to raise a child. Can’t have your child raised by a village when you don’t even know the names of the villagers.