Game Boy Crowd At Risk

We did away with the tv and the kids have never had a gameboy, PS2, xbox, zbox or any other zombie maker.

One of the better things we ever did for our kids...

I do not see why you can not do both. My son plays sports yr. round and is very active, but he also has his time with his video games and and the computer.
I will admit the time spent is small in comparision to sports, riding bikes,and running around with his friends.

I do both. i am 14 and am very active in basketball, s****r, and baseball. i hit off the tee, jog, sprints, throw the ball off my garage but i also have time to play video games or be on the PC. u have to do other things beside just run, play, workout, activity. if u didnt thats like 10 hours of non stop running. i love baseball and sports in general but i also love working with computers and am very intrigued by computers.

I personally don’t think high tech toys of today are more physically destructive than the games we used to play in my younger days. It was mumbley peg, sling shots, pea shooters, Jacob’s ladder, June bugs on a string, jacks, and marbles when I was a kid...Cat eyes, clearies, and boulders! Granted there was hop scotch, jumping rope, and hoola hoops that may have helped the cardiovascular system to some extent but real boys didn’t do those sissy things. I think the main problem with young kids today is the fast food diet and the parental taxi.
Fungo

Fungo,
You forgot Cat's cradle, my kids loved that when they were younger. They also loved sesame street, winnie the pooh, disney films, swimming, riding their bikes, walks in the park, tennis, roller skating, ice skating (indoor) playing in the dirt and the son was into every sport imaginable (only touch football allowed). I could never get them to play the piano because they couldn't sit still long enough to have patience to learn They both adore (and still do) music and my daughter thought she was the next Madonna so on rainy days she taught her little brother how to be the back up dancer. They were creative kids.
Video games, computers, tv, game boys (and girls) are babysitters. If you provide enough activities outside of the home that they enjoy, you don't have to worry about raising couch potatoes or zombies. The responsibility lies on the parents.
JMO

If Gameboy and massive doses of food worked for Mo Vaughn - perhaps it can work for our players as well.

People used to read books... I'm told. THAT can't be good for you.

quote:

Going to a youth ball draft and finding fit kids is rare now days.

So true........I see what you see, Swingbuster....

Good stories all but the facts don't bear out what you say. 70% of the pop of AL is clinically over weight and children make up their share. I have asked kids to drop down and do as many push-ups as they can. Some cannot get off the ground once.....I could not make that up ...it is too ridiculous

We hauled square bale hay, cut grass, built fences and worked.

So much for the " ten miles in the snow stories" but these things are addictive and give instant feedback/ pleasure with no physical requirement.

i am 16 and do both as well.... i would admit, in the off season, i am on the ps2/xbox/what ever too much, but i find as i get older, it interests me less....

i am a 'bigger guy' at 215, 5'10". i could be a little faster, could loose some weight around the waste, but i got some of the strongest thighs, but, and hips on the team... but im not the one hitting lead of or in the 2 hole... i hit 3rd-5th... im not sure what i am trying to say here, but it sounded better in my head.... ya

having a social life with friends is much more fun.better than that stupid ps2... some of my best friends are on my baseball team, and more than once a week, we wil hang around after school and borrow a bucket of balls from our coach and take a round of BP, not neccasarily to get better, but just to have fun, and stay relativly fitter (better than sittin on the couch)too...

i find that when im at home, and feel i should be working out, going for a jog for example, its hard to go do it. how ever, when i am at the field, already loose and full of energy, i have no problem running a couple shags by myself after everyone has left for home...

keeping active can be fun... dont tell ur kids to go and run when they are at home.... i would tell u to screw off.... instead say call ur buddies up and go take a BP, maby go for a jog after...

my 2 cents

P.S. i am not saying that the ps2 or what ever is not a problem.... it is... im sick of goin to school and seeing some pale *** white boys from no sunlight... my eyes hurt.

xFLOPx has the potential to be a great rap group name , good post and welcome

I don't know if the gameboys and ps2 are the problem or the excuse us old folks use. I remember my parents friends ragging about the kids of my generation and some of our pastimes that were different than theirs. Bottom line our generation created the problem with development of these products. To top that I feel in most cases kids do not choose these lifestyles, parentental neglegence pushes them in that direction.

Parents used to say "Boys its time to come inside". Now they say "Boys you need to go outside and play". The bottom line is if I had PS2 when I was a kid I would have been playing it too. We didnt have computers and video games. We played outside. We rode bikes and played army in the woods. And many other games. We threw rocks and dirtclods and anything else we could pick up. My kids have video games and they play them. But I have always stressed the importance of physical activity to both my kids. They cut the grass and do most of the yard work. When I am outside working they are outside working with me. I think you need balance. Play your video games if you want to and talk on the computer if you like. But make sure that you stay phyically fit and active.

quote:

Originally posted by xFLOPx:

... i would tell u to screw off....

Not more than once, you wouldn't...
{If you were my son.}

i didnt mean litterally.... my mom would flip if she knew i said "***".....

how bout this:

if my parents told me that i would say, 'no ill do it later', knowing that i wouldnt, and i was just prolonging the time before she asks me again...

quote:

We threw rocks and dirtclods

Dirtclod, now there's a word I have not heard in years and I'll bet most kids don't know of. I'm sure in some States a dirtclod has been declared a weapon and word is used more commonly in litigation than in the vacant lot.

Coach May makes good points, but, I think he and a majority of parents on this site, and other sites like it, are an exception to the rule when it come to motivating, directing, and monitoring the kids free time.

The older we get, the better the stories are. When kids ask, I always tell them that when I was a kid my toys were a stick and a rock. Actually, my toys were a whiffle ball and bat, a glove, a wood bat, a golf club and ball and the waves when they were just right for body surfing.

bbscout......when we were kids we all found great sticks and hit rocks into the beaver pond that was behind our land!!

We spent most of the summer at the beach. Of course we watched TV back then too. Not quite as many channels.

Personally, I think most of the HS ballplayers today are more fit than we were back then. The only reason any of us lifted weights was because the football players on the team did and we were in the same gym class. Even the pitchers didn't do that much running for baseball.

We lived in an undeveloped sub-division and with a hard wiffle bat and a street full of good flying gravel a 400 foot shot to deep center was not an uncommon occurance as a kid, even with Kofax or Gibson on our imaginary mound.