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The best present I have ever received is that my grown children still want to play with me.
“Want us to teach you how to fly?”
It sounds like a ridiculous question, but my children were serious. I taught them many things when they were little, and the students, now young adults, have become the teachers. I am grateful: Without their help, I have trouble getting my Pokémon off the ground.
We sat down for my flying lesson and I realized how lucky I am. In a world where families are fractured for all kinds of reasons, my children still want to play with me.
In their spare time, Carly and Devin have been laser-focused on the two versions of the newest Pokémon game, Scarlet and Violet, since both came out in 2022. Sometimes the kids allowed me to watch the action over their shoulders. The technological advances of the visuals and gameplay were overwhelming to me at first, given that the last time I caught a Pikachu — about 20 years ago — the Pokémon mascot was two-dimensional and pixelated.
Back then, my kids considered me to be an expert. I had developed a habit of playing their Game Boy games before they did, in part to help them when they were too little to figure out how to beat the big bosses. But the games also delighted me with their silliness and the spirit of adventure they encouraged. I did not grow up with video games, hand-held or otherwise, and I discovered that playing them made me happy. They also allowed me to spend time with my children in a stress-free environment.
But I kept that to myself, because the parents on the school playground, scrolling on their phones, gave me side eye, asking, “Why are you wasting your time with that?” I got used to smiling and putting the game away, but the voice in my head said: “Because it’s fun. And because when I meet my kids where they are, my life is so much more colorful.”
As they grew, my children became better at vanquishing the villains and didn’t need my help. I was busy, trying to juggle work, family and rare moments of self-care. There was no time for video games, and the spirit of play was replaced by a focus on accomplishment, which transformed me from a human being into a “human doing.” I wasn’t even aware that it was happening.
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