Hey! My name is Amitay and I wanted to share with you my story (I hope it's alright since this is the first time I'm writing here and I'm quite nervous about it :P ).At the beginning of 2014, I decided to purchase the Sony PlayStation 4 console, and I also decided to buy a second controller for my first unborn son who came into this world around two months later.Parents tend to buy lots of crazy stuff for their upcoming babies, and most of it goes unused. But this specific decision was based on a very logical three reasons I kept telling myself:It will be useful — My boy, like any other kids out there, will love to play and there is no reason why he won’t want to play video games. (Plus, consoles have a long life span, so the PS4 will still be relevant when he’s older).It a great bonding point — I love playing video games, and if point 1 is true, he and I will have a great time playing together and talking about video games. It will be a common ground for us to base a relationship upon.Skills development — When choosing right, video games can help kids develop great skills. Instincts, mind, and even storytelling can come from the many great video games out there.And so, I got the second controller. And waited for him to come, and grow.Being an Adult GamerPeople always smile when they hear me say that I’m a gamer. To many, it’s like saying “I like to play with dolls” or “I’m spending my free time in the playground.” Games are for kids, and grownups are too busy for this nonsense, right?From time to time I meet parents (usually dads) who remember the fun from when they were young. They tell me about a video game they used to play and their eyes glazed over and their mouth says things like, “How do you find the time?!” or “Isn’t it addictive?” I see that they want to play, but they can’t figure out how to squeeze it among all of the adult-stuff they have.“You can always find time to the important stuff in your life,” I always reply.And I really mean it . Just because we’re grownups, it doesn’t mean we should stop having fun. Video games are fun, and besides, I’m also getting lots of other stuff rather than just fun. I feel that I really am a better person because of the games I play. I become smarter while solving puzzles and react faster to multiple events occurring at the same time.And since I see so much value for myself, it only makes sense for me to want and pass all of this great stuff to future generations.Constructing: New GamerBut placing a controller in kids’ hands won’t make them gamers, nor will it help them play video games at all. As with everything around trying to raise children, you can try and imagine how smooth things will go until reality knocks you on the head and proves you wrong.“What should he play first?” I kept asking myself.I browsed Steam, GOG, and the PS store, again and again, wondering what will make an easy-to-play game. I knew that it should not include complex UI and that the content should be light, colorful, and simple. Flower seemed to be that kind of a game (you control the wind, there is no shooting, it’s all very relaxing), and when I first tried to have him play that game, I suddenly realized — he can’t even hold the controller. His hands are simply too small!Well…did not see that coming.And so I waited a bit more until he could hold it correctly (BTW, now I know there are smaller controllers for kids) and tried again. But now the problem was that what seemed very natural for me was actually a long learning curve for any non-gamer. Clicking on the right buttons while staring at the screen is hard (you need to remember the position of every button) and spinning the small joysticks is a very gentle motor skill you need to practice before you get it right. Do you see? Even before playing one second of a game, there’s a whole world you need to learn and master in your hands.Again and again, I kept sticking the controller in his hands. He got it eventually, and I was proud. Now it’s time to choose the right game.Searching: ContentWhen I googled “how many video games are there,” I got into the very scientific answer of A LOT. And as it becomes easier and easier to develop games, I can see how we’ll soon end up with A LOT MORE.Which games are a good fit for my son? That’s a bit more complex question then what you may think, and there are three main reasons:What’s fun — There is no single video game that is fun for all kids. Some kids love action, while others love puzzles. Some like first-person shooters, some want platformers. A fun video game is very individual and you can’t just pick up a few video games that were fun to you or to other kids and hope that your kids will like them, too.Kids change — Kids are always growing. They change all the frigging time. They can enjoy one thing today and find it boring tomorrow. They can play with the same toy for months and then it’ll fade away very quickly.Suitable content — Parents set obvious restrictions on what we allow our kids to take part in. We can’t allow our kids to play everything. We have rules and limits and not all games should be played.These reasons still leave us with a gigantic pile video games, a set of parenting rules, and a small child who needs to be fed with an ongoing list of games.What did I do?I googled generic queries such as “best games for 4 years old kids” and got generic lists of games that are usually constructed with Lego games and Minecraft. These are great, but I’m sure we can do better than that.At this point (and I’m talking almost 5 years now), I found myself at a dead end. I’m a gamer, I have a child who can play any game — but I have no clue what to encourage him to play. Looking around for help, all I see are smiling parents who are still in the phase of “Oh….you’re a gamer…that’s cute.”The Internet to the rescue?After I couldn’t find anyone around me who could truly relate and understand me—and after I came to the conclusion that it’s impossible that I’m the only gamer-parent out there who faces the same challenge—I decided to build a central place, called GrowGames, that will gather all gamers-parents out there and give them space to discuss and share ideas about how to create the future generation of responsible gamers.I truly believe that getting gamers-parents together will make us smarter about what we give our kids to play (like it or not, they will play video games, so you better set their basics right). It will also help parents who are not gamers—they face the exact same issues as gamers-parents, only without the background of gaming, so they are way more clueless about what their kid's brain is being fed with. And last, I think it can change how video game developers will structure their games in the future. We’ll see fewer nonsense video games and more games that can make our kids for the better.So there you have it.I can’t do this without your help so if you relate to my point of view, I would love it if you’ll join me over at GrowGames (you can also support me on Patreon). Let’s talk and share ideas together!Also, do upvote and/or share this post so more parents out there will notice it in the hope our future generations will be better :) via /r/Parenting http://bit.ly/2HCvJ7j
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