DOING FUN & ENJOYABLE THINGS TOGETHER.. Part 5 of the series on Raising Sons, by Pastor Dennis Legaspi of Christ's Commission Fellowship, CCF Alabang, Philippines and Singapore. Read the whole text from this link. It's a wonderful series. And I just wanted to highlight and comment on Part 5.
If you have young sons, the insights from this series will be well worth the time spent on reading. The recommendations are well said and it's all good advice!
I would just add that us Dad's should be sensitive to play the games our sons like, and not just influence them ((impose?) on the games we like. Yes we need to guide and direct our kids, but not all the time. It's not stimulating for example, for a child to be egged to play chess or soccer when he enjoys competitive badminton or freewheeling basketball.
I also have a burden to share that video games are not all bad and Dad's should try and enjoy them with their sons instead of shunning them away or being totally passive when they play. Agree that too much video games is bad, and you'll need to be selective, but they can also be enjoyable within set boundaries. My son and I used to enjoy FPS games (first person shooters, to the uninitiated) like early versions of Call Of Duty, Battlefield, even Freedom Fighters (and later, Borderlands) and the widely popular Left 4 Dead game that came before Walking Dead grew into a craze. In many of these games you could be in the same virtual environment so you are really playing together with your son, interactively. We'd play this as a family with my wife and daughter sometimes, and we'd be screaming and jumping, and it's my son who would come to the rescue when we'd get engulfed by a horde.
At times my son would expectantly want me to play on my own and try out a new game, he'd watch excitedly, sitting by my side and teach me where to find caches or discover new worlds or acquire new abilities for my game character.
The results of playing the games together? He would tell me how he'd share with his friends that he plays video games with his Dad, that his Dad has an account in such and such games and has such a rank. His friends would then respond that that he's got the best Dad, and I would be beaming and feel warm all over as he tells me these.
My son has now outgrown his fascination for video games, but he still tells stories of the fun we had while playing together. These are cherished moments, indeed! Key thought - don't miss out on doing things your son enjoys!
And lest anyone think that I am focused on endorsing video games, let me say that many of the fun I had with my son was had while outdoors climbing mountains and sleeping in high-tech tents, cooking our own meals on high-tech ultra light cooking gear. We had a very precious three years of frequent mountain climbing. A very fleeting season in life, I now realize, and difficult to recapture. And that's the other key thought - do these fun things while you have the opportunity. Because you won't always have the opportunity. If you haven't done them while your sons are young, you miss the opportunity. But if you've done those fun things, they become treasured memories you'll hold for a lifetime.
I was with my son and daughter in a recent trip to the Bugkalot in Nueva Viscaya. Quite unexpectedly, we ended up doing a challenging 3+ hour hike up slippery terrain in casual clothes. Scary, but fun! We've had lots of fun as a family going on foreign and local travels and adventures. Another piece of advise in raising sons (and daughters) - don't just invest on things. Any thing you give your son or daughter will in time, lose value or be outgrown, left behind. But memories from fun travels will become intimate "possessions" that our kids will carry with them wherever they go, and tell their own children, even after we've passed away.
Blessings!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
If you have young sons, the insights from this series will be well worth the time spent on reading. The recommendations are well said and it's all good advice!
I would just add that us Dad's should be sensitive to play the games our sons like, and not just influence them ((impose?) on the games we like. Yes we need to guide and direct our kids, but not all the time. It's not stimulating for example, for a child to be egged to play chess or soccer when he enjoys competitive badminton or freewheeling basketball.
I also have a burden to share that video games are not all bad and Dad's should try and enjoy them with their sons instead of shunning them away or being totally passive when they play. Agree that too much video games is bad, and you'll need to be selective, but they can also be enjoyable within set boundaries. My son and I used to enjoy FPS games (first person shooters, to the uninitiated) like early versions of Call Of Duty, Battlefield, even Freedom Fighters (and later, Borderlands) and the widely popular Left 4 Dead game that came before Walking Dead grew into a craze. In many of these games you could be in the same virtual environment so you are really playing together with your son, interactively. We'd play this as a family with my wife and daughter sometimes, and we'd be screaming and jumping, and it's my son who would come to the rescue when we'd get engulfed by a horde.
At times my son would expectantly want me to play on my own and try out a new game, he'd watch excitedly, sitting by my side and teach me where to find caches or discover new worlds or acquire new abilities for my game character.
The results of playing the games together? He would tell me how he'd share with his friends that he plays video games with his Dad, that his Dad has an account in such and such games and has such a rank. His friends would then respond that that he's got the best Dad, and I would be beaming and feel warm all over as he tells me these.
My son has now outgrown his fascination for video games, but he still tells stories of the fun we had while playing together. These are cherished moments, indeed! Key thought - don't miss out on doing things your son enjoys!
And lest anyone think that I am focused on endorsing video games, let me say that many of the fun I had with my son was had while outdoors climbing mountains and sleeping in high-tech tents, cooking our own meals on high-tech ultra light cooking gear. We had a very precious three years of frequent mountain climbing. A very fleeting season in life, I now realize, and difficult to recapture. And that's the other key thought - do these fun things while you have the opportunity. Because you won't always have the opportunity. If you haven't done them while your sons are young, you miss the opportunity. But if you've done those fun things, they become treasured memories you'll hold for a lifetime.
I was with my son and daughter in a recent trip to the Bugkalot in Nueva Viscaya. Quite unexpectedly, we ended up doing a challenging 3+ hour hike up slippery terrain in casual clothes. Scary, but fun! We've had lots of fun as a family going on foreign and local travels and adventures. Another piece of advise in raising sons (and daughters) - don't just invest on things. Any thing you give your son or daughter will in time, lose value or be outgrown, left behind. But memories from fun travels will become intimate "possessions" that our kids will carry with them wherever they go, and tell their own children, even after we've passed away.
Blessings!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Comments
Post a Comment