One of the things that happens as your offspring get a bit bigger is that they’re less interested in hanging out with you and more interested in their friends and computer games.
In our house one of the rivals for my affections is a large rectangular box. The Xbox360.
Although Man of the House is only too happy to join in I haven’t really had much to do with it apart from making sure the family security settings are on, which is incredibly easy to do. So on Friday I decided to try a bit of bonding over a game. No 1 Son loves teaching stuff. Our conversation went something like this:
Him: Press the round button on the left Mum. No not that button Mum. The one on the left.
Me: Oops.
Then:
Him: Press the button on the top of the controller Mum.
Me: Which button?
Then:
Him: Look at the screen Mum. Look at what’s happening on screen.
Me: Why are they going the wrong way?
Him: Because you’re moving them in the wrong direction.
And so on. Still it was fun, and by the end of our training session I was sort of getting the hang of it. ‘That was pretty cool, Mum,’ No 1 Son said. I was feeling all warm inside until I asked what age the game we were playing was aimed at. ‘3plus,’ he replied.