In the string of deaths this week of Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Billy Mays, the strangeness of life has once again been outed.
My daughters and I were discussing this as they were playing Guitar Hero. They were attempting to master expert level on Hotel California.
“Madonna’s probably going to be next,” my 16 year old daughter said. We all laughed because of something in the way she said it. Humor is often like that, unintentional and true. A relief. A way of protecting ourselves. As if untimely death will only ever happen to over-the-top to celebrities.
Did you ever play air guitar, perhaps on a tennis racket? These days for lots of practice and little imagination a child can feature themselves as a real rock band or guitar hero. Products are available at Target and Best Buy to put them in a virtual fantasy land contrived and executed by others, and achieve “glory.”
With a little money and no parenting skills a child could easily be allowed to immerse themselves in these things. And it’s much easier to let them stay there, than to harp on them to do their summer reading or call their grandmother.
I was surprised but shouldn’t be, how things are always taken one step further.
Fog Liquid for Stage Kit for Rock Band, $24.99 at Best Buy
I wasn’t surprised to hear that a “Stage Kit” is needed for it to work. This is available for $59.99.
Michael Jackson was set free to exist only in the confines of a stage for almost his entire life.
Why do we do this to our children, not just as parents, but as a society?
We’ll pass on the Rock Band stage kit and liquid fog at our house.
Go outside, play. Learn to talk to strangers who are adults. Make mistakes. Learn from all of it. Take lessons with real instruments, or dance and sing for the pleasure it brings you. And in spite of us parents who sometimes choose the easy road, learn to run. Every toddler must.
I’ve read so many interesting posts about Michael Jackson this week. Here are two of my favorites:
coffeeyogurt: on the subject of michael jackson and cognitive dissonance
Cinnamon and Honey: Musical Monday: Remembering the Child Star
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{ 14 comments }
My kids are guitar hero addicts, and so far have not connected the dots to the fog machine we have in the upstairs closet (ghost of Halloween parties past).
Thank the gods for small miracles.
I am with you! I love imagination, art and creativity and toys that are open-ended!
What a wonderful statement. It sums up my thinking exactly. What a joy to be able to express yourself musically without any hype.
Yes, I pretended I was in rock band while strumming on my tennis racquet in front of a mirror in my bedroom. Me and my sisters and a couple other sets of siblings in the neighborhood even formed a band and put on two concerts for our parents on the front porch of our next door neighbor’s house. Our stage decorations consisted entirely of a string of garden lamps my mother had that looked like butterflies. We even served lemonade and popcorn to our audience. I was the youngest member of the band and got my moment in the spotlight singing “Hopelessly Devoted to You.”
It was awesome.
Boy do I agree with you 100%! Kids: go outside, skin your knees, climb trees, call granny, make mistakes & lots of REAL friends, get away from the computer and anything that has a battery or be plugged in! Be plugged into life and grow up. The reason we got the narcisstic metrosexual fascist government is because our country refuses to act mature. Thank you for being such a good parent and sharing your great writings. (I wish I could write like you!)
) xx
Sometimes it is good to be a goat. I say that a lot….
My nephew is so into Guitar Hero. I’ve tried to play it and well it’s like teaching and old dog new tricks. We have fund doing it though. Good post
My kids have moved on from Guitar Hero, and are verging on addiction to Sims 3. I have had to put a time limit on playing on the computer (for them, of course!
and drag them out of the house.
You bring up some excellent posts, Margo. I read somewhere that kids today spend so much time interaciting “virtually” that they are losing the ability, as a generation, to interpret body language in others. They don’t make eye contact.
Scary.
My daughter got a portable, handheld video gaming system for her birthday yesterday. I was very proud of her when she only played it for an hour or so, and then turned it off of her own volition. Despite the fact that I’ll waste six hours or so in front of mine, she seemed to realize that an hour was good enough.
LOL!!! I hate the idea of guitar hero so much…
I did get my kids guitars. REAL GUITARS!!! They also have the damn video game too.
It’s all electronic ALL the time now, isn’t it?? Sigh.
oh wow, that’s me! thank you for the link-love!
Another celebrity death, just a few days prior, was Carradine. And the way he died. Yikes. His family must be glad for the timing of both MJ and Farrah. Whew.
And yes, I’m with you on the “get out there and experience life” instead of playing at life in front of an electronic screen. My son and I have this discussion quite frequently. He doesn’t appreciate the message quite as readily as you or I. In fact, he gets quite testy about it. What does an old lady with a Phd in human behavior know, anyway?
p.s. I love your new blog look. LOVE.IT. The colors and the antique-victorian-retro floral graphic look awesome.
Love the post! Video games and tv rule our free time. Crazy.
Psssst… we play real instruments too. (Just had to have that out there).
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