...may THIS be the day that we draw swords together!

Monday night.  No sports for the boys today - tho the 15 year old is at the gym across the way.  I am happily typing upstairs.  Suddenly the sound of sword-play erupts from downstairs.  This might trouble some people, but I am used to it.  After dinner there will be the sound of gunfire.  All in the normal course of events around here.  You are probably thinking that maybe I shouldn't live on this island if it is so unsafe.  You are probably envisioning wild natives waving beheaded chickens & machetes, followed by drug lords with pimped out cars & M16's.  But no, be at ease.  It is only the Xbox.  Combined with boys.  I imagine these consoles make different noises for the parents of girls.

I held out for many years on the video game front.  While other mothers capitulated around me, I hunkered down & swore I would not buy one of those gaming consoles that would begin the slow yet inescapable decomposition of my innocent childrens brains.

My 15 year old was 11 when he finally saved enough money to buy a used GameCube.   Mario & Luigi became a part of the family.  At about the same time we were sucked into the medieval-ish world of Runescape, an online RPG game.  (& if you don't know what an RPG game is your children must still be under 5 - RPG: Role Playing Game).

I say we, because I jumped off that cliff along with the children.  I happily threw banana peels & bombs in MarioKart.  In Runescape, I created a beautiful girl with seagreen hair, several changes of clothes & a scimitar on her belt.  She can mine for gold, cook anchovy pizza's & even do pottery!  Four years later, she is still out there - I visit her from time to time - she has more clothes now & a new hair color - strawberry blond (It is hard to co-ordinate outfits with seagreen hair.).

Some mothers looked at me oddly when I told them that I would play Runescape.  Surprisingly, it was a little addicting at first, I admit - I would get up in the night, secretly turn on the internet & take my girl to craft some necklaces or learn some magic spells.  & yes, sometimes she was a murdering wench & I allowed her to kill hapless castle guards who would reappear seconds after their death so she could kill them again! 

But playing these games gave me something with my children that I might have lost otherwise.  I remained their confidant.  They would rush to tell me if they had Levelled Up, or survived in the Wilderness, or whether Runescape's Halloween Event was out.  They knew I would understand how long it would take when they said things like, "I'm logging off in just a minute after I finish at the Grand Exchange." They knew I could appreciate the difficulty of things they had achieved, so they were quick to keep me updated with their progress.  As a fellow player, I had their respect - a different kind of respect than I have as their parent.  So, in this way the games did not isolate me from my children - in fact, I believe they kept us closer at a time in their lives when they may have started to drift away into their own little worlds.

Now it's the Xbox, purchased by the two boys together.  The oldest plays Halo, where he belongs to a clan & sits on our couch magisterially issuing commands to other players online.  The youngest plays Skyrim, an RPG game.  He told me the other day that he is now an assassin.  Am I proud - what mother wouldn't be?  Besides, last week he was a vampire, so an assassin must be a step up...

As for me, I play Dragon Age Legends on facebook & am happy to say with all smugness that I am a higher level than either of the boys.  Sometimes they even ask me for advice on strategy!  (OK, not really, just a silly dream I have...)  So, let them draw their swords & launch their plasma rockets - I am sure I will hear all the gory details tomorrow, because they know I care.  :)