When Money Changes Perception
Coming to Terms With My Son’s Esports Obsession
Sometime around middle school, my middle son started playing World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. He loved video games from the moment he tried them. Years of tug-of-war ensued, with me trying to place limits on screen time and him mostly exceeding them. He was obsessed; he loved gaming and his two brothers even hinted that he might be out of control in terms of hours played…and also that he was very good at it.
So what if he was good at gaming? I wondered. How would that help him in the future? It seemed such a colossal waste of time and we argued often. I even caught him skipping school to hide out in his room playing with people he insisted were friends, from all over the world. One mom I knew whose son didn’t sound so different from mine sent him to rehab for gaming addiction.
I secretly wondered if I should be doing the same.
Why couldn’t he be obsessed with playing the cello? Or swimming or lacrosse? I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t some ego involved in parenting him through this: it was a big ball of yuck building inside me, composed of worry, embarrassment, shame and fear that I’d failed as a parent because I couldn’t get him to stop doing something that seemed so Wayne’s World, except less funny.
