I game with my child.

Electronics are a daily part of everyone’s life.

From checking your social media updates on your cell phone, to reading this article now. We are constantly attached to tech, in some way shape or form.

Like many parents, I’m concerned about how much is too much in the gaming department for my child. Although my son is still a toddler, I am concerned about how long I should let him play “Angry Birds: Space” or “Plants vs. Zombies” (he is better at those games then I am).

I want him to be outside playing and exploring his world.

It’s important to me to have him reading books rather than being attached to tech.

However.

Video games are proven time and again to be one of the biggest helpers in development and learning for children.

With this in mind, as a gamer, wouldn’t I want to introduce my child to games? Because I know how much fun they are and it would promote bonding in another way with my child.

Video games, in general, are meant to be shared and games offer so many teaching opportunities with critical thinking and problem solving. Games, such as “Little Big Planet 3” offering two-player mode in which you help your child to solve challenges in the game. Each challenge becoming progressively more difficult, allows for room to teach and express frustration at a task, but to find a way to calm down and refocus on the goal. I’m highly anticipating “Unravel” for this reason alone.

While, video games offer learning and developmental skills to children, I find that we enjoy at the heart of it fun in play. He may not be old enough, just yet, to express well thought out conversations, but I do think talking about a game we’ve played together or him “helping” me through an area in LBP3 promotes imaginative play. He can pretend to be a character in a game, and I see this reflected in his unplugged play.

Sure, many choose video games as escapism and that is fine, video games help to relieve a lot of stress.

I choose to use video games as a learning and bonding tool for us. You can still enjoy video games with you child, and with so many family games out now, it is hard to not find a game that the family will love. Children enjoy working with their parents and parents will find they are shaping their child’s imagination. So, be one of the 18% of parents who choose to buy a console over a tablet this year.

And play video games with your kids.