One Proud Daddy: Child’s First All-Nighter.
It's funny what a parent can be proud of...
My son, Ethan, has never really been a gamer. At least not in any way that I'd define the term. Sure, he spends a good deal of his free time on his computer, and much of that playing video games, but I'd never say that it's something he's passionate about. More like something he does to pass the time when he's bored.
This weekend, after building myself a new computer last week, I gave Ethan's computer a much needed upgrade, and installed a few games on it that wouldn't run on his old machine, most notably, Mass Effect, and Dragon Age: Origins. Last night, sometime before dinner, I set everything up for him, and demoed the games. He seemed fairly interested, and soon after started into Mass Effect.
I took Tonya (my fiance) out to a movie last night, so we left Ethan, who recently turned 15, to his own devices. When we got home, he was still playing, and it was all I could do to get him to come downstairs to grab the bag of popcorn we'd brought home for him. Tonya and I "chillaxed" for a couple of hours, and decided that since we'd skipped dinner to catch an early movie, that we'd head over to Denny's for some late night (11 o'clock-ish) grub.
Now you almost have to know my son to really appreciate this. You have to understand that he's at that stage in his life where he's always hungry. It's not uncommon for him to be rooting around in the fridge at midnight. If he's not in the fridge, he's asking to order pizza, or go through drive-thru for burgers. It's not that he doesn't eat dinner either. Usually he's had dinner at least twice by this time of night.
So last night as we were heading out for a bite to eat, we of course asked Ethan if he wanted to come along, and assumed that he'd be all over the idea. Imagine my surprise when he said "Thanks, but I'm not really hungry."
Now before I get too far, I want to point out that it is March break, and although we normally give Ethan tons of freedom where his sleep schedule is concerned so long as it doesn't effect his schoolwork and whatnot, normally we'd like to have him in bed for midnight. Ish. Don't want you all thinking we're bad parents.
So anyway, Tonya and I met a friend of hers at Denny's, ate much, and made our way home for about 1:00 am. I wandered upstairs to see if Ethan had called it a night yet, and sure enough he was still hacking away at Mass Effect. I wished him good night, opted not to give him the "don't be up all night" speech since it was March break, and turned in for the night.
This morning, I woke up and went through my usual routine, expecting to be the only one awake. As I passed by his room on the way to shower, I caught the familiar sound of video game explosions. Peeking through his bedroom door I asked, "Up early or still awake?" to which his response was, "I wasn't really tired, so I stayed up." He immediately followed up that with "I didn't play the game all night," in that guilty sounding voice that suggested that he'd done just that, probably only breaking to use the bathroom and raid the fridge. I laughed and let him get back to his game.
Where Ethan's concerned, there are many things to be proud of. He's a good kid. He does extremely well in school. He's gifted with a sharp wit and piercing intellect. While all of those things make me extremely proud, something about last night's (and this mornings) events struck that magic chord within me, giving birth to all new levels of pride. I guess it's natural for parents to be proud of those things that remind them of themselves, those things that reinforce the sense of continuity between parent and child. It seams absolutely ridiculous to be proud of such a thing, but proud I am. Bursting at the seams proud even.
To the gamers out there: Do you remember your first all-nighter? I remember mine. I was, perhaps not-so-coincidentally, 15 years old at the time, and the game was Breath of Fire II on the Super Nintendo.
- Tagged in: gaming, culture, pride
- Category: General
