Moms who banned DnD

[billd91]

I never had a moment of trouble from my parents (heck, my mother bought me the books for various Xmases). But then, one was Methodist, the other Catholic. So I never had to put up with any ideas of singular religious 'truths' in the house. Diversity of this sort can definitely be a good thing when it comes to being an independent thinker.

One friend, whose family was Mormon, did have to give up gaming by parental directive, though I think they were a bit reluctant about it since they had never had a problem with it before. They did it mainly because their pastor said that it would be a good idea.

Another friend did have his books taken away for a while because of bad grades. I can't see that as being the same degree of inappropriate as taking them away because of misguided religious zeal. In this case, they were trying to enforce some homework diligence. Trouble was, it didn't help much. Being a good student, his father came up to me with the problem to see if I could help motivate my friend. He acknowledged that taking away the D&D privileges probably wouldn't help because my friend would sit and read other books rather than do homework. And if those were taken away, he'd just sit looking out the window and think about stuff. And his father was pretty much right. My friend was intelligent, creative, but just wasn't too diligent about doing his school work.

Ultimately, I think one of the reasons my parents didn't mind (and even kind of encouraged it by being pretty lenient about when I got home and stuff) was because I was getting top grades anyway AND because I was off gaming, they pretty much knew where I was and what I was up to. I mean, really, it wasn't like I was off knocking over 7-11s like some other kids I knew.

 

[Elf Witch]

Since I was an adult by the time the DnD satantic craze started I never had to worry about it. What I had to deal with as a kid was Star Trek I was a huge trekkie collected all the books wrote my own fan stories and made a starfleet uniform my mother became convinced that this meant that I could not tell reality from fiction she banned all things related to trek and all fiction books from the house.

When I became a parent I vowed not to ever have knee jerk reactions like this. When vidoe games became popular a lot of my friends were not allowing their kids to have them. They were worried about them causing brain damage and making kids more violent. I reserched everything and allowed my son to have vidoe games I just set a limit on long he could play and I had to play test anything that I thought was to violent. That is what smart parents do make up theirmown minds and know aht there kids are doing.

My only complaint about my now adult son playing DnD is when he borrows my books and keeps themforever.

 

[AuraSeer]

My parents had no problem with D&D. Anything that pried me away from the Colecovision was okay with them.

I had kind of heard that some parents thought it was evil, but I didn't really believe it until I went to college and met a self-proclaimed "Jesus Freak." He was a very dedicated roleplayer as a kid, but when he was a teenager he Found Religion. He claimed that when he burned all his books, he could physically see demons flying out of the fire. Coincidentally, they looked exactly like the Atog from my Magic deck.

I offered to buy him a copy of the 2nd edition books to burn, but he refused. It's too bad really, because I was planning to sell tickets.

 

[Rel]

My only complaint about my now adult son playing DnD is when he borrows my books and keeps themforever.

I've seen you around the boards a bit late, Elf Witch and I just wanted to take this opportunity to say "you rock".

 

[Melkor]

I'm a PK, so naturally my parents were very religious when I was growing up. I had to hide the books from them.

One day a friend came over to game, and left a bunch of his books at my house (even though he knew I had to hide them)...Anyway, long story short, my mom found the books in my room and threw them all out while I was visiting another friend out of state for a week. We're talking a near complete collection of 1st Edition D&D stuff, and a good bit of 2nd edition stuff. It was awful.

Long story short, It wasn't until I was 17 that I could talk about and play D&D freely.....It's funny, my folks are still religious, but no long fanatically so.

 

[Liquid Snake]

My parents never got into that "D&D is Satanic" thing, but they were concerned that "D&D is obsessive, and will make me waste all my time" vibe. Shows that my parents were much more on top of things than I often gave them credit for!

I hear ya.

 

[JDragon]

Well, I along with the rest had some what similar experiences growing up.

With my parents divorced and both remarried I spent most of my time in Ca with my mom & step-dad, visting my dad & step-mom in Texas over the summer and at x-mas.

Well home in Ca, D&D was all good, and my parents liked it as it got me interested in reading, & got me away from the TV, ect.

But the summers were bad, my step-mom had this real problem with my gaming, mainly coming from the D&D is evil stuff. I was not allowed to take the books out of my room or show my step brother any thing, as she was affraid it would corrupt him and make him evil. (which now 10 years later he is the one having spent time in jail.) Of coarse this was along with some other wacked out ideas she had, so who knows.

Now my grandparents (living in TX also) were hearing about all this ranting my step-mom was doing and wanted to check it out. But instead of just listening to what others were saying my grandfather took the time to read thru part of the books (the was the basic set red box) himself and saw it was just a game, (he had always been a big board game player so I think that helped) so my books and such were never a problem at their place.

More recently one of the guys I play with has several nephews he knows would love to play, but his sister has a problem with the wizard/warlock so it will probably not happen untill they are over 18.

 

[Mercule]

That really depends on your view of the christian faith...

Not really, since Satan is a Christian (okay, Judaism and Islam, too) devil and is in direct opposition to the Christ and God.

 

[Elf Witch]

I've seen you around the boards a bit late, Elf Witch and I just wanted to take this opportunity to say "you rock".

Why thank you.

 

[Tolen Mar]

This is my first post since I lost internet access about 6 months ago (bills piled up too much), and i gotta say this has been an interesting discussion. Last time I was here, these types of topics usually turned into flame wars.

On the other hand, I didnt have those kinds of problems growing up. My parents, uncles, and a few family friends had regular (sometimes as often as 3 times a week) sessions. I was never allowed to join in, but as I lay in bed at night, they couldnt stop me from listening in. I eventually inherited my dad's books and dice. When I got to high school, I had heard about the whole DnD is evil thing, so I went and asked my parents permission. They told me they didnt mind as long as it didnt affect my grades.

My wife didnt like it much, not because of the evil aspect but because she couldnt understand the interest and she thought it would take my interest from her (that's a very difficult thing to do ). It also didnt matter what I played, we had big fights over car wars.

Now, on the other hand, I cant mention my gaming habits to any of my grandparents. Of course my grandmother on my dad's side also thiks the SCA is evil too....