Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="clark411" data-source="post: 2534251" data-attributes="member: 4768">I'd have to say that RPGs are probably have just as much, if not more, of a risk element when it comes to dealing with infants and extremely young children.  If by cooperative RPG you mean "Make-believe in which they work together to overcome riddles and puzzles" then that'd be fine, but if there's any sort of conflict with imaginary characters or monsters, then there's a risk involved.  Imagination can be both a child's sanctuary and realm of danger- whether it's retreating into their fancies as they often do, wandering the house making it far more interesting that it actually may be, or it's dealing with nightmares or concepts they can't quite understand and interpret negatively.  Children invent their own antagonists- no need to inject more into their lives.Introducing any kind of hostile or antagonistic, make-believe character, comes with dangers.  First of all, it's a character that has the parental stamp of approval.  Sauron and Santa will be on the same page- and one is, for better or worse, a bad guy.  Secondly, no matter how much you play it down, you can't go inside a child's mind and stop them from building it up to mean more than you intended... that's what maturing minds do- they give unique and personal texture to general concepts over time.  If the family has to actually come together, mom, dad, siblings, to try to overcome that nemesis repeatedly- that has meaning as well: 1) it's important, because everyone's there, 2) it's really bad, as it takes us to do it, and 3) even though my sibling and I can work together to win, since we play the game more than once, it means we can't actually beat him.Additionally, the concepts of fairness and equality, are about as far away from a 2.5 year old's mental capacity as morality is.  At that age, at least according to the texts I've read (anyone with info beyond 2001ish please correct), it's really about being sated or not being sated by whatever experiences they're having- be it food, ownership of a toy, or being with someone they find comfort/happiness with. That said... to address the actual question as briefly as possible, after spending too many paragraphs on the wee bit in the middle about RPGs, no I have no recommendations for non-competitive games.  Just haven't seen any.</blockquote>

Verification