Question for Dads and Moms about gamer rooms

[Reed Rothchild | 9,551]

2 hours ago, fcgamer said:

It's a very laughable topic, if your kids and their friends are stealing more than a few beers from you, you probably should be more concerned about parenting, lol.

I mean you do have all that experience raising a kid cat

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

As I get older and have more games and less space I like the idea of a literal closet, like 8x10’ that is 100% shelving with just an isle to walk that is stuffed with games. 
 

Super easy to lock and secure, small footprint  and hides clutter. 
 

It would be overwhelming to other people, but who cares? Plus if you have a lot of other swag it might not be attainable 

 

This is far easier in other areas than where I live now where huge finished basements are common

[fcgamer | 4,732]

16 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

I mean you do have all that experience raising a kid cat

Ahh, parents, love popping out kids, hate actually spending time with 'em. 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,551]

2 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Ahh, parents, love popping out kids, hate actually spending time with 'em. 

Projecting your own childhood?

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,014]

My hope would be to move it from the basement to an office but with my basement coming with huge built-in shelves I just couldn't do initially. Plus I don't have that many games as I'm hovering just over 1k so realistically they could fit into a small space. 

[Hammerfestus | 3,864]

[fcgamer | 4,732]

33 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

Projecting your own childhood?

Nah, just what I've seen over the past two months of lockdown in Taiwan - the yoga moms all loathed being at home with their kids.

Maybe the situation in the states is different though.

[Reed Rothchild | 9,551]

10 minutes ago, fcgamer said:

Nah, just what I've seen over the past two months of lockdown in Taiwan - the yoga moms all loathed being at home with their kids.

Maybe the situation in the states is different though.

You should make that same generalization next time you're on a date.  Maybe also mention "popping them out."

[Tulpa | 3,520]

Anyone who thinks they can vet their kid's friends has never seen Leave it to Beaver's Eddie Haskell. Probably the most realistic character in TV history.

[JamesRobot | 5,808]

35 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Eddie Haskell

My hero!

[Renmauzo | 1,202]

17 minutes ago, Reed Rothchild said:

It's not black and white.  There is a grey area.

I have three boys who will one day be 16, 16, 18.  If we leave them alone for the weekend I probably wouldn't choose to lay $50,000 worth of cash or jewelry out in the family room either.

At the very least I'd probably say that if they have people over I don't want anybody in the smaller media room, and being very firm about it.  Even then you're leaving yourself open.   And it has nothing to do with trust.  It has nothing to do with surrounding yourself with good people.  It's just risk management.  I mean, did you guys never have a party at your house and some friends of friends end up coming over?

Teenagers make poor choices.  You forgive them, and help them learn from it.  

It's certainly reasonable to be adamant that people not go in a particular room or rooms while away and I would be inclined to do just that, but I firmly believe that artificial barriers like locks, cameras and the like - within the home - send the wrong message about trust to children whom I would expect to trust me.

To say that this topic has nothing to do with trust or whom a child would surround themselves with is an odd assertion to me. Risk management, yes, but in my eyes, that has just as much to do with the risk of losing the trust between parent and child as it does the risk of losing material goods. I'm paraphrasing here, but hasn't something to the effect of "Treat someone like a criminal, don't be surprised if they become one" been said? All that said, I get that we're more so talking about friends of our kids or friends of friends who we've had no hand in raising, but this ties back to a trust in our kids and who they choose to associate with and the trust we have in their ability to manage people in their lives with the tools we've given them.

I went to a ton of parties and had some as well. When hosting, I made my position clear what was out of bounds (literally and figuratively) and the odd time I was challenged with that classic "How are your folks gonna know?", I would just say "But I would."; my mother used to tell me, "I'll always trust what you say and do completely unless you give me a reason not to.".

Teenagers certainly make poor choices as do we from time to time, and we help them learn just as you say, but when given the chance to show it, they often times make the right ones too.

At any rate, this is just the way I see things. That said, I think it'll be really interesting to see how we all make out at raising this next generation!

[phart010 | 1,708]

Deadbolt lock on game room door.
Ring camera inside so you know what’s happening whenever someone is in there.

[Estil | 1,265]

Well let's hope nobody's kids here does anything like this  

 

[GPX | 1,370]

Simple solution:

A. Sell the collection 

or

B. Sell the kids

[JamesRobot | 5,808]

12 minutes ago, GPX said:

Simple solution:

A. Sell the collection 

or

B. Sell the kids

[KokiriChild | 1,644]

This is tough, because we can try and grand stand about proper parenting all we want, but even good kids are put into tough situations and make poor choices. 

Let's say you have a couple teens whom you trust, and they have a small party, maybe you are even aware of, with a few friends whom you also trust. What is to keep more people than expected to show up and then, when your good kid suspects someone might've gone into dad's game room, is put into the terribly uncomfortable scenario of having to either A. Confront the person without 100% proof, or B. Let your game get stolen? I'd bet the house that with the social politics of high school, odds are much greater that your Little Samson is going bye-bye.

This is a very realisitic situation and I think that a deadbolt or something similar is very reasonable. Especially if you don't normally keep those barriers up when you and your kids are at home.

Edited August 5, 2021 by KokiriChild

[phart010 | 1,708]

9 minutes ago, KokiriChild said:

This is tough, because we can try and grand stand about proper parenting all we want, but even good kids are put into tough situations and make poor choices. 

Let's say you have a couple teens whom you trust, and they have a small party, maybe you are even aware of, with a few friends whom you also trust. What is to keep more people than expected to show up and then, when your good kid suspects someone might've gone into dad's game room, is put into the terribly uncomfortable scenario of having to either A. Confront the person without 100% proof, or B. Let your game get stolen? I'd bet the house that with the social politics of high school, odds are much greater that your Little Samson is going bye-bye.

This is a very realisitic situation and I think that a deadbolt or something similar is very reasonable. Especially if you don't normally keep those barriers up when you and your kids are at home.

No party’s in my house. If you want to have some friends over, ok. If you want to have a party, do that somewhere else

[Silent Hill | 276]

I've got my stuff in an unfinished basement and my girls are still toddlers. That said, I figured leaving enough spiders down there would deter girls from even thinking about going downstairs. 

[Tulpa | 3,520]

33 minutes ago, phart010 said:

No party’s in my house. If you want to have some friends over, ok. If you want to have a party, do that somewhere else

Good luck with that.

[Tulpa | 3,520]

10 hours ago, JamesRobot said:

My hero!

Every time you post, I learn that much more about you.

 

[Gloves | 11,800]

25 minutes ago, Silent Hill said:

I've got my stuff in an unfinished basement and my girls are still toddlers. That said, I figured leaving enough spiders down there would deter girls from even thinking about going downstairs. 

Maybe not all girls.

[Boosted52405 | 178]

15 hours ago, Renmauzo said:

For both game rooms, I've conditioned my kids to respect those spaces: being careful with the games, putting things away when not in use (like controllers, etc.), dusting and things like this. It's now to the point where the kids remind their friends to respect the spaces and things in them when they come over, and everything is always good (watching a new generation being introduced to arcade machines is great!).

Trust and honest, open conversation. Trust that your kids will make mistakes, but also that they will invariably do the right thing, choose to surround themselves with good people, and that you raised them to be good people.

In my eyes, the potential loss of a few games is not worth showing a lack of trust in my kids and putting up artificial barriers for them that would put that lack of trust in their judgement (including who they choose to surround themselves with) on display.

On the absolute flip side, kids also look up to their parents tremendously.  Let's say a parent has a full NES set and is quite passionate about their collection and gaming - it's inevitable that the children are going to start to pick up on the the obscureness/rarity/value of the items.  Odds are the parent will attempt to get their kids into the hobby too.  Furthermore, odds are they are going to brag to their friends about it.  Yeah you can see where it could quickly become problematic with friends of kids running thru the house.

Here is a mild example:

Son - "Dude, here it is, quick check it out before my Dad gets home."

Friend - "Oh, this is the Stadium Events game you talked about.  Looks soooo boring from the back of the box, why is it worth so much?!?" 

Son - "Idk, let's open it and see what the game looks like...shit the cardboard ripped a little my Dad will kill me!!!!"  ***quickly puts the game back with hopes Dad never finds out***

[Boosted52405 | 178]

12 hours ago, Renmauzo said:

It's certainly reasonable to be adamant that people not go in a particular room or rooms while away and I would be inclined to do just that, but I firmly believe that artificial barriers like locks, cameras and the like - within the home - send the wrong message about trust to children whom I would expect to trust me.

To say that this topic has nothing to do with trust or whom a child would surround themselves with is an odd assertion to me. Risk management, yes, but in my eyes, that has just as much to do with the risk of losing the trust between parent and child as it does the risk of losing material goods. I'm paraphrasing here, but hasn't something to the effect of "Treat someone like a criminal, don't be surprised if they become one" been said? All that said, I get that we're more so talking about friends of our kids or friends of friends who we've had no hand in raising, but this ties back to a trust in our kids and who they choose to associate with and the trust we have in their ability to manage people in their lives with the tools we've given them.

I went to a ton of parties and had some as well. When hosting, I made my position clear what was out of bounds (literally and figuratively) and the odd time I was challenged with that classic "How are your folks gonna know?", I would just say "But I would."; my mother used to tell me, "I'll always trust what you say and do completely unless you give me a reason not to.".

Teenagers certainly make poor choices as do we from time to time, and we help them learn just as you say, but when given the chance to show it, they often times make the right ones too.

At any rate, this is just the way I see things. That said, I think it'll be really interesting to see how we all make out at raising this next generation!

The idea in concept is not far removed from the concept of locking up your guns.  Risk Management is a great way to look at it versus the psychological aspect presented.  I'd take it a step further and associate it to societal restrictions, such as requiring a seat belt, or being 16 to get a drivers license, 21 to drink, 18 to gamble etc.  I really don't think there is loss of trust with any of the above, including locking up pricey or unsafe possessions like jewelry, guns, money, and so forth.

Edited August 5, 2021 by Boosted52405

[Estil | 1,265]

3 hours ago, Silent Hill said:

I've got my stuff in an unfinished basement and my girls are still toddlers. That said, I figured leaving enough spiders down there would deter girls from even thinking about going downstairs. 

Hopefully they're not THIS arachnophobic though!  

 

Edited August 5, 2021 by Estil