I know it’s been a hot minute since my last blog post. I have no excuse other than life took over. My running and weight loss, garden full of evil squash bugs, kids being out of school, getting them to their summer activities, catching up on doctor appointments and a mini trip to NY. I just haven’t figured out my routine that doesn’t involve falling asleep late at night while i’m trying to write. Now things have been made just bit more harder with Pokemon Go. Yes, now Pokemon Go. I am most definitely not a video game person. I played a few video games as a kid but outside of a few Atari games and Super Mario, I was never that interested. My kids have had multiple game systems over the years, a Xbox, Playstation’s and a Wii in addition to their hand held DS’s. Outside of Wii Sports and Cooking Mama I rarely played with them. The games on my phone, they are my kids. Facebook games, please don’t send me a request but Pokemon Go. I am in my thirties but all about it, it weird but good.
If you haven’t somehow heard about Pokemon Go yet, it is an augmented reality game for your cell phone where you go around looking for Pokemon, capture them and then battle and train them. Yes, you are going around looking for Pokemon, kinda like geocaching. They randomly appear all over the place. Like, For instance:
The bathroom at the park
Crossing the street in the neighborhood
Trust me they are everywhere but i’m not writing about how to play the game. There are plenty of other great blogs out there that can help with you with that. I want to tell you about the reasons why I’m loving Pokemon Go.
I guess I should start from the beginning. My family has been waiting what seems like forever for Pokemon Go to come out. My one son LOVES Pokemon. Pokemon was not something my husband or I introduced him too either. We both knew very little about Pokemon. Pokemon came out in 1996. In 1996, I was in college. When my son starts talking about Pokemon I am pretty clueless. I use to only know a few Pokemon by name, like Pikachu.
The biggest thing we were hoping for with Pokemon Go is that our son would want to willingly go outside. Going outside and doing physical activity willingly has never been Kid 2’s thing. Totally crazy when you have 2 parents who love spending time outside as well as all of your siblings,huh? Sure, he has participated in the Special Olympics and we tried USATF track like his siblings but it was never his thing. Go outside and play means taking his DS outside and playing. He is a kid that would stay inside all day if allowed. This isn’t good of him though, he needs his vitamin D and not just from the pills he has to take. We could be mean parents and just make him go outside, which we do sometimes but it’s boils down to picking and choosing your battles.
Sensory issues keep him inside most days. He always has a reason why he needs to go inside. Making deals for spending time outside only go so far but his vitamin D levels are pretty low. We need to do something. Could a game really be the answer?
The answer is a big ole, YES! We have taken him to a couple areas of town full of pokestops and gyms and he walked around willingly. He’s not talking to strangers as many other Pokemon players are but that is fine with me because he is outside.
When we are at home he asks to go outside to walk/run, well really pace the yard to hatch his eggs. Before Pokemon Go he would never ask to go outside. We are even taking walks to a nearby pokestop after dinner some nights and he has even raced his younger brother and sister home at the end.
That’s not all, that this game is doing. It is teaching me there are more Pokemon out there other than Pikachu. Seriously, who knew! There are Squirtle’s and Jigglypuff’s and more. Pokemon Go has made Pokemon finally something i’m understanding a bit more. It has given me a way that helps connect me with my son, which is something awesome in the big world of Autism. So go ahead and make fun of that thirty something year old mom playing Pokemon. You don’t know her story and what some silly kid’s game has done for her or anyone else that is playing. Sure the game is for fun but it is doing amazing things for people.
Are you playing Pokemon Go? Why do you play?