Vladimka \/ Bigstockphoto.com<\/p><\/div>\n
In the real world, my children will walk out of a room where their Dad is to come and find me to ask for a snack, or to find out if they\u2019re allowed screen time. In the mornings, it\u2019s me that they come and jump on first thing, whilst my husband gets to snore away next to me, oblivious.<\/p>\n
In Minecraft, it\u2019s exactly the same. My husband has been playing for longer than me. He has a well established base with loads of gadgets and supplies. But the children largely ignore him and pester me for square shaped watermelons and iron supplies instead.<\/p>\n
6. I Have To Intervene In A Lot Of Sibling Squabbles<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
Just like in real life, on our family Minecraft server, sibling squabbles are a regular occurrence. My daughter, being only four, generally likes to follow either myself or my son, aged seven, around. As a result, when they are playing together and come across resources they both want to collect, things can get a little heated. I spend more time negotiating peace agreements in the virtual world than I do in the real world.<\/p>\n
7. On The Other Hand, Some Roles Have Been Reversed<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not all similar of course. There are some occasions when our roles are reversed. I often have to ask my son how to create certain items, or for help when I found myself overwhelmed by zombies and other monsters. When I got lost one day it was my daughter who came to my rescue, adopting a tone she\u2019s probably heard from me thousands of times before: \u201cNow come along Mummy, what you have to do is head towards that tower and then cross the stream\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Furthermore, whilst I might begrudge all effort it takes for me to collect resources only for the kids to use them up, playing Minecraft with them has given me a new insight into their characters. My daughter, on the surface, seems everything you might expect from a four-year-old, focusing on collecting an array of animals, including pandas and chickens, to care for on a large farm with plenty of plants. However, she also has a pile of rotten flesh that she has collected from zombies that she apparently built \u201cto scare the monsters away.\u201d She clearly has a dark streak that I might need to keep an eye on.<\/p>\n
My son, despite never showing any interest in creative arts in the real world, has an amazing eye for detail in the virtual world, creating sleek looking buildings with interesting design features. In real life he can be difficult to engage in with family activities, such as board games, but in Minecraft he\u2019s happy to work together to create a new project.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m certainly not about to ditch the screen free days, but spending time with my kids in Minecraft has provided us with a new way to bond and as we look towards the return to school we will certainly be keeping some family Minecraft time on the schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
My children are both Minecraft addicts, especially the eldest. His first words in the morning are \u201cIs it an iPad day today?\u201d (we have iPad free days to try and curb his addiction, but it hasn\u2019t worked so far) and when he can\u2019t play Minecraft he wants to watch Minecraft videos on YouTube, play with Minecraft themed Lego, and talk incessantly about Minecraft to anyone who will listen. He has Minecraft clothes, bedding, wall stickers, and a school bag. For this reason, we like to call it \u201cMindcrack\u201d. My husband and I have long been avid gamers, so we\u2019re not <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2883,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2890,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2890"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mumblog.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}