Game Over, Kid

punchoutOver in Boston recently, a mom couldn’t get her 14-year-old son to stop playing “Grand Theft Auto,” so, being a concerned parent, Angela Mejia did what comes naturally: She called 911.

According to the Boston Herald:

An argument ensued as Mejia unplugged her son’s PlayStation. Then, this mad-as-hell mother dialed 911. Police responded and managed to talk the boy into shutting off the game and going to sleep.

“They (police) were just like, ‘Chill out. Go to bed,’ ” the boy told the Herald.

Now, I don’t want to get into an argument about whether it’s right or not to call emergency services for this sort of thing—maybe 311 instead?—but what’s surprising to me is that this kind of thing still happens. Aren’t we deep into second- and third-generation videogamers? Shouldn’t a modern-day mom or dad be able to challenge their spawn to a round or two of Halo, with the loser shuffling off to bed?

I mean, back in the day I was pretty good at videogames: Metroid, Super Mario Bros., Tetris—I rocked them all. If sleepless Sasha wanted to go toe-to-toe at Super Punch-Out, well, I’m afraid she’d have an early bedtime.

Of course, this will only work until Sasha develops some real skills—like, around age 4, right?

Published by Matt

Matt Gross writes about travel and food for the New York Times, Saveur, Gourmet, and Afar, where he is a Contributing Writer. When he’s not on the road, he’s with his wife, Jean, and daughter, Sasha, in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

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