Tama-whats-it

Guess what was lurking under our Christmas tree this year This is not my first choice of gift, in fact they would come pretty low in a list of things I think my children should play with.

After a week this is what I think of Tamagotchi.

Good points: They keep children quiet! they do teach a sense of responsibility, you need to take care of them or they die.

Bad points: They have replaced real imaginary play. Our dolls have not come out since the Tamagotchi arrived. They are rude, they beep for attention. We banned them from the dinning table, but its hard to have a conversation with a child who’s tuned in to the beeping.

On a shallow level these are fun interactive toys. I totally understand their attraction over the dolls. Dolls never to anything that hasn’t been imagined by the child. Tamagotchi are unpredictable.

On a deeper level I have several issues. They encourage children in to an electronic virtual world. For many people these worlds are a hobby but they can become a way of escaping reality.  Philippians 4:8 tells us to let our minds dwell on what is true, not on a fantasy world.

The way the Tamagotchi get an immediate response to the exclusion of real people also concerns me. The way the girls carry them round reminds me of teenagers with cell phones. The Hubster did comment, Tamagotchi at 8, cell phone at 10.

These are on a watching brief. I’m hoping that they will be a fun toy, not an obsession or a replacement for reality.

G2′s first one has already died. Never fret though, you just push the rest set button at the back and you get a new one!