Is this Child Abuse?

Recently, I was on a date (yes, SpaceAliens date mere mortals). The setting? A nice patio restaurant that I frequent, in fact, I know the owner quite well. The participants? My date, of course, and the unexpected - a restaurant employee (who I also knew well ) and her 6 year-old child.

It turns out the child and employee sat with us for a bit which we welcomed. Well, the child pulled out his trusty portable video game player and I can only hope no one else has witnessed what we witnessed.

The adults sat and chatted for a bit and it became clear the kid was given the video game to keep him occupied which is less than admirable as it is. Occupied he came to the point of complete immersion including intense staring and odd looks of anticipation as it seemed he was not getting what he was looking for.

Three minutes into the game, he began to sway his body and then his head. This continued for a few minutes and then suddenly over drive hit - the kid began shaking his head and pulling at the side of the video tablet player as if he were trying to will a demon from the CPU. All of this, coupled with an odd smile and outlandish statements as he played, I could conclude only one thing - The kid was certainly Occupied and Gone.

What do I mean by Gone? It’s simple and unmistakable. The kid had zero comprehension of the goals of the game, his sole goal was to get the next dopamine hit. Perhaps worse, he had zero awareness of his physical surroundings including the presence of his mother and others. Gone.

We don’t know the particulars of the family circumstances. Did the parents encourage this video use, did they speak to him on occasion about his video use, offer alternative games? We don’t know. But we do know this kid was (or is) Gone.

The kid was 6 years old. There’s only one responsible party - the parents.

More on this particular circumstance and child abuse later….End of Transmission