Should You Let Your Kids Play Pokémon Go? Why a Mom of Tweens Says Yes

Laguna Beach, CA — Summer for a work-at-home mom is like walking across a tightrope over the Grand Canyon. A careful balancing act where the kids need to be entertained and deadlines need to be met.

I don’t enjoy using the television as a babysitter for my children, but often as the day wears on, hours of TV time slip by. I don’t want them to spend all day playing video games on the couch. We live in a place of sunshine and parks, and outdoor adventure awaits! But the world isn't the same as it used to be.

Enter Pokémon Go. As a member of the media, these past few weeks we’ve all tried to wrap our collective brains around this phenomenon from Niantic Inc. Is it a flash in the pan? Or will it keep people entertained for years to come, as Minecraft has done?

I have both read and written news stories about Pokémon Go all week. This new game, released just a few short weeks ago, has quickly become a national — soon to be international — pastime. There is good, there is bad, but mostly there are just people out hunting up fun and adventure who’ve spent too long indoors, unaware. Like the Marines playing Pokémon Go who stopped a murder suspect. True story.

In speaking with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and Fullerton Police Department spokespeople, one message is clear.

When you walk around with your head down, you miss your life. You are distracted, unaware and can get yourself into trouble. By keeping your head up, and following a few safety tips, you can interact with the virtual augmented world of Pokémon Go and the real world around us.

So here are a few bits of wisdom from someone who’s researched this recent gaming trend.

It’s a game, via augmented reality, where “invisible” creatures can be located only by GPS via your handheld device. Plus, finding a Pidgey on your mom's head, as it turns out, is hilarious. Capturing a Zubat while trying to look like you're exercising around the soccer field is not as easy as one might think.

OK, it’s also fun. The video display is appealing and modern. It’s familiar, like walking around inside of Google Maps, and it intrigues the fantasy and sci-fi lover in me. I was the kid who sat on the couch reading book after book, imagining worlds far from my own. Pokémon Go enables my tween-age children to experience a slice of that at an “age-appropriate level.”

It’s age appropriate, no matter what age you are. My girls are tweens. They’re not off scouring neighborhoods in the black of night in search of Pikachu or a Growlithe. They’re at the park, in the bright of day, in a neighborhood that is primarily safe and within a stone’s throw from my house. Older players can play differently than they do, and that is OK. It makes this game totally unique.

It encourages teamwork. My tweens are old enough — when they stay together, not fighting — to enjoy the freedom to walk from here to there, to play at the “gym” right outside our back door and put the phone away and play at the park when there are no Pokémon in close proximity. They are their own team. They don't need to include random strangers. That's freaky.

They must follow the rules that I have imposed and that society has in place for our own protection. Such as:

• Don’t talk to strangers. The only team they need to be on is mine.
• Don’t take game fights into the real world. It’s fantasy, not reality.
• Don’t cross streets you’re not supposed to. The same rules apply, whether you’re on your bike or playing Pokémon Go.
• Don’t let the phone battery die. If it's getting low, come home.

Other rules I’ve employed are for their own benefit:

• Do check in with mom every 15 minutes or so.
• Do open your eyes and take note of your surroundings. One child is the "spotter," and one is the guide. Thus, only one device.
• Do share. If you battled the last Pokémon, your sister gets the next one. Fighting will revoke the privilege of playing at all, no questions asked.
• Do play with mom, too. We can do this game together…Hunting up Pokémon while walking the neighborhood as a family? That’s a good way to spend a break during the day.
• Do have fun. And go catch em’ all.

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