Daily Rewards

I would not consider any of my parents as a helicopter parent which according to Google is “a parent who takes an overprotective or excessive interest in the life of their child or children”. In fact, they are the opposite. Mostly, I am free to do whatever I want besides maybe a few chores here and there, but this has not always been the case.     

When I was in grade school there was one rule that I had to follow which was to not play video games during the weekdays. Looking back I know this was for the best, but at the time this rule felt so cruel, but so fair. I have always been a mobile gamer from daycare when I first discovered Angry Birds to now while playing Pokemon TCG Pocket. There was one thing I remember I could not have. The bane of mobile gamers, also known as daily rewards. 

You might be thinking what's so good about daily rewards? Well, a lot of the games I played had daily rewards which were rewards that could be collected every day. They were small boosts to progression in a game to get you to play the game more. Missing out on a couple daily rewards may not seem like a big deal, but I was missing out on four per week (not five because my parents thankfully let me play on Friday nights) over the years. I mean now I would look back and think of those rewards as useless, but at the time I would have been happy to have them. I remember feeling jealous of the kids who could play video games on the weekdays, but not too much because I was used to the lifestyle. 

Around middle school, I would get around this rule by playing with my mom’s phone in the car. I do not remember how I discovered this loophole, but I had acquired the power to collect daily rewards and play video games during the weekdays. Every time I was in the car I would slyly ask my mom to play with her phone or rush to the car first to grab the phone from her bag. It felt great, but was the meaning of life really to collect daily rewards? I still played the game and would collect them if they were there, but I realized I did not need them. That one rule my parents had probably helped me more than I realize. If I had the power to play video games every day when I was young, who knows what kind of person I would have been. 

My parents have never been helicoptery, but they were more helicoptery when I was young. I feel grateful I did not turn out like my little brother who has the power to play video games every day. Nothing wrong with him, he's adorable, but he does play a lot of video games. I think my parents have become less helicoptery because of age. They have raised three kids, one having autism of course they are tired. They are not helicoptery of my life, but we often argue. I think what’s caused this is their upbringing clashing with mine. I can tell they care for me a lot, but sometimes I do not agree with them. I am glad they forced me to follow the rule of only playing video games on the weekends, but for now, I can collect daily rewards to my heart’s content.