Who’s going to play first? How long is he going to play? What game is he going to pick, and when he’s done, who will be the next in line? Rinse and repeat the process for every one of the siblings, then pause only long enough to sleep and wake up the next day to the same questions being asked yet again.
As I continuously remind our readers in our issues, my primary job is not “magazine editor” — it’s Dad. Of five boys! And while being a father to five different sons is a challenge (especially when it comes to passing final judgment on the video game play schedule), the even more complicating factor is the fact that, with five boys, there are dozens of different father/son combinations to juggle!
The math of it all threatens to break my brain, but I know it’s true just from our day-to-day experience — the dynamic is always different depending on which of the boys is present and who is not. And when it comes to playing video games, or just being there to watch as I play a video game myself, it’s become contentious. They all want to be present to see me play a new game like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. (Which is understandable, but not always practical.) Then they want their own game times, and Carter sometimes doesn’t want an onlooking audience of little brothers as he embarks on his own adventures, and Cooper will get upset if he doesn’t get to milk every minute of his allowed screen time, and Colson will wail if anyone plays for even the briefest bit before he’s seated to see it all, and . . . you get the idea.
But! It’s not always a struggle. It is, often, a joy.
These boys’ frustrating fraternity often gives rise to genuine beauty. Just the other day I walked into our TV room to see all five of the boys sitting together, cheering uproariously for Chance, our littlest who just turned 2. They had handed him an unconnected old controller and turned on Super Mario Maker 2, queueing up some of those “Auto-Mario” levels where you don’t actually have to press any buttons for the stage to complete itself. And the bigger boys were clapping and yelling and making Chance believe that he was the one in control, that he was playing absolutely perfectly and that he was being the best Mario player there ever was! It was a little deceptive, sure. But his little toddler smile was immense — he felt so happy, and so loved and supported by his big bros.
This issue of NF celebrates the simultaneous split between and support among siblings. Brothers can be brutal to one another! But brothers can also be the best of friends. With a brand-new Mario & Luigi game sailing our way soon, there’s no better time to explore the intersection between video games and the bonds of brotherhood.
