smart fit park

I caught a glimpse of this on TV (yes, I get the irony) …it’s an interactive video learning/activity game for kids, kinda like a Wii Fit but geared for a pre-school audience.  The kid, with a movement pad on which they stand, marches, runs, skips and jumps their way through various activities displayed on screen.  It’s like a virtual park.  They even get to customize their own avatar!

Alright, the exclamation mark after avatar really isn’t needed, but I was only trying to stress the silliness of it all.  It is silly isn’t it?  I mean, having your child simulate playing in a park instead of actually playing in one?  Or is it me?  I can see the use for older, shut-in types of people, but for kids?  Certainly, I see the connection to ‘real life’ by designing a game that ties the thrill of video/computers into the increasingly sedentary lifestyle of today’s youth in an attempt to get them active once again …but isn’t this a little over the top?  Shouldn’t someone have stepped back and looked at the obvious; ‘We’re designing a toy that simulates a playground so that the child doesn’t have to actually go to one’ …or something like that?

I have a better game idea …it’s called “Unplug the TV!”  You and your child get in front of your TV set and while it’s showing a favorite show, go behind it and pull the plug.  Neat hey!?  You get to stand there for a few minutes in the erie silence that now fills the room, until one of you finally offers up a suggestion for doing something real.  Maybe go outside?  Bike?  Walk?  Throw leaves at each other?  Invent a game?  Something!?  I’m sure that one of you will figure out something and in no time you’ll both be happier for not only doing something together, but for doing something real as well.  Heck, if you went to a real park you might even be able to make some new friends …imagine that.  Of course …the TV game will probably allow you to make your own friends as well.  So maybe that’s not a great idea.

Maybe I’m picking nits or something.  Maybe.  And of course the makers of the product would never endorse their game as a substitute for real activity.  The thing is though, providing an indoor simulation of an outdoor activity to a naturally active child is not doing the family any favours.  Kids are not bumps on logs …but parents, who may otherwise be busy, might reasonably expect this product to occasionally provide their kid with playparky goodness in lieu of the real thing.  It’s sad but true …so why even present the opportunity?

Smart?  Not really.

Fit?  Nope.

Park?  Definitely not.

Image from the FIsher-Price store.