Family traditions

I read a post on a blog about how sharing Dungeons and Dragons can be good for your children. As the writer puts it:

My wife's forays into tabletop Role-Playing-Games as a teenager went a bit more smoothly. She was a little more of a reluctant player at first, but her friend Sara's parents were both pretty canny and saw past the hysteria. They stocked their basement rec-room area with plenty of junk food for their daughter's gamer-friends. They'd only periodically pop their heads in to check on the crowd, making sure that everyone was doing fine, having fun, and had all the food they needed....Julie's high school had the usual problems with kids and alcohol, drugs, teen pregnancy, and so forth. Probably a little more so than average in the mid-80's. And here was a group of kids - mixed boys and girls - VOLUNTARILY remaining under nominal adult supervision, hanging out and interacting with each other by playing games. And the kids just thought Sara's parents were being so cool, supporting their kids engaging in such controversial activities.

The DM that we currently play with also had parents who play every week and used Dungeons and Dragons as a way to get the family together. Tom recently told me of a girl whose mom would use it for Family Home Evening to teach their children lessons. In what, I'm not sure. Teamwork? Lawful good ethics? How to take out a red dragon?

As Dantzel and I move closer and closer to marriage and starting a family of our own (albiet, in a couple of years at least), the question comes up. Would I teach my children Dungeons and Dragons? Would I introduce them to the geeky hobbies that I used to have as a child? I don't know. The jury is still out. It's a good parenting question to consider, however.

This much, I know. I'd rather have my children playing Dungeons and Dragons together and working as team than blowing each others' heads off in that asinine game they call Halo.