The Lincoln Park Menomnee Club is located in one of the wealthiest communities in Chicago Il. It is devoted to children's after school activities and on paper it probably sounds like an ideal solution to working parents' woes.
But once you step inside this slender (two bowling alley lanes wide building) it is clear that your worries as a parent are far from over.
The noise level is high. Not with the sound of happy children at play because few human voices can be heard above the loud din of the Television(s) and play stations and machine driven noises of the set on Free videos games that line the walls of this narrow edifice.
There is no fighting between the children, no screaming or crying because the children, mostly boys, are set on overdrive. They are in high gear fighting against an artificial clock and the dictates of a game programed by powers unknown.
The noise level from the machines including the TV which is the largest one I have seen to date drown out any noise that might be humanly emitted even though there is two games that require human interaction, an air hockey table and a paddle ball table that were both in use when I entered the Club.
This is a Club where children beg to return, where parents feel confident they have solved the problem of keeping their children happy and safe but what is the cost of super visual/auditory stimulation. What is the price of being addicted to a machine, a game without winners.
linda zises
chicago's recent resident
No comments:
Post a Comment