Computer Meg/Sporty Meg

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the positives and negatives of my daughter playing on a computer versus doing more physical activities. I want to start this by saying that I believe a balance between the two is the best and that is what my child gets, before anyone starts having a go!

We have not encouraged Meg to play on the computer and she hasn’t particularly been watching us when we’ve been on either our PC or something like a Nintendo DS, but she seems to have grasped the concept of both extremely quickly. She’s not up to searching for stuff online (thank goodness), but put her on Youtube with Peppa Pig selected and she’ll confidently flick between the episodes. She’s grasped what the mouse is and what buttons to press on it to make things happen. And she’s grasped this very quickly. Likewise with the DS – put her game on and she’ll navigate between little games and understand what she has to do. So I am wondering if this is normal or if I have a budding computer geek/gamer on my hands? As an aside she also loves sitting on my lap in the car and playing at driving while we are parked so maybe she’s just more like me than my wife at the moment?!

Meg can also be slightly manic and is like a midget missile when she’s let loose in fields or play areas. She has boundless energy and keeps going until she drops, and especially loves things involving footballs. She gets out of the house everyday and does plenty of walking and gets plenty of fresh air at the very least. Now, I'm the only member of family who isn't bothered about Football, but if that's her thing then I'll positively encourage it. I’m not concerned about her not doing enough exercise though.

Going forward should I be concerned about her predilection for computer based activities? I did a lot of sport when I was younger and mixed that with playing games on the computer. I feel this has helped me to have good reaction times and co-ordination, even into my thirties and despite me doing less gaming now. So I want to give her free rein, but I am also going to sort out parental controls sooner rather than later. She will also not be getting a computer in her room because there are too many dodgy people in cyberspace now to let a child go out there unsupervised. But maybe this is the next generation coming through now?