Having a child in the 2020s is crazy
Sweet innocent beautiful baby arrives. You didn't know you could love someone this much. Instinct tells you to keep it safe with your entire being. You want to do right by this baby. You can't help but constantly scan their environment for harms.
I wanted my babies to have good food and a safe bed and a home free from danger. I tied up the blind strings so the baby couldn't be strangled and cut their food into small pieces so they wouldn't choke. I watched for cars when crossing the road, taught them about road safety and locked the doors at night.
But other harms were more insidious.
I had heard that bunnykins dishes from my childhood might have lead paint, so I bought a lead paint tester and sure enough, the bowl I'd been feeding my daughter out of for many months had lead paint. I tossed it. Nothing I can do now, the harm is already done.
Then she was bit by a tick, a week after we'd checked her for ticks upon leaving the farm.
It must have crawled onto her from a piece of clothing or something. She received antibiotics, and we had the tick tested for pathogens. It was clear. We stopped the antibiotics. She's fine (we think, we hope).
Then she started reacting dramatically to food dye, a very common food additive deemed safe by Health Canada due to inconsistencies in the science. I called Tylenol's 1800 number, I said "why is my child vibrating, unable to sleep, eyes wide after consuming your product?" They suggested I buy dye-free. How do they know something Health Canada doesn't?
We stop allowing her to eat it.
A friend is expressing concer over her 11 year olds well-being. I went over to show him some tricks on editing and was surprised to see his inability to concentrate, or let me use the mouse, or wait 10 seconds for me to find a file. He would grab the mouse from my hand, rock in his seat, shout to get me out of his way, to let him onto his game. His addiction to this game was a shock, as just 6 months earlier, he was not this way.
So, a parent can do everything right for 10 years, then be undermined by a stupid game?
We must never let our guard down? You're telling me harm will find these children in every corner of our lives? If we don't have time to constantly build preventative fortresses around them, to prevent predators from getting ahold of them? Is his mental health worth the $300 of robux he's given to that compay over the years? Is that millionaire owner happy with himself?
Everyone's doing it.
Everyone's playing it.
Everyone's eating it.
Some guys made a game to make monery and turned an entire generation of children into little addicted trolls. Freedom of choice. They want you to put all the blame onto the parents, but parents can be on guard at all times for all predators, but they are no match to this predator.
We cannot let a game hijack the minds of an entire generation of children. We cannot let an entire industry, hijack the food system and destroy the bodies and minds of an entire generation of children.
I've searched for answers, solutions, tricks, tips, how do we put an end to this addiction? All I can find are other parents searching for the same thing.
There's no Roblox Addiction Services for children available through the provincial addictions crisis centre (yet). The only specialist I could find basically says "don't let them start playing" which is all good and fine, but just like the tick bite, sure, preventation is important, but what about treatment? How are we treating this? Who are we getting guidance from? An addiction isn't lack of willpower, it's a chronic, relapsing brain disease characterized by compulsive engagement in behaviors.
Just like the food dye situation, it's not all children, it's only some. So how are we helping the ones it's happening to?


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