The Fortnite fight

Our eight-and-a-half-year-old son is obsessed with being allowed to play Fortnite and I am obsessed with saying “no.” (At least, that’s how he perceives this thing called “trying to be a good parent and never being quite sure.”)

Here’s why he insists it’s a good idea I let him play Fortnite …

1. All of his friends play it.

First of all, this isn’t even true. But he claims everyone else (well, almost everyone) is allowed to play Fortnite and I’m the only stick-in-the-mud parent. I asked him if his friends jumped off a bridge, would he? He looked at me blankly and said, “There … aren’t bridges in the game.”

2. The dances.

He’s got a point here. The only nice thing about Fortnite, in my opinion, is that its popularity has encouraged my serious little robot child to dance. The game is responsible for dance crazes like The Floss, The L, Best Mates and Groove Jam. They’re adorable, like this generation’s Macarena. Apparently, there are also lots of silly costumes, like spacesuits and dinosaur outfits, that appeal to younger kids like him.

3. It’s free.

He thinks this is a great selling point. It is not.

He regularly pleads for this game and I give him my usual string of reasons why I’m not letting him play Fortnite yet …

Continue reading in my weekly parenting column, The Mom Scene …