Geek Parent-Child Bonding

About two weeks ago I discovered a simple, but highly enjoyable, online gaming site: Kingdom of Loathing, aka KOL. The day after I started playing, I told my son, Kiel, about it. He immediately became addicted, and spurred me on in my play. Since his gaming skills and interest are higher than mine, he quickly became the master and I became the student. We also got our friend, Brian hooked. He has an excellent write up of the game on his blog

KOL is a very silly game with lots of pop culture references and humor. In the game, you can get a familar (ie. creature sidekick) for your character. From day one, I was intrigued by the idea of having a Sabre Toothed Lime as a familiar. They are difficult to obtain through normal adventuring, and pricey to buy through the game's flea market or mall stores.

I came home from work a few days ago to a very coy and gleeful boy. He told me that I really wanted to log into KOL. As usual, I was tired and cranky. So he really had to egg me on to get me to go to my computer. He said, "I sent you something." I logged in and there was a message from him saying that he was giving me "an early Mothers Day or late Christmas Present". I am now the proud owner of a bouncing baby sabre tooth lime. I named it Margarita. (The game uses food and alcohol to increase the amount of adventures you can have every day.)

I was extremely happy with my son's gift. Later, I realized that it was probably one of the nicest most unselfish things he's ever done for me. All in all, that is very silly. One of the deepest bonding moments he and I have ever shared is based in a joint obsession with an online game. Geek Parent-Child Bonding!!!