Wow, Jax, you take me back. I haven't played video games since about 1978! Back pre-PC/Web, games were all text-based, you typed commands like "Left" and your "character" moved left. You were literally "blind," had to use your imagination and they were pretty much adventure games as there weren't any graphics yet and played on mainframe computers (yes, I'm pretty old :-) Anyway, I played a game and couldn't figure out how to get my character to get across a chasm and I got so angry that I told him to "jump," instant suicide/death. I was so appalled at my cavalier behavior, it felt so "real" that I haven't played many real video games since, almost have an adversion to/fear of them.

I don't think though that games necessarily depict how we'd behave in real life. Yes, it's true kids get the wrong ideas and try things they see in games, books, TV, etc. but when I have a "real" problem, I keep working at it until I solve it. And in real life, we don't have the same situation/control as we do in games where we're like "gods" I don't think. Parents don't say to infants, "go" and expect to be "obeyed" anymore than I'd have command over someone on a mission and get angry I couldn't figure out how to get across a chasm and tell him to jump. Games are not reality and how we'd react and the "conditions" aren't the same either I don't believe. Games let us "try out" things we wouldn't do in reality. We can drive cars fast, crash them and not get hurt; relieve frustrations in our lives or be vindictive and not hurt anyone. I don't think you're a horrible person for letting the toy children stay in their dirty diapers; you wouldn't do that in "real" life because the smell would literally affect you, wouldn't be a nice green (my favorite color :-) smoke graphic. Hopefully there would be a mate or grandparents/others to help with difficult times and it would be your child -- you would "feel" different about your literal child.

I decided not to have children in part because my stepmother was so controlling/abusive with me and I had a lot of anger and impatience that I was afraid I'd take out on any child of my own. An adult (my husband :-) might be able to handle such behavior but a child would be likely to both feel badly and make it worse (I was wonderful at passive resistance, was liable to cut off my nose to spite my face at any time :-) I didn't want to go through the pain I remember my stepmother and me going through because we couldn't understand one another, could not give one another what the other needed.