Imagine this: your classmates are buzzing about the latest hot game, but you're stuck on the sidelines, unable to join in because your parents said no, or maybe money was tight. That feeling of being left out, excluded from the inner circle, often becomes a childhood regret that's tough to shake.
Recently, Japanese X (formerly Twitter) user Epi-chan (@epichan77) shared a submitted letter that's got the internet talking. In it, a 60-year-old mother reflects on her past parenting choice to "insist her children not play video games." She recounted her experience after reading a local column, "Asanagi," which featured a parent's dilemma about letting their child use a smartphone.
This mother, with two sons, saw the home console craze hit hard when her boys were in elementary school. They'd plead, "Everyone has one!" and "We'll be left out of conversations!" But she stood firm, always refusing.
Her younger son, especially, yearned for a console. He even tried saving his allowance to buy one himself. Every time a package arrived, his eyes would light up as he'd ask, "Is it a game?" He even innocently asked his mom, "If you win the lottery, will you buy me one?" She admits those questions sometimes broke her heart.
However, she maintained that children should "accumulate experiences only available at that age," believing games could wait until adulthood. So, she steeled her heart and told her son, "You can buy one yourself when you earn your own money."
Years later, as an adult, her younger son did buy a game console with his first paycheck. When his mother asked what he thought, he laughed and said, "I got bored quickly; I'm an adult now, after all." To this day, she believes her decision not to buy them a console was the right one.
But this submission quickly went viral, sparking a wave of discussion and backlash online. Many netizens were quick to point out that the mother likely took her son's laugh at face value. They argued it wasn't a simple "games aren't fun" laugh, but a "it's too late now to be fun" bitter chuckle. She, they said, failed to recognize that her son was using sarcasm to respond to a childhood that could never be reclaimed.
Other commenters highlighted that the mother might have only imagined her son sitting in front of a screen mashing buttons. She didn't grasp that what her children truly wanted wasn't the game itself, but the vibrant, shared experience of playing together with friends. Once they grew up, even if they could finally buy and play, those missed moments were gone forever.
Some even questioned her logic: she wanted her kids to accumulate "only-at-that-age" experiences. But isn't playing games like "Mario Kart," "Super Smash Bros.," or "Minecraft" with classmates precisely one of those unique, fleeting childhood experiences?
Even if a child grows up and finally buys the console they dreamed of with their own income, all they've acquired is a machine. The truly missed childhood moments can never be brought back.
That's why this letter struck a nerve with so many netizens. Sometimes, what kids truly want isn't just the item itself, but the shared world that only truly exists when experienced with peers at that specific point in time!