It’s fun being a grown-up?

Yesterday my middle son (age six) was surfing in Club Penguin.

‘What do you like best about Club Penguin?’ I asked.

‘Buying things’, he replied.

That answer took me by surprise, so I asked him why buying things was fun…

‘Because it makes me feel like a grown-up being able to buy things’ he said.

An interesting little discussion on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

He gets a small amount of pocket money each week, but he’s only six remember – so he spends what he gets on sweets or saves up for toys.

So sure, this is a rather small sample to draw conclusions from, but nevertheless surprised and intrigued me. He plays the games in Club Penguin and has a lot of fun doing so. Players are rewarded for completing games and activities with coins, redeemble against in-game items.

Being able to buy these items on his own, from his own efforts made him feel ‘grown-up’. I don’t think he meant grown-up as in being an adult, but grown-up in terms of having more independence. Maybe this explains in (small) part the popularity of kids worlds – you get to do things that are not always possible in the real world.

Then I went back to playing Call of Duty 4 on my PS3.

Club Penguin is featured in the K Zero Kids and Tweens virtual worldscase study.