The Yangtse Evening Post in China recently published a story about a mother who helped her son play the mobile game "Girls' Frontline" in order to help him focus on his studies. This story has attracted widespread attention online, as it goes against the common belief among Chinese parents that games are a distraction and should be strictly limited.
The article is written from the mother's perspective, who admits that she used to view games as a complete waste of time that only hindered her son's academic progress. However, constant arguments with her son and his persistence made it impossible for her to completely ban games from their household. As the high school entrance exam approached, the son himself felt the pressure and voluntarily surrendered his phone to his mother, requesting her help to level up in Girls' Frontline and maintain his account.
At first, the mother, who had never played any games before, just wanted to help her son complete the simplest daily tasks. But with her son's persistence, she began to read about the game online, study and practice it. Soon she realized that the game, Girl’s Frontline, was far more complicated than she thought, and collecting in-game items and battling required a lot of practice to master.
The hardcore special event Girl's Frontline hold every twice a year.
Sometimes, when she tried to slack off and do something else in her free time, her son would urge her to continue playing the game, just like she used to urge him to study. She would then muster up her spirits and continue playing. During that period, the mother said, "It seems like our roles have switched. I am now the lazy student who doesn't like to learn."
Two weeks later, the son evaluated his mother's progress and declared that she had fully grasped the basics of Girls' Frontline and was even proficient in certain aspects. For the mother, this was not just about mastering a game but also about getting a new perspective on the gaming industry as a whole.
She said that she had never genuinely loved games but had only agreed to play to make her son study and to fight against her laziness. Similarly, her son had never truly enjoyed studying but was only working to overcome his own laziness and love for games. Confronting and overcoming laziness and understanding each other are common obstacles that both mother and son have continued to face.
The story was published on Psychology section of the Yangtse Newspaper
When this story was published online, many gamers were very touched and supportive of this family, and some of them left comments on the newspaper’s website, saying that they were happy to see parents who could take a different attitude towards games and understand their children. They also hoped that such examples would become a larger group in the future.
Source： Yangtse Evening Post