Maybe Easier, But Not Better Than The Real Thing

It was heartbreaking to read about a Korean couple who were recently sentenced to prison for allowing their three-month baby to starve to death. The reason? It wasn't lack of money or lack of food. The neglect arose from addictions to Internet gaming, specifically 12-hour sessions of Prius Online, a game in which players raise and nurture a girl who develops magical powers as she grows.

It's unconscionable, but I still tried to understand how two people could be so incredibly irresponsible and callous. I couldn't help but think about the lure of the Internet and gaming. To be fair, I'm using the Internet as I type this blog, and between surfing the Web on computers and WAP browsing on my Blackberry, I spend a lot of time connected in some way, shape or form with the information superhighway. The lure is understandable, information is plentiful and in the digital community, things more or less react as they should. Clicking on links navigates you to where you want to go, and from a gaming perspective, you can control things you can't control in real life.

Obviously, raising a child is a different story altogether. I'm reminded (the third time around) that kids don't come with a manuel, and pushing certain buttons aren't guaranteed to get a specific response. Even with my baby daughter, things that might have pacified my crying kids earlier don't necessarily work with her. Each child is unique, and no manual or guide can provide directions with sufficient specificity to make child-raising easy. But ultimately it's all worth it - even I've figured that out with my limited experience as a dad.

I wonder if this was a factor in the tragic tale. Maybe Kim Yun-jeong and Kim Jae-beom were increasingly frustrated with a baby girl who didn't do exactly what they expected or didn't react exactly how they expected her to. There isn't a online manual or cheat sheet or cheat codes like up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A-B-A-Start which make you a perfect parent, nor are there "Easter eggs" which can shortcut you to the "easy parts" of child-raising (not that there really are any). Perhaps they were thus attracted to the world where everything seems to come easier. Real life just isn't that way - it's messy.

More likely they were just stupid.