Love it or hate it, there are so many reasons to start playing PokemonGo with your kids. I was a skeptic at first, thinking it was just another timewaster of an app, but after playing with my son a few times, it became clear that it was a must-have app for us to enjoy together!

We play it for the exercise. This is a pretty common reason that a lot of people are playing, and I’ll be honest, it’s a pretty good one. When my orthopedist said he wanted me to start walking a little bit more to manage my osteoarthritis in conjunction with his other plans, I wasn’t quite sure how to start getting some walking in. After all, I’ve never been one to just enjoy the great outdoors (sorry, I’m an indoor girl for sure). But I’ll be honest, when you’re chasing after a rare or sought-after Pokemon, you don’t even feel like you’re getting exercise. Since downloading the PokemonGo app, my son and I have gone on a walk (he’s riding a bike!) almost every day. We never walk far– after all, my knee doctor said he wanted me to take it slow when starting out– but it’s better than us sitting on the couch.

It gives us a new way to bond. My son and I spend a lot of time together, sure; we take time to head to the science museum, or even just sit and read books together. But this gave us something new to do together! It’s always fun to add something new to shake up the routine, or add in a new topic of conversation, and this has been a fun one to bond over– now, we are making more intentional time together. Rather than coming up with spur of the moment activities, we’re planning our next PokemonGo walk to be sure we’re able to Catch Them All.

My son is now more aware of his surroundings. Since we got the PokemonGo app, my son has had to focus on whether we’re turning right or left to follow a Pokemon or find a certain PokeStop, so what was once directions he had to think about for a second, he could now manage in a split second– if I said right, he knew what I meant. If I said left, he turned the correct way every time. It gave us practice at those direction skills, and helped him learn the way home. Plus, with a built-in map, he’s become more aware of how to find out where we are by looking at a map… skills we’ve later practiced on GoogleMaps at home.

We’ve been able to interact with others who live in our town, that we may not have met otherwise. Even though we live in a pretty small town, it’s growing in a lot of ways. So when you go up to the nearest park in the evening (and our nearest happens to have 4 PokeStops in our near it), there’s usually quite a few people stopping by. We’ve seen grandmothers up there playing by themselves, families playing together, parents and children bonding (just like us!), young professionals, couples, and kids and teens, all spending time in our city park. Because of the nature of the game, what will start as “Hey, there’s a Tauros over here!” will morph into a conversation about work, family, Pokemon, life, all kinds of things. The same people who were strangers the first time we visited the park in search of Pokemon, are now familiar faces that we know a little bit more about.

It teaches us cooperation skills. Cooperation doesn’t always come easy to my son, since he has autism. But now, we’re working in cooperation with others, like letting them know when there’s a great Pokemon nearby, or planting some lure modules at the Pokestops we visit most in hopes of getting more people, more Pokemon, and more interaction. It’s a classic scenario of people helping other people, and it’s been a lot of fun.

It’s made us more intentional about park cleanup. We spend a lot more time at our local parks than we did before. While we were always fans of going to the park, there’s been a lot more visitors up there lately, thanks to PokemonGo. What’s amazing is, there’s really not any more trash than there used to be (and you’d think with that many people visiting, there’d be more trash and vandalism). Instead, what little trash you do see, you also see PokemonGo players picking it up and disposing of it as they walk around the park hunting these mythical creatures for capture and study. It’s made us all work together to make the parks in our town a better place.

I’ve heard it all at this point. I’ve heard the jokes that PokemonGo is for the unemployed– I think my dad said that we needed an app called “JobmanGo” where people hunted jobs like they do Pokemon. More than one person has questioned the ambition, drive, or purpose of people playing this phone app. I get it– like I said, I was a skeptic at first. But the more I’ve seen the positive impact that PokemonGo has had in our lives, it’s really hard for me to find fault with it.

I’m not telling you to play. If it’s not your thing, it’s not your thing. But for my son and I, the app has been a great way to practice map skills and directions, bond over a common interest, get more exercise, and get to know the people around us better. None of those are bad things… Yes, there will be people playing who are stupid (running into traffic to catch a mythical creature is generally a very bad idea), but I find it really hard to take issue with an app that actually has brought a lot of good into communities and lives. If you’re curious, it’s worth checking out– after all, it’s a free app (though there are some in-app purchases available), and if you’re not curious or not interested in playing, cut those who are interested and playing a little bit of slack– they may just be doing something amazing together.

 

Note: This post was not sponsored by or written in conjunction with PokemonGo or Niantic. All characters, names, and brand information is property of Niantic and PokemonGo. All opinions in this post are my own and are not written in conjunction with Niantic or Pokemon.