Dear friends, I would like some help with a question about this text; It’s from my English textbook. "Who created the seat-belt game?
First I thought the husband created it, then I thought about the 5-year-old boy.
Thanks for the help.
Dear Ann Landers: I tried for years to get my wife and six children to wear seat belts, but it was a losing battle. I’d just about given up when my 5-year-old gave me a great idea. He got in the car one day and, for a change, put on his seat belt, turned to me and said, What are you forgetting?' I hadn't buckled mine yet. I told him if he remembered to put on his seat belt and say,What are you forgetting?’ 10 more times, I’d buy him a Popsicle.
To my surprise, he never forgot to buckle up after that. About five Popsicles later, my whole family was playing the ``What are you forgetting?’ game.Here are the rules we go by:
You earn one point every time you get into the car, fasten your seat belt and say, ``What are you forgetting?’ before anyone else says it.
After accumulating 10 points, you get a treat.
After buckling up, if you’re caught with your belt off, you lose a point.
You can’t earn points in public parking lots. This is to prevent youngsters from racing each other to the car in traffic.
Buckled Up in San Antonio
Dear Buckled Up: I think it’s a terrific idea. Siblings love to compete. They also love prizes. The game also ensures that Mom and Dad will buckle up. That 5-year-old sounds like a real winner to me.
Hi Thomas, long time no see, where and how have you been :-)? As for your question, scanning the story I would say the game was the result of a joint effort by both the 5 year old son as well as the father with the entire family embracing it.
Hi, Torsten. I’m good, thanks. and you? I live in Brazil. So, you mean that the whole family created the seat-belt game? I thought the boy had created it.
“I told him if he remembered to put on his seat-belt and say, What are you forgetting?’ 10 more times, I’d buy him a Popsicle.”
Torsten, the question is: Who created the seat-belt game? From the quoted speech above, I’d say that it was Buckled Up! (The success of the game, as you say, is attributable to the whole family, though.)
Well, since the core idea of the game came from Buckle Up’s son, I would say that he at least contributed to creating the game. Buckle Up would not have been able to come up with the game had it not been for his son’s idea.
I don’t know if I should jump on the bandwagon here but how could the father invent the game without his son’s idea? Without first having an idea nothing happens. The thought comes first before the action but you can’t have an action without the thought hence the son started off the game (the thought) and the father (the action) along with the family created the game. The son was the inspiration or motivation to the game and I doubt that anything on Earth happens without that.
Yazmin, it was more than just okay that you shared your view on who invented the game because it’s a rather interesting question that hasn’t a simple clear-cut answer. It’s interesting to learn that you share my opinion that the father didn’t invent the game just on his own. So, thank you for contributing. By the way, what book are you currently reading?
Thank you so much for that!
We share the same point of view because great minds think alike! What a great question you just asked me! I just finished reading Ishmael Beah’s “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier”.
I haven’t read A Long Way Gone but I have read ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ several times in combination with listening to The Science of Personal Achievement and The Strangest Secret. Within the past year or so I have read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber and Everybody Lies by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz.
Oh nice! How is your reading coming along so far? I will try to get a hold on those books you mentioned but in the meantime reading time is placed on hold because I have a huge exam coming up. I really cannot afford to fail this because it costed me an arm and a leg (in my case both arms and legs) so I must focus all my might and strength.
Meanwhile; if I may, may I recommend these videos to you? It’s a mini series about the struggles third world countries go through to go to school. The struggle is real. Check it out and let me know what you think!
That is a beautiful video depicting the pathetic conditions of living on one hand, and the significance of and the interest in education despite all the odds on the other. This situation is not new to even developing countries. In India also you will find certain hilly regions or forests where poor people live without being adequately cared for by the administrative agencies. The children have to rely on the indigenous boats to cross the lagoons and rivulets, and then to make for their school on foot! Of course the situation is changing fast now.
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