Anyone seen the latest ad from Chuck E Cheese?  A careful mom wraps her helmeted kids in bubble wrap before cautiously escorting them to the sunny driveway to ride their bicycles.  The voice-over asks (paraphrase), "Looking for a safe and fun activity for your kids?  Bring them to Chuck E Cheese!"  Cut to the much happier, relaxed mom beaming as her kids safely enjoy the nice indoor video games in a noisy food-oriented environment.  No risky behaviors for her family!

Look at all the messages in this ad:  Fresh air, suburban neighborhood, physical activity - bad, dangerous!  Food, video games, enclosed indoor spaces - good, safe!  Consumerism, good!  "Where kids can be kids" - they can't really "be kids" in the neighborhood, that's no longer acceptable.  Perhaps most insidious is the implied judgment on the mom.  A good mom's first priority is her children's safety, which she must maximize by finding ways to keep them entertained indoors.  The good mom knows that no amount of freedom is safe.

Ah yes, Chuck E Cheese - where kids can be kids.  Because so much of what was once normal childhood has been stripped from our children that video games are the best we can do.