Briggs' mailbag: LEGOs are great, but worry about what your own kids play with

We're two weeks away from Election Day in Indiana, so let's ignore it for today. This week's mailbag is high on navel gazing and low on politics.

If you'd like to submit questions for future mailbags, you can email me at the address below or fill out the Google form at the bottom of the online article page. Let's go.

Nathaniel Sweigart: What do you think about Legos and their benefits with creativity and development in children?

I've never thought about this before, but as the father of two young children, I was intrigued by the question.

It turns out there are a lot of studies on this topic! The general consensus seems to be that playing with construction toys, such as blocks, Legos and Magna-Tiles (my 4-year-old son's favorite), correlates with spatial thinking, which then correlates with STEM development for young children.

Correlation, of course, is not causation. The benefits don't seem as simple as putting a kid alone in a room full of Legos and watching them thrive. Studies point to the importance of parental participation and task-oriented play, such as directing children to build specific structures.

Now that I'm somewhat familiar with this discussion, I don't feel especially moved by it.

For starters, I'm a grown adult and I still can't build anything cool with Legos. My wife is the one who helps our son build sprawling cities out of Magna-Tiles. My brain doesn't work that way and I'd like to wait at least a few more years before I start revealing to my kids that I am not a perfect, all-knowing father.

I spent my childhood well ahead of the curve on reading and writing and well behind on math. I'm still basically the same person. I don't think more block play would have made much of a difference in how I turned out. In fact, I distinctly remember feeling embarrassed about playing Legos with my friends because I couldn't copy the structures they were building even as I stared right at them.

I'm glad my son is having a better experience with construction toys, but I wouldn't be worried if he didn't like them.

One concerning thing I did see is an inclination to cite research into building blocks as a reason to shame parents who give their kids electronic toys and games. I realize parents have strong feelings about these topics (and sense a moral imperative to convince others of their righteous views), but the stakes seem low to me.

What's true of block play is true of parenting in general: The more engaged you are in your children's activities, the more likely they are to benefit. But, also, parenting is hard and we could all do with a little less judgment.

Could you win the Masters if you started every hole on the green at the farthest point from the hole and only had to putt? (All the pros play as normal.)

Possibly! But probably not.

Negating my swing would at least give me hope. I once tried to work on my swing with a friend who played competitively and he concluded that my arms and shoulders were incapable of rotating in the ways necessary for proper mechanics. I at least have the physical capacity to putt, though.

I remember reading your articles on Axios. Your Axios coverage and opinion pieces on IndyStar are — to say the least — a SHARP contrast. Additionally, on Twitter, you've been subject to a lot of hate from more progressive voices. Are you used to this type of feedback? What effect (if any) does it have on your work? I'm noticing a more agitated and snarky tone lately, but it could be my own bias.

The main substantive difference between my work at Axios and IndyStar is that I write my opinions now. That means, in part, I write with a sharper tone than I used to. Describing Sen. Mike Braun as "unprincipled" wouldn't fly in a news article, but it works here — especially, I'd add, because Braun is unprincipled and I can explain why.

With such freedom comes responsibility. I try to challenge my own thinking, avoid silly hot takes and show how I've reached conclusions. I also try to admit when I'm wrong. For example, I spent the pandemic criticizing Gov. Eric Holcomb for governing too loosely, but time has proven him right and I wrote about that earlier this month.

Opinion writing is more personal than news writing, so people react to it with greater intensity, both positively and negatively. In my experience, as you note, the ferocity of the criticism has been politically asymmetrical, with more deeply personal judgment coming more frequently from the left.

It's not that I don't get angry feedback from the right. It's just that most of the worst stuff is akin to Beavis and Butt-Head reviewing music videos. When I wrote a recent column about Mike Pence's decision not to endorse Donald Trump for president, I received multiple emails telling me, "Trump is your daddy." I also get a lot of voicemails with over-the-top profanity. It's pretty easy to laugh at those and move on.

Conversely, my recent columns arguing that leftist politics is counterproductive in Indianapolis elicited feedback from respected people in the community calling me the "white moderate" Martin Luther King Jr. warned about as worse than the Ku Klux Klan. That hits a bit differently.

As someone whose job is to write about others in a public forum, though, it'd be ridiculous for me to wish away my own criticism. I try to consider feedback from all corners, engage in discussions and incorporate the best points I hear into future work.

It's a bummer any time someone gets vicious (it's not just progressives who do), but I try to maintain the perspective that the loudest haters often have challenges in their own lives and perhaps deal with them by lashing out. If it makes someone feel better to try and make my day worse, then good for them, I guess.

The only recent change I'm aware of in how I handle criticism is that I've become less patient with people who either purposely misstate what I've said or are obviously trolling without any desire to have a conversation. I used to try to win over the trolls. Now, I think life is too short for that. I've embraced the block button.

Matt H: It's been a few months since Gannett decided to get rid of comment sections. Has your quality of life improved dramatically? Or do you miss this additional avenue of "feedback"?

I'd say it's neutral. Much like I described above with the "Trump is your daddy" emails, the mean online comments were too silly to take seriously. I do hope the people who wrote thoughtful comments have found other ways to engage.

Thank you for reading! If you want to send questions for future mailbags, fill out the Google form on the online article page or email james.briggs@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Legos help with STEM. So does parental involvement.