When I became a daddy tatay-doc to my son at the age of 28 about five years ago, I never thought that one day, an on-line social network would be a source of wholesome fun and family bonding. Now that almost everyone is into facebook (including the Pope, no less), our family is not an exception. Initially, I was clueless about facebook, until my wife Tina and our 4-year-old son Gabby opened their individual accounts and introduced me to facebook applications that unobtrusively led to uncontrollable addiction! We’re simply hooked especially to its applications – RESTAURANT CITY and FARM TOWN. But we make sure that Gabby gets to play it only after his preschool homeworks and reviews are all done. It serves as his reward whenever he performs well in his studies.
In Restaurant City (RC), a player is given the basic requirements in a food place : a couple of tables and chairs, a stove and a set of menu - one starter, a main dish and one dessert. As diners come and eat at your virtual restaurant, you earn coins that are needed in feeding your wait staff and cooks; coins are also useful in acquiring additional decors and other essentials of a restaurant. Upgrades and innovation can be done not only to your menu as recipes are completed by trading an ingredient with your facebook buddies but also modification to your restaurant’s interiors and exteriors is also exciting thing to do. In short, everyone can be a restaurateur and a foodie at RC which my son, wife and I want !!! 
Since our son Gabby, at his young age, already professed his dream of becoming an iron chef one day, enjoying RC at Fb is a pleasurable means of motivation and inspiring him more to pursue his aspiration. I think with Gabby having fun with his virtual restaurant and as we gradually exposed him to actual grand buffets in few hotels, and in various restaurants and fastfood hopping, we’re sure he’ll soon develop his own appreciation of food and everything about it, and most nice things that life can offer.
This was my virtual restaurant’s former exteriors. I named it Chef Docgelo’s; it’s an upscale carinderia, lol, with a viking’s roof before. It took me a week before I got bored with it so I had it renovated by means of several ‘left-clicks’ at the mouse and transformed it into an all-glass food place…
But I still maintain the same interiors…
I put two ponds (made of water-tiles) surrounded by plants and awards in between a walkway to the main mess hall.
Look how diners are satisfied and satiated with the dishes I serve, lol…
It was Tina who first discovered RC and introduced it to me and Gabby. Below is her restaurant’s present exteriors with a roof of a submarine that she bought with her virtual coins for 9,000 I guess.
Cool, isn’t it? Now the interiors of my wife’s food place called TINA-PIE-yan, looks like this…
I know you’ll find our son’s restaurant the grandest cutest! I can’t blame you.
Because we have 2 laptops and 2 broadband connections -one with a cable and a prepaid broadband access, we can play fb’s applications all together simultaneously. This idea of using internet as a source of family bonding had won my entry 3rd place in one of the local bloggers I follow, Anton Diaz’s Our Awesome Planet Digital Daddy Contest (see previous post below).
As we improve our restaurants, we maintain healthy fun competition. Actually, we help each other by trading ingredients to further our menus.
And did I already tell you we’re also in Farm Town? Here’s the little hacienda I maintain…
I had several plants and trees that bear fruits and crops. I have to catch up with my colleagues and friends with FT.
Do you also enjoy facebook applications ?
Please excuse me as I update my Farm Town and Restaurant City…
OPINION COUNTS…