The title may be a little harsh, but that is how I feel right at this very moment. I have always had a love/hate relationship with video games (I love Rock Band and hate all others :), but now I think I'm just gonna hate them all for what they are doing to my sweet little boy. No, we do NOT have a gaming system (and that is looking less and less likely to ever happen, sorry Dan), but Carson has recently learned how to play little computer games on NickJr.com. He can totally play them and use the mouse and keyboard. I'm a little proud of his cool computer using skills, but what the games are doing to my little boy is driving me CRAZY! He loves them sooo much that every time we say it's time to stop (and we give him plenty of fair warning), he throws a fit. I explain before and after playing every time that he needs to be a big boy to play and not cry when it's time to stop. Well, tonight was especially bad! He actually left the computer fairly easily to go up to bed, but then started crying about it. I kinda lost it on him and was NOT happy! I think we may have to stop video games all together for a while. Or I've also though of getting a kitchen timer, so he knows when it dings it's time to stop. I don't really have a problem with him playing them, but i hate his reaction when it's time to stop...arghh!!! Any suggestions??
New Adventure Coming
7 years ago
10 comments:
Just wait until Bryn wants to play too! Then you become the wicked witch (in their eyes) because of the constant fighting of who gets to play. I have turned off the computer so many times because of fighting. They are evil!
I feel your pain. Lindsey has done the same thing with throwing a fit when we say it's time to stop.
My ways to limit the play time:
-She only plays when Randy is home ("That's for daddy time")
-She can't play after dinner since she is less likely to throw a fit than if we make her stop to go to bed
What that equals is she plays the game with Randy for about 10 or 15 minutes while I finish up dinner and that's about it. The downstairs computer is off all day and so she can't get on here and start a game on her own and neither of us knows how to work the xbox so we're safe there too...
I just never thought this would be an issue so young. Sigh.
p.s. Tonight after dinner she really wanted to go back down and play some more, so instead we pulled out board games. I will be excited for warmer weather and longer daylight hours so we can do our evening walks to the park again - it is so much easier to fill the time if we aren't cramped in the stinking house all day!
i feel the same way as you but we have an xbox so we had to find some middle ground. for example, our kids can only play video games on friday and saturday and they can only play for about 45-60 min. aaron and i usually use this time to get a project done. we use the microwave timer and once it goes off they know they need to turn it off. they use to have major tantrums before we started using the timer.
i think a lot of moms can relate to this. good luck!
yes, we have the fighting problem here. it's usually "Brooke's been playing forever and I only had 1 minute" or it involves McKee "showing" the kids what they should be doing to win the game. It's just another thing they have to learn how to adjust to. timers are a great idea, but the kids have to get used to that as a the final say. it'll get better, or you'll get more used to the battle! :) good luck.
I am right there with you babe...we have tried all things know to man and Zack still throws fits, so now he is only allowed computer time once a week and our computer has a timer for the kids account and it just turns off when his time is up and we just put the blame on the computer and Zack kinder to the computer--and doesn't throw that big of a tantrum. Best of luck to you.
it's just the stage. My kids are doing the same thing. I don't nessecary think it is the video game itself. He just really likes that. I think he would probably do it over anything that he liked just as much as the video game. Maybe when he throws a fit the next day don't let him play at all. Then when he asks remind him of why he can't play that day and maybe he will learn that when he throws a fit he doesn't get to play for a day and when he doesn't throw a fit he gets to. We did that with Rockwell and now he doesn't do it all.
I'll be honest, we totally use video games as rewards and bribery. We've never introduced him to games on the computer, so we don't have to worry about that, but there are two games on the xbox he likes. He never gets to 'just play' either of them though. They are strictly rewards for good behavior, and when he does get to play we tell him you get to play one game (or two games if he's been really good!) and then we turn it off, no questions asked. Its definitely working for us.
This is why we don't let Dallin watch TV. It's all or nothing with him! Let me know if you come up with a solution; I'd love to hear it.
Yeah, I'm not looking forward to Mason being a video game junkie. Chad likes to play them so I'm sure our kids will too. Luckily, Chad has good balance and isn't obsessed. Hopefully my kids will learn that balance too.
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