Video game addiction

[binky]

My 8 year old daughter is showing troubling signs of being addicted to video games. We live in a small town, where the weather is extemely hot in the summer and early fall, so they spent a lot of time that way over the summer, but today she told a neighbor that school was "ruining her Playstation time" . I have temporarily banned her from it, which was accompanied by much screaming and stomping (no not by me!) Has anyone else been through this problem?

[Aliantha]

My oldest boy tends to get bogged down on Xbox if I leave him to his own devices. I find the best thing is to create diversions. I also have a rule that it's for after dark or rainy days which I don't strictly enforce, but if I am getting concerned, I remind them. At first Aden didn't like it much, but he's ok about it now. All rules are restrictive till you get used to them. It's normal for kids to get the shits when you take away what they are used to doing. I found with my boys, it made things easier if I get more involved in their activities at least in the begining when I'm not impressed with they path they're taking on their own. It usually seems to work out, and generally we all have a lot of fun.

[Sundae]

Addiction is a tricky word. If it was something you approved of, it would just be dedication.

I wanted to read, all day and every day. Because I was well behaved and intelligent at school, I managed to read secretly through some lessons. In fact when I was 8, I was sat next to the class "library" (2 bookcases) and I worked my way through the books there when I should have been doing classwork.

Mum had such a big thing about fresh air that I was often chased out of the house in the summer. Okay, ours are milder and wetter than yours, so she probably had a point in that if it wasn't raining I should make the most of it! But despite really enjoying exercise I massively resented it if I was at a crucial point in a library book.

As Ali says, the only thing you can do is cut down the time by rules, and weather the strop until she's used to it. It might help to come up with an alternative as a distraction - but prepare to have whatever it is undertaken grudgingly until she is used to the change in routine.

[binky]

Thanks guys, for the suggestions. Much better ideas than just taking it away altogether.

[Aliantha]

Yeah...and the good news is that you've taken it away completely, so if you give it back to her for 'certain periods' she'll think she's winning.

[glatt]

We set a timer. 20 minutes each day on school days, 30 minutes on weekends.

When the timer beeps, they know their time is up. If they don't get off right away, they lose the privileged for the next day. It works.

[Clodfobble]

Something to keep in mind: as the style of game they are interested in matures along with them, at some point they may play a type of game in which they can't get from one save point to the next in 30 minutes. Just know that when that time comes, they're not making it up, there really are games like that. Maybe let them save up their time for a few days, if it ever comes to that.

Edit to note: this was to glatt, not binky. If your kid is still at the point where she throws a fit at having the games taken away, then I agree, she needs to have harsher limits set.

[glatt]

Good point. We're not there yet.

[Aliantha]

@Clod...yep, that happens in our house with sports type games and such (which are the ones my son seems to favour thankfully), so I usually ask him how long and then he goes back on the clock.