![]() ![]() It is the modern day pacifier for both the young and old…and do you remember how hard it was to wean your infant off that pacifier? 9 out of 10 times the parents just give in so that they’ll be quiet. They hold their devices in their hands so tightly and I can almost hear them whispering “my precious.” Try to take it from them and they might even bite your finger off! I’ve seen 3, 4, 5, and 6-year-olds that WILL NOT do anything else but play on an iPad or phone and then throw a fit if they are denied. Young kids and their devices remind me of Gollum from Lord of the Rings. We go back to doing what we were doing and we forget that there’s a price tag on the newfound peace and quiet we’ve just acquired. We see them stretching their neck because of muscle fatigue and tightness… but still, we let them go on. We also don’t want to sit there and listen to them complain that “there’s nothing to do” so we give in and allow them to go into the four corners of the house all by themselves with their own little digital device. We let them play with our phones, use their tablets, and download new games on a regular basis because they bug us to death, and we don’t want to be mean parents. We don’t generally look at our gaming stations and devices as being dangerous to our kids. If you’re not into chess… then do something else. I haven’t heard a word about video games for months and it has truly changed our lives. He is actually reading because he wants to! He is putting in the effort to accomplish a goal and it is making him smarter in the process. He wanted to go to Barnes and Noble to get “The Chess Players Bible” so that he could study it and beat me. He doesn’t beat me at chess but he has lots of fun trying. On nights, weekends, and any other time of the day, I see my son taking a much greater interest in lots of other things. When I beat him back, the video games disappear. If the day finally came that he did beat me at chess, he could play… but he would need to remain the champion in order to keep playing. I knew that it would take him a long time to get good enough to beat me at chess. If he could beat me at chess, then he could play video games. (Not that I have to bargain with him… but I had a reason for making the deal.) The deal was this. I took away all electronics cold turkey but then made a deal with him. So How Did I Fix My Son’s Obsession With Video Games? It’s my job to protect them from these things in their youth. Video games and personal devices were built to be addicting. The thing we need to keep in mind is that none of this is their fault. No movies, sports, or trips to the ice cream shop. Again… he was obsessed, and he didn’t want to do anything else. But I would get sick of it after awhile and he’d still want to play for hours. I figured I’d play with him so that we could have some father and son time at night doing what he wanted to do. ![]() I took away the iPad completely… for good… because of the isolationism associated with that device, so all that was left was the XBox. So we limited it again to Friday and Saturday, but only after it was dark. All he could think about was the fact that other events were cutting into his video game time. He would forgo a chance to go play golf, go swimming, go out to dinner, or grab some ice cream with the family. Then he would try to spend every waking minute playing video games on the weekend. Next, we limited it to just Fridays and Saturdays. We started by only allowing him to use his iPad or play the XBox at night. You may think I’m being extreme, but I truly observed addiction like qualities in my son as I attempted to remove video games from his life. We have the power to fix the problem but we lack the discipline to actually implement a plan and be consistent. We’re the ones that buy it, enable it, and even encourage it. Many of us know that our kids are obsessed, even addicted to video games and that it’s ruining their lives, but many of us don’t do anything about it. Chances are… your son might have one too. My son had an obsession with video games. ![]()
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