How I Get My Kids Away From Their Video Games}
All my kids talk about getting every year for Christmas is video games if they don’t go downstairs and find Gears of War 2 under our new white flocked christmas tree I do not know how they will survive. It makes me a little nuts since I do all I can to get my kids outdoors. I would much rather give them a pair of new skates or golf clubs then some mind numbing thing that will enchant them in front of the television. Oh well I guess you just learn that kids are kids. Fighting with them is just too much work.
That being said I’ve tried to find some tricks for my family and video games. I do a couple of things in an effort to force them outside. First off I limit their time every day to one hour (they can earn more). I have discovered that limiting the time is key to everything else because then they know time above and beyond that is to be earned. I do give them some ways to earn more time in front of the television. That leads me to talk about trick number two. They have a few options to earn more television time, either playing outside or doing some chores for me. I like the chores option because it is nice for me to have a few less things to do, and the reward for them isn’t bad either. I intentionally made it with the purpose of them getting around one hour of television time for every one hour they spend on chores.
The number two way they get more television time is by spending some of their time outside. For every hour they spend outside they get fifteen minutes of video games. I know that it isn’t a huge payoff for the boys, but they like being outside and I do not think it’s a lot for me to ask of them. This mostly pays off for them on weekends. They can play outdoors for the day on Saturday and then spend the night playing video games. Realistically a night of playing games and watching movies isn’t so bad after a full day outside.
That being said I’m ok with one or two ending up under white flocked christmas tree this year , that is if it allows for the positives of getting the boys outside and making them a little more obedient. They had better like the games they’re getting, because I know I’ll like my “gift” of one more thing to use “against” my boys.