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We addressed the "addiction" part of your question previously, but I wanted to talk about the behavior part. First, you shouldn't expect it to be as easy for your five year-old as it is for your nine year-old. Nine year-olds live a lot less "in the moment" compared to five year-olds, have developed more interests, and have learned more coping strategies ...

It's just like anything else. You set limits and you enforce them. Being a video game enthusiast myself, I wanted to point out a few things you might want to consider in setting those limits. Some games are very easy to set down at any time, and some aren't. Some games can only be saved at fixed checkpoints. Some have cut scenes that can't be paused or ...

The child is 7, so the parent should still assert a strong influence on him. Assuming you are talking about home video games (xbox and such) or handhelp (DS and such): If the child can play a game and stop after half an hour, I do not think they have a problem. If they are asked to stop after half an hour and refuse to or throws a tantrum, then there ...

Is he upset because his friend has a different set of rules, or is he upset because he's not allowed to play these video games? At this age, your son is able to understand that different households have different rules. I would approach it from the standpoint of, "We love Johnny and we love Johnny's parents, but we have different rules in this house than ...

I have teenagers. If you want to de-emphasize gaming, you have to provide a compelling alternative that your child will be satisfied participating in. The bad news is, you are going to have to participate actively as well, which means you have to make time away from work or other commitments to devote to your child. At least until your child is old enough ...

The main feedback I can provide here is to model the behavior you want to see in your child. If your child sees you playing video games a lot, they'll see it as acceptable behavior and try to copy it. Note - even if you don't play video games a lot, it's what they see and remember that leaves an impression as well. Video games can be "easier" for younger ...

My son is five years old. Since he's not yet technically savvy enough to play on his own, the happy side effect is that video games are something he's forced to do with me, if he wants to do it at all. That makes it easy for me to be an example of moderation and good sportsmanship. Boys his age will almost always choose any activity with Dad over even ...

I have a 12yo boy (and a 10yo) who would sit in front of the TV or play computer video games all day if... But we don't have a TV or computer video games! Problem solved. 8-) Not trying to be flip, but as parents sometimes we have to remove from the environment things that compete for attention...especially if they're non-productive. Most homes are ...

There are lots of educational games. For example chess helps with logical and strategy thinking. Science is always fun. Reading is exciting. But to help kids develop better they need lots of sport activities too. Especially boys. Also non computer activities will educate him way more better then computer ones. The more variety he has in his activities - ...

Not all video games are bad per se, but playing them to the point of ignoring all other activities (addiction) is going to mean that the child's development and life experiences will suffer. The same problems can be seen with too much social media or texting. We countered this by planning ahead and arranging as many interesting/fun physical activities as ...

Generally this includes denying that the right amount of time has passed (even though we use a timer), claiming that he wasn't paying attention, insisting that he didn't have a good time and so he should get to start over -- Have you tried to get a timer which "speaks"? I mean, for example, the total time is 60 minutes, so the clock should shout after ...

I am a gamer as well. I have two sons, one is four and the other two. The eldest started playing computer games when he was two. The youngest is starting to learn to play now. His brother has been teaching him. Rather than thinking of video games as something that can inhibit, use them to pique your son's interest. You can do this in a variety of ways: ...

You can always use technology to help. One of the issues of getting kids to stop playing games is that the parents are perceived as 'bad parents'. The kids don't react well to nagging, and if they stop playing games at that moment, whose to say they aren't going to resume when you aren't looking? There are some freely available tools that can help parents ...

This is a great question which really appeals to me. I am an avid gamer (video games, board games ...) and I feel concerned with how I will educate my kids (18 months and newborn at the moment) with regards to games. Firstly, I'd like to challenge the question itself. I understand that you want to have your kids get along better in real life. For me ...