Dealing with video games and unhealthy activities, non-coercively - Page 2

[ThreeKidsinKy]

I don't know if this would be considered non-coersive necessarily, but I've let "battery power" be our time police. Of course, we use a laptop and their other electronic toys (eg DS#1's DSlite) use rechargeable batteries. Our laptop has a 3-hour capacity, and I only plug it in to recharge twice a week...Friday nights and Monday nights. We do this to conserve energy. Same with DS's DSlite...it only gets recharged on Friday nights and Monday nights. Then I tell them that to be fair, each child can only play on the laptop for one hour between charges so that everyone has a turn, but once the battery is empty, they won't be able to play again until it's recharged on the next plug-in date. What usually happens is they use up their time all on one day...not necessarily the day it was charged, but whatever day someone remembers, lol. And then I don't have to worry about it for a few more days. Wii is relegated to weekends when Daddy is home, and only after lunch after he's had a chance to do his yardwork, take a shower, etc. (or church on Sundays). That too is naturally time-limited because we often have more enticing activities to do. DS likes to play is DS in the car, and that is about the best use of it and where most of his battery-time ends up being used. We did at one time give him unlimited useage to see how he handled it, and he became surly and uncooperative so that's when we came up with these strategies.

Don't know if it helps...but it has worked for us.

[eccomama]

computer time and movies are reserved for weekend only now. no if, ends or butts. also one movie on the weekend, max 2. computer maybe 20 minutes for her and 20 mins for me to check email.
i try to encourage other activities that i know dd loves, especially if we have great weather, like going swimming, going for a bike ride, a hike, painting, even getting down on the floor and playing with her while the dishes pile up.

[bl987ue]

We absolutely limit computer game time. Our son gets half an hour a day IF he has earned it through good behavior. He is not the sort of kid that is good at self-regulating, and I think he could quickly become addicted so we definitely set limits. He used to kick up a fuss when we would tell him his time was up, so we asked him if he would prefer the computer limiting him itself. We have parental controls on the computer that automatically logs him out after his half hour. He greatly prefers that, and we aren't the naggy bad guys anymore. Plus, if his behavior has been especially good, and it's kind of a kick-back sort of day, we will override the control and give him a little extra time.