The case against Video Games (or at least extended playing)?

[leila1213]

Hi, not sure if this is the best place to post this. My stepson is 9 and I have had a hard time with being his stepmom because of his Mom's parenting style & my DH's reluctance to raise a stink and/or make his time w/ DS unpleasant. I've been dealing better with it lately, just kind of accepted that it's not my place to step in and change things. They are the parents and I need to go along w/ their rules. (The fact that I have my OWN DD now - 6 mos - may be helping!! )

Anyway, the latest issue is that he gets very stressed out when playing his Nintendo DS for long periods of time. He has a 1.5 hr busride to and from school, due to going to the only full-time gifted program in the County. He forgets about everything else when playing, including eating, sleeping, using the restroom. He is frequently on the verge of tears during/after playing.

He has also developed tics that may or may not be related. He has had various ones for a long time. The first I noticed was pulling his shirt collar & turning his head to one side, that was about 3 years ago. Now he makes a gurgling sound while sucking in air. Kind of like he's clearing his throat of phlegm? (He also has a very poor diet, which is another thread unfortunately...)

This is not his first game system. He's had a gameboy (several, b/c he loses them), and has a Gamecube at Mom's as well. Sorry for the rambling. My question is... how to convince his Mom that extended gameplaying is detrimental to him? I would never have raised this with her myself, but DH started picking up on his stress level and mentioned it to her. She basically laughed in his face and said that was crazy. DH suggested we find some research pointing to the negative effects of gameplaying. Does anyone know of some resources for this? I want something that will sound credible to her (ie, mainstream, not too crunchy). Any suggestions? Thanks for your help!

[wanderlost]

I don't have any links off hand, but I can offer with how we have dealt with this same problem in our house (and if left to themselves, my kids would play PS2 24 hours a day).
The kids have to do a chore to earn 15 minutes of game time - so to play for an hour they would have to do 4 chores. this works well in many ways - first, we get stuff done, second, it makes them think a bit more about how much time they actually want to play, and third it makes the game more of a reward than a necessity. Maybe you could at least implement something like this at your house??

[MamaChel]

google Pulminory embolisms. Please try to get him (and anyone who sits for long periods of time) moving every 1.5 to 2 hours at least. My family lost a friend last week due to this condition, it's heartbreaking and can be preventable. another issue is seizure disorders, some games can cause seizures and not all seizures are the grand mal type, sometimes little tics may be a type of seizure but without testing it's impossible to tell.