ADVICE RATING |
  3.87 (May work) from 7 votes (78 Visits) |
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How the gaming culture is affecting our children. |
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by mariamum  (September 25th) (rank 76th) |
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Recently I realised that my son aged 13, had become addicted to computer games. This in turn led to a drastic change in behaviour. After watching a programme on TV last night I realised I was not alone and that this has become a worldwide problem. I know
as parents we all want to make our children happy and so we get them the things they want without really looking into what we are getting. I hope with this advice some parents might pick up on the behavioural changes that they children might exhibit and then put a stop to this addiction before it is too late.
I got the impression from the programme I watched that this seemed to be a problem for boys but my friends have informed me that their daughters are also addicted but to different kinds of computer programmes, for example Facebook and Myspace. A lot of my friends have also mentioned that school work has fallen behind and school results have fallen drastically due to this problem. I have also found that children become withdrawn and spend hours playing these games to the extent of skipping homework, skipping socialising and sometimes in rare cases even skipping meals. Games for a lot of children are a means of escapism. However the problem has been that children do not want to go out, for example shopping or any other outdoor activitiy. I have tried to get my son out by inviting his friends over but because his friends are also addicted to games they both end up just playing games. I once even took them both out swimming and they just stood by the side of the swimming bath and did nothing. This is a problem that will not go away unless we put a stop to their constant game playing.
Recently due to all the online games consoles that are now available my son did the worst thing a parent could imagine, he bought games using my credit card without my permission. At first this was a shock but then we both realised how bad his addiction had got and this in turn helped me to make him realise that he needed to stop for his own good. When I spoke to my friends about what had happened strangely they had similar experiences. I think as parents we all see the warning signs but don't leave it too late before you put a stop to this. My son has now gone 20 days without playing games and seems to be cioping without any tantrums or aggressive behaviour, which strangely was exactly the way he would have behaved when he was playing these games. He is more sociable and spends more time with us as a family and talks a lot more than he used to. I also decided when this happened to put a stop to my youngest aged 6, from playing computer games and he also is much calmer and has found more creative ways to spend his time.
So I hope this advice helps the parents who are still sitting on the fence about whether to step in and stop what is happening to their child because like any addiction whether it be drugs or alcohol you would do something to protect your child so don't see this as anything different.
Good luck to you all.
