If you have young kids, whether they currently like to play video games or haven’t gotten into this media type yet, it’s wise to consider what type of limits you want to set on gaming for your family. When left unchecked, just like many other hobbies and uses for screen time, video games can be harmful to growing kids and growing minds. So to help ensure that this isn’t the case for your kids or family, here are three tips for setting gaming limits for your kids.
Set Aside A Day Where Video Games Aren’t Played
While most parents know that it’s a good idea to have a limit on how many minutes your child plays video games each day, it can also be helpful to choose a day during the week where your child won’t play any video games.
Especially if you’re able to make this an expectation, having one day out of the week where your child is encouraged to do other things shouldn’t result in a big fight. And, by having a day that’s completely video game-free, your child can have time to cultivate new hobbies and learn how to find ways to occupy themselves that doesn’t include having to rely on video games for entertainment.
Be Consistent
When you and your children come up with rules that you can both be okay with regarding which video games to play, when those video games can be played, and how often video games are to be played on a regular basis, you then have to make sure that you’re consistent with these guidelines for them.
As you set up these guidelines, it can be helpful to also state what the consequences of not adhering to these guidelines will be. This way, if and when your child chooses not to obey the rules that have been put in place, they can know ahead of time what the consequences of those actions are. Now, it’s just up to you to make sure you follow through each time this happens.
Keep Video Games In Common Spaces
Something that many parents are worried about when their kids start getting interested in video games is that the content of the video games won’t be appropriate for them or that their kids will start getting into things that are more mature than they are ready for.
To keep this from happening in your home, consider keeping all video games in common spaces in the home. This way, your child won’t have the opportunity to sneak around with their video games, since everyone else in the home will be able to see exactly what they’re doing.
If you’re ready to start setting some limits on how much gaming your children do, consider using the tips mentioned above to assist you in doing this.
