How I Get My Sons Away From Their Video Games

All my kids talk about getting every year for Christmas is video games if they don't go downstairs and find Gears of War 2 under our new flocked christmas tree I do not know how they will survive. This drives me a little crazy since I like to encourage my kids to go outside. I would much rather give them a pair of new skates or golf clubs then some mind numbing thing that will enchant them in front of the television. Oh well I guess you just learn that kids are kids. Arguing with the boys over "appropriate" lengths of time is just too much work.

After saying that I guess I should get to the point that I've developed a few ways to control their television addiction. With a few techniques I try to get them outside more. First off I limit their time every day to one hour (they can earn more). I have discovered that limiting the time is key to everything else because then they know time above and beyond that is to be earned. To be more fair I've allowed them some methods of earning more television time. That leads me to talk about trick number two. They can get more television time by either doing chores or spending time outside. I like the chores option because it is nice for me to have a few less things to do, and the reward for them isn't bad either. I intentionally made it with the purpose of them getting around one hour of television time for every one hour they spend on chores.

The second way they earn time, by going outside, is a little less rewarding. When they go outside and play nice I allow them 15 minutes of gaming to every hour of outside time. Like I say this isn't a huge payoff, but I also don't really think asking them to be outside is a huge thing to ask. This mostly pays off for them on weekends. They can play outdoors for the day on Saturday and then spend the night playing video games. I do not even mind if they play a night of video games after a good day outside.

That being said I'm ok with one or two ending up under flocked christmas tree this year , that is if it allows for the positives of getting the boys outside and making them a little more obedient. They had better like the games they're getting, because I know I'll like my "gift" of one more thing to use "against" my boys.