Video Game Addiction

     My heart really goes out to the parents of Sandy Hook, CT.  I could not imagine the pain those family feel from loosing their children so young and so tragic.  I keep praying for them and pray God eases their pain a little everyday through great, although short, memories.

     Of course with all the tragic shootings that have taken place over the last six months, America is now ready to address the gun laws.  I myself don't own a gun and I'm not familiar with any of the laws or what it takes to get a gun.  I'm sure in the next few months my knowledge will change.  It's funny, I knew my Dad had a gun.  He kept it in his suitcase with his factor supplies locked up.  I guess it was the only case he had with a lock.  It was a pistol, I'm not even sure if he kept bullets in it..but I knew it was in there.

      Anyway, with psychologist and news reporters now looking into the effects of video games on gun violence, I have to take a look at my own child.  It's ironic that my husband and I have been discussing this previously about Marques playing his Xbox live all day.  When I say all day, I'm not exaggerating.  Just this past weekend he was on it from 5:30am to about 2:00am...and only because I made him go to bed.  That is an example of an extreme time, but I know he would do that everyday if he could.  Besides Minecraft, he plays Call of Duty.  I really didn't know how violent Call of Duty was until I watched him play it.

     After the Sandy Hook massacre, I had to have a big chat with him to make sure he understood this to be just a game and if you shoot someone in real life they die.   I believe he understands a game is just that..a game.  I also know his Spirit and how empathetic of a person he is.  Today, I also read an article from the Washington Post that makes me feel justified in my feelings.

"Ten-country comparison suggests there’s little or no link between video games and gun murders"

     It's hard for me to really criticize him for playing all day, because he still has great grades..not to brag but 99 Lang Arts, 91 Gifted and Talented (GT) Math, 98 Social Studies and 95 GT Science.  He is in the 4th grade but has the reading level of an 8th grader, based on test.  I recently took him off the game for two days, because he waited until the night before to do a school project he had 3 weeks to complete.  He still came home with 101 grade....  I'm still not sure how he pulled that off.  Even though he is a bit of a "nerd", he can be very sociable and he is well liked by his friends and Teachers.  He also has high self esteem, because he tells me how great he is almost everyday.  So basically, he sounds nothing like the people that have been committing these crimes.



Marques giving me his "Cool Man" pose

     I still however think he is developing a bit of a game addiction.  Spending so much time on the game is making him a little anti-social.  His argument is, "On Xbox LIVE you are talking to other people".  I've noticed he rather stay home and play his game than go out with the family.  Also, he doesn't visit his friends anymore because he finds it more fun to play with them over the game system.  It makes it even harder to get him off the game, because his friends are also on the game all day.

     My biggest problem though, with him playing the game all day, is to stay fit because of his hemophilia.  It's hard for him to understand at 10 because he is slim, tall and pain free.  Unfortunately, when we were discussing him playing basketball, I showed him a picture of a joint bleed in the knee.  The picture, I think was a worst case scenario and someone that was not on prophy.  The knee was huge and swollen ( I remember my Dad knees).  Now, I think I scarred the shit out of him.  I tried to explain it was a small chance he would get a bleed that bad.  I just wanted him to understand how diligent we had to be with prophy treatments around practice and games.  I'm still working on him giving basketball a try, but I think playing video games is really the reason he had a change of heart.

     My husband and I, right now, are in a disagreement about how much time is appropriate for him to play.  With the school break coming up, my opinion is he can play as much as he wants and his Dad disagrees.  I think we compromised ...after a battle..on 8am-8pm, but Marques is still complaining that is not enough.  I told him that alone shows he's addicted. 

     I really don't know what is a good "video game-life balance"?  I have thought of a strategy to get him to exercise....for every half hour of playing WII sports...he can earn an extra hour on the X-box.  I don't think my husband will go for it though.

     Does your son love video games?  Have you had to restrict the amount of time?  Maybe we can share X-box names so they can play together.