Computer / TV Time

I dont know if I can be much help but have you ever tired not letting the other 2 watching while the other is on the computer. I see your 1 hour computer time is prolonging into a 3 hour from them all watching each other. Have the 2 that are waiting for there turn to do somthing else. And maybe if they wont then take it away. I have to do this with my kids and my oldest 2 are 3 1/2 and 20 months. Hope this will help a little bit.

Lol ok frist find out what on tv they want to watch and make a List Kid A watches TV while Kid B is on Computer and Kid C is playing the game station then you Kid B is Tv and Kid c is computer and Kid A is games,then Kid B gets games Kid C is tv and Kid A is computer. It gives them 1 1/2 hours of stuff then tell them to find a board game or a puzzle we did many puzzles in my house and glued them together one is in my sons nursery of a duck pond the whole family can do them. I hope this helps.

I have my sons EARN time on the computer/game. The oldest reads for 30 mins he gets 30 mins on the game (and so on). I don't mind the younger ones watching too much because it's only for a limited time anyway and I actually see them getting along and encouraging each other. If they started to fight about it, they would go to another room for sure but they don't so I let them watch. OH! and they each have household help jobs to do and they can't play games etc. until those jobs are done. Work then play! And also give them a warning when it's 5 mins till the end of their time, the end will come much smoother. At one point I had a chart where my oldest started out with 60 minutes of game time and each time he whined or complained or didn't do somthing when he was supposed to do, he didn't get in "trouble" he got minutes taken off his game time. Only once did he end up with 15 mins, and he was great to get motivated if I just simply walked over to the chart! He threw a temper tantrum once and I just stood there taking off minute by minute and it was the shortest tantrum! You can do it! These are the problems of this age!

Hello Barba,
If I were you i would get a egg timer if you don't have one, and time each of them for 20 mintues of play time for each of them so that way they are still only getting the hour of computer time that you want them to get. And if they don't like it you tell them that when they are an adult they can spend as much time as they want to on their own computer. i hope that this helps
good luck
S.

I don't know if this will help, but this is what my mom did with us. We had to earn minutes on video games (granted this was nintendo). Finishing homework earned us some. Certian chores earned us more than others. being behaved in general earned us siome, and mom being in a general good mood gave us some just because. We could use them however we wanted...all at once, split them up, but those were the only minutes we had. My mom gave us an exception every now and then, say, when we had friends over for a sleep over...we had unlimited use up to a certain time of the night. This worked out for us, too because we had enough time to actually play the game and enjoy it, but could only do so once or twice a week. We each got our own minutes, so if someone was watching someone else play it was the player's minutes used up, not the one who hasn't played yet. if there was a dispute, I got to play one night and my sister watched, the next she played and I watched (or did something else).

It can be annoying but also a great tool to "take away privelidges" and motivate if used correctly. You just have to take away the power cord, not the whole box. Same with computers, just take away the power cord. They can't replace it since it doesn't match anything else in the house so they can't use it unless you say so.
Have the two that are not playing do something like homework or watch tv while the other is playing and get a timer and when the time is up then it is the next child's turn. If there is a conflict in times, use a rotating time schedule every day. Get a seperate calander for it.

Here's the website of a product that might serve you well.
http://playlimit.com/index.htm
I happened onto a product similar to this a few years ago, and thought at the time it was a very good idea (the one I saw before used a credit card type thing instead of tokens). My daughter is too young for something like this, but I've considered it for my husband. ;) I like the fact that you can use time playing video games or watching TV as a reward for good behavior, or losing time as discipline. I think it would be a little harder to use with your computer, but would work perfectly for x-box and TV. Good luck!

I understand what you are saying. I have 5 boys and 3 of them are already into the video game mode. I know that too much video games will cause attention deficit in school because the games are fast stimulation and school goes at a much slower pace and the kids end up bored and not paying any attention.

What I suggest is explaining to the boys that an hour is exactly that ...one hour, and they can CHOOSE to spend it either taking their turn and doing other activities without something electronic when its not, or can spend their hour WATCHING the other person play. I am SURE they will choose getting their personal time to play vs. watching. giving them a choice makes them feel they have some say in it, even though as adults, we know they really dont.

Some activities the others can do should be slower paced stuff, building with legos, putting together train sets, cars,etc.Maybe look into getting a small kitchen set for them to play with.Believe it or not the boys love it as much as the girls.They play restaurant, serving each other. Things to get them using their imaginations and creativity.

Good luck !!!

About me: Mom to 9 kids ages 3-23, 5 boys 4 girls.

i suggest you use a new product called Plugstop. It is essentially a way of keeping kids/teens off games consoles, computers, tv etc by locking the plug. By doing this you can limit the amount of time spent on consoles and other electronic devices. http://www.plugstop.co.uk/
Hope this helped
V.

I dislike X-Boxes/Playstations/Computers for children a. lot. My own would spend days at a time on the PlayStation. They'd get up and go downstairs and turn it on when they should have been getting ready for school. They never spent any time doing anything else. My older one stopped reading.

I decided that there was no possible benefit to this, and attempting to tell them to stop didn't work. They did the same thing: "I was only helping him." (Some games are for one player, and others are for two players.) They always had some kind of argument, and sometimes I'd look up and realize someone was playing the PlayStation and "misunderstood" that it wasn't their time to play.

I decided there was no point in getting into a battle over something so obvious, so I simply took the PlayStation away.

The fear I had was of the kid tethered to the computer or PlayStation, with no visible other life. Or no ability to formulate other ways to pass the time. The computer game/PlayStation leaves absolutely no room for imagination at all.

They protested and whined. Then my oldest renewed his passion for manga books and began reading voraciously again. Ranma1/2, Naruto, Bleach and One Piece books -- he began to pester me to go to the library and get more. I had the pleasure of not being able to afford to keep up with my child's book habits! He has developed an interest in cooking. My youngest one started drawing pictures. He looks at books and has been trying to learn the letters. And doing other things has stopped being a way to pass the time until they can get back on the computer.

They ask me when they will get the PlayStation back. My answer is "Never." My son goes over to friends houses to play and I know that they play the games over there. That's fine.

Children will always argue the rules. I don't let my kids on the computer because they end up downloading tracking cookies, adware and viruses by mistake. It's the same problem as with the PlayStation, too, as far as opportunities for imaginative play and doing things that require any kind of thought and planning. The only solution is to take the games away and lock them up.

Some people might protest that that's mean and unfair. But our job is to guide our children and to raise them right, not to be their best friends. If we can't do this little thing that will make them mad when doing what they want is so damaging (even if because it seems to be "addictive" and fosters and encourages conflict between parents and children, even if it doesn't suck the very life out of a child's day) how will we be able to stop them when they're teenagers from going to a friend's house when they swear the parents are home when you know the parents are actually planning to be out of town?