Video Games

Since we got the wii, Collin has loved playing it. It's fun and there are plenty of games that he is more than capable of playing very well. However, I'm learning that there are some drawbacks to the wii, or video games in general for that matter. He is obsessed with Mario Kart. When he wakes up in the morning the first thing he asks is if he can play it. On the way home, he talks about which character and car he wants to race with. If you turn it off, he freaks out. I let him play for a half hour today when we got home while I fixed dinner. Then I said it was time to turn it off and play with his toys, watch a movie, whatever as long as it didn't involve a video game and he flipped. He screamed, cried, threw things and hit me. I dumped him right in time out because he was out of control. I told him he could stay there until his father got home in 20 minutes but, although he was upset and cried and promised he'd be good, he never left his room and he got himself under control again so I let him out after 10 minutes. I think 20 minutes would have been too long. He's still little after all. I'm limiting his time to 30 minutes a day and less if he complains about it. He's not allowed to play tomorrow at all because of his outburst today. I want to teach him a couple of lessons. 1. There will always be someone who is better than you and you will not always be the winner. You have to lose gracefully. 2. There is way more to life than video games. The winter is hard because it's cold outside and it gets dark early so we don't get much of an opportunity to play outdoors. Indoors, I'd rather he play the wii than sit on his butt watching tv but I still don't want him to do it for hours at a time. Wish me luck on this one because its going to be an uphill battle.