Hey, one of the Get Game Smart Ambassadors here, with something to think about. I'm going to go ahead and say that there is no cut and dry rule for defining good gaming habits for every family. Every child is different; every family is different.
I've got a fifteen year-old, Thomas, who loves “NCAA Football 10” and first-person shooters, but also loves to play football, hang out with friends and understands that school work is important to his mother and me and comes before video gaming. Establishing rules with him is fairly easy. He can't play until his school work is done and only if he keeps his grades up. He accepts that (it only took removing the power supply from the Xbox once or twice when he was younger) and abides by those rules. He loves to play video games with his friends, but when football season is on, he gets very little time to do so.
On the other hand, my five year-old will play the Wii or Xbox every chance he gets (he loves “NCAA Football 10” – and, in easy mode, he beats everybody 133 -0. If only that could happen in real life). So rather than go down the road where it’s a struggle to get him off the console, I've taken the video game that he likes to play and transformed it into a real-life game in the backyard. Now that his favorite game is “NCAA Football 10”, we play two-hand touch, but when his favorite game was “Lego Star Wars”, we spent several months running around with light sabers banging into things in the house. He had a blast, while being active, and it linked back to the enjoyment that he has with games.
What I'm trying to say, is that it's difficult to not give into the urge to plop your kids down in front of the TV so you can have a few hours of necessary alone time (which I admit, we all need in today's world). It's really easy to let that happen. Using creative ways to make them realize that they need to balance gaming time with the rest of their activities, therefore keeping them active and away from the TV, makes those times in front of the console all the more special.
That's just my take on it, and I play my share of Xbox as well. Do you have any creative ways that you balance video gaming in your home? I’d love to hear your ideas.
Jason, Get Game Smart Ambassador
Gamertag: GreenEyeBob