Gaming Addiction and Meltdown Solutions

“Hey everyone, I’m Jason, dad of a 13-year-old gamer. I love that my son is passionate about something, but after hours on his console. Lately, I’ve noticed that the longer he plays, the worse his mood gets. He gets really irritable when I ask him to stop, and sometimes he even snaps at me or his younger sister. We tried going cold turkey for a weekend, no games at all, and that just made things worse. Total meltdown. Have any of you dealt with this? How do you set limits without making your home feel like a battlefield?”

Allowing your child to spend time doing what he enjoys is very important, but so is setting boundaries to protect your child’s health. As you have seen previously on the site, excessive technology use can lead to behavioral issues like anger and aggressive behavior. Allowing this bad habit will likely lead to your son continuing to exhibit this behavior. The easiest way to help this behavior is by limiting his access to video games. To do this without meltdowns, try allowing him to help set his boundaries or setting a specific schedule for his screen time. This way, he will feel more in control of his life and his scheduled screen time will feel like the norm, rather than a punishment.