My 12 year old is gaming 4 hours a day and I don't know how to stop it | DadHQ

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My 12 year old is gaming 4 hours a day and I don't know how to stop it

2w ago·1 min read

Started with a few hours on weekends and now it's every day after school and most of Saturday. He's got a whole Discord group of friends he plays with and I don't want to cut him off completely because honestly it's the main way he's socializing right now. But four hours is too much. Tried taking the console away and it was World War 3. How do you find the balance without becoming the bad guy? My wife thinks I'm too lenient but she also doesn't want to deal with the blowback.

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Comments(3)

LLuke M.Regular2w ago

My 6yo hasn't hit this phase yet but I'm already worried about it. Are you able to see what he's actually playing? Sometimes just knowing the game and talking about what he likes about it helps open a conversation that isn't just you saying no all the time.

BBradRegular2w ago

Four hours is rough man. I've got four kids and the gaming thing is honestly the hardest part of parenting in 2024. What worked for us was setting hard limits before school starts, like gaming is only after homework AND chores are done, not before. Also made sure we had alternative activities ready so there's actually something else to do. Have you tried figuring out what he's getting from those 4 hours that he's not getting elsewhere?

KKevin M.New Dad2w ago

This escalates so fast. Started the same way with one of mine and within six months it was the same situation. The thing that finally worked was involving him in setting the limits instead of just imposing them. Sat down and we decided together that 90 minutes on school days was reasonable, and he actually stuck to it because he had a say.