This gaming thing is getting out of hand

3w ago1 min read

My 13 year old got a PS5 for his birthday two months ago. Dude is on it literally every moment he's not at school or eating. I'm talking 4-5 hours after school on weekdays, like 10+ hours on weekends. He's actually failing math now which has never happened. I told him no gaming until his grades come up but he freaked out and said all his friends have it and he'll be the weird kid. Part of me gets it but this is ridiculous. How are other parents handling this? How do I know if he's addicted or just being a normal teenager?

7 comments122 views

Comments(7)

NNolan D.Regular3w ago

That's when you need parental controls honestly. I'm not anti-gaming but a 13 year old needs structure. Set the time limits in the system settings so he can't override them. Takes the argument out of it.

NNolan D.Regular3w ago

Yeah that's too much. At 13 he's old enough to understand the boundary though. We had to literally set a time lock on our older kid's console. Gaming became his whole life until we put limits on it. Now it's just part of his day, not his entire day.

SScottRegular3w ago

Two months in and he's still in the honeymoon phase. This is when you need to set boundaries hard. If you wait until he's completely hooked, it gets way worse. Trust me, I'm living that nightmare.

LLucasRegular3w ago

PS5 in a 13 year old's hands is rough. The dopamine hit is real and they don't have the impulse control yet. We do hard cutoff times and no gaming on school nights after a certain hour. He pushes back but it works.

NNoah B.Regular3w ago

That's rough. My son loves Marvel but I try to use that as motivation to get outside first. Maybe tie gaming to other stuff he has to do? Just a thought.

KKent R.Regular3w ago

4-5 hours is a lot, man. My two are younger but I'm already thinking about how to handle this stuff. What limits have you tried setting?

MMiles B.Regular3w ago

Yeah that's intense for a 13 year old. We do backyard stuff to keep ours off screens as much as possible, maybe could be a carrot if he earns it?