How Much Time Should I Permit My Child to Play Video Games?

Now that the weather is getting colder, children may be less likely to want to go outside to play. What does that leave them to do? Video games? Even though it seems as if all children play video games, be careful about how long your child plays video games, whether they are hand held, the Wii or computer games. Even though we want our children to hyperfocus, or really experience an intense focus on something, video games are not the venue.



The research has shown that too much video game and/or television viewing arguably may lead to clinical depression. Therefore, make sure that your child plays these games according to a time clock, using either an actual alarm clock or a kitchen timer. When your child plays video games for an hour, make sure that they stop and find something else to amuse themselves. If they cannot tell time as of yet, purchase a clock with a colored flag that counts down the time. These clocks are called Time Timers and may be bought on timetimer.com.


Remember that reading is still one of the best avenues to follow in terms of keeping our children occupied. You may feel that your child will resist having to stop playing video games, but certainly compromises can be made between you and your child. It is important to be assertive, while at the same time being flexible. Tell him that he can play video games for a certain amount of time but after that time expires, he must do something else which can be his choice. Whatever he chooses to do after his allotted video game time is up is fine, as long as it is not more time playing video games!