Are Educational Video Games Really Good for Children?
My children are now 5, 6, and 8. When I first introduced the children to the different games we all had a good time. We played for about a half an hour a day if that, and the children were always learning something new. Over time, that half an hour became an hour. This past summer was the worst though. I could not get the children to play outside very often. My older two children are girls and it was a little easier to get them to play Barbies, look at books, color, or go for walks when I unplugged the games. My son is very headstrong and throws fits if he does not get his way. One day I had told the children that if they did not turn off the video games and put their clothes in their drawers then find something else to do that there would be no video games for a full week. The girls were fine with that and I found them in their room playing Monopoly Junior board game on the floor. My son however, threw himself on the floor and started crying that he was not done playing his video game yet. I calmly unplugged the game and told him that he needed to find something to do and if he wanted to help me make cookies, I would let him lick the bowl when we were done. He was still very upset so I decided he had too much of the games and told him he would not be playing for a week because every time he plays he winds up in a very bad mood every time we need to shut the game down.
Every day after that he would ask, “Am I allowed to play yet?” And I would respond with how many days he had left. The last day, the children were to spend the night at my mother-in-law’s house and were also going swimming at the local pool. Normally the kids LOVE to do this. At 9:00 pm that night, my mother-in-law called me and said that Gavin wanted to come home. (Gavin is my son) I talked to him on the phone and found out that he wanted to come home because he wanted to play video games in the morning. We live in Pennsylvania and it is not often that we have such a beautiful summer, as we are having this year. I told him he could come home if he really wanted to but he was not allowed to play video games since there were plans to go swimming. I refuse to let my children choose games over an outdoor activity.
At 8:30 the next morning, my father-in-law was at my doorstep with Gavin because Gavin would not behave when it was time to get ready to go swimming. I sent Gavin upstairs for a few minutes to think about what he should have been doing and how much fun he will be missing out on. When I went to check on him a few minutes later, he was in my bedroom playing a video game. I then informed him it would be two weeks before he was able to play video games again. He thought though that he could still watch others playing games. I thought this might work because he would realize how his actions prevented him from doing something he really wanted to do. Instead, he would yell at the girls if they didn’t win a game or if they didn’t do what he wanted them to. Now if the girls want to each play for 15 minutes a day, I take Gavin to the store or outside to play with the neighbors while they are playing to give them some quiet time.
I did a science project in sixth grade that I wish I would have remembered before allowing my children to play video games. The project was, “Does playing video games increase a child’s pulse rate?” The answer..yes. Of ten of my subjects, all ten had an increase of at least 15 while playing a video game for 10 minutes. Can you imagine what it does to a child under the age of 12 playing for more than thirty minutes? Luckily, my mother kept my science project in the attic along with all my other school papers so I could look back at these results.
We battle this video game addiction every day now. What I thought would be educational has really put a lot of stress on our family activities. My son does not like reading stories together, playing cards, or going for walks anymore because he thinks he is going to miss a turn at playing a video game. I have unplugged the game and restricted his computer usage. Every day now, Gavin cries and screams and carries on. I am learning the hard way. I really hope that whomever reads this article will understand that although games are educational, we need to set limits and stick to those limits, otherwise we can lose all the innocence and playtime with our children while they are still young. We need to keep them young as long as we can because they grow up so quickly. Why speed things up? I only hope that soon Gavin will come up to me, sit on my lap, and ask me to read one of his favorite stories again.
