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[quote=Anonymous]DS age 11 loves video games - mostly xbox sports games, but games on our family laptop and his kindle as well.  He is only allowed non-school related screen time on Fri - Sun, and he gets ~ 1 hour per each of those days (so 3 hours per week total).  He plays soccer, takes karate classes, and plays the sax - he is also a good and engaged student.  So what's the problem?

I feel like notwithstanding his restricted screen time, he is addicted to video games and computer time generally.  I don't have a problem with the amount of time he is getting, but I have a problem with his "need" for it - when he gets home from school on Fridays, he barely says hello before calling "I get to use my screen time" and running into the basement to play fifa on the xbox.  When he wakes up Saturday morning, same thing - playing on the xbox is the very first thing he wants to do when he gets up.  If he have to head out of the house for an activity, errand, whatever on Sat morning, then the minute we return he runs off to play xbox, so it was clearly on his mind the whole time.  If he is at a friend's house over the weekend and he hasn't used his screen time yet that day, he will get home and race into the basement to play xbox - and if he is playing xbox and a friend calls, he doesn't want to stop playing to take the call (both of which really concern me because it feels like he prefers the video games to hanging out with friends).  When he is playing xbox or a game on the computer, it is impossible to get his attention, and he can barely hold a conversation.

If he has a project for school, he is so much more enthusiastic if he is doing it on the computer, and he spends a lot of time just looking for related videos, fixing the graphics, etc. rather than focusing on the meat of the project.

He is always looking for "excuses" during the week why he needs to go on the laptop (e.g., school related, to "show me a project" he is working on, although if I ask him to talk about it instead of showing it to me on the laptop, he's not interested any longer).

His friends all like xbox, too, but they don't seem to place the same premium on playing as he does - it is the first thing he suggests doing when a friend comes over, whereas often his friends would rather shoot hoops or something first and just casually play later.

I don't understand the "need" here, and I'm worried that if I were not imposing these limits, he would play xbox every day.  Any ideas on how I can help him put video games, etc. in perspective?  [/quote]

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