A lot of young children find themselves glued to the screen of their computer or television for as much as five and up to eight hours a day. These childhood habits can become real issues later in their young adult life.
Left uncontrolled, video game addiction can lead to negative behaviors such as laziness, extreme irritability, depression, and in some cases violence. Fortunately, it’s never too late to break a bad habit and end your child’s video game addiction!
The beginnings of childhood video game addiction is typically started when the child has too much free time on their hands combined with little to no parental supervision. The first steps you should take are to limit your child’s video gaming time and start exposing them to outdoor activities.
By keeping the child occupied with outdoor activities you are essentially eliminating unsupervised free time. Also, outdoor activities can be very beneficial to young and developing children.
From building immunity to keeping a child’s weight in balance, outdoor activities can certainly help you in the fight against video game addiction while keeping your child healthy.
Ideas for outdoor activities that can keep your child busy and off the video games:
Swimming
One of the best outdoor activities out there is swimming! Swimming burns a lot of calories and is super fun for children. Many towns offer community pools for free or very cheap admission. Community pools also have schedules of various aquatic activities for you and your child to take advantage of.
Sports
Football, soccer, baseball, track, and many more sports can be great gateways for your child to build sportsmanship, athletic skills, and learn about teamwork. Instead of them wasting away in front of a screen, they could be building the necessary skills for their future lives.
Parks and Play Grounds
Taking your child to parks and play grounds can benefit them in more ways than just consuming free time. Parks and play grounds expose your children to other children which allows them to interact (on more than just a school basis).
This interaction can build key social skills crucial for your child being mentally healthy. Making friends is a great way to pulling them off of video games.
Nature Walking
Showing your child the outdoor world can stimulate their curiosity in nature. What better way to show them the world than going out for a walk by the local trail, creek or visiting your local wildlife zoo.
There are many outdoor activities your child can participate in. It’s important to let your child choose what they feel is the most entertaining and fulfilling. After all, children like video games and by replacing video games with something else they like should be an easy transition.
The only hard part is for them finding something they like! Let them explore the outside world and unplug those video games.
The author, Peter, has written numerous articles on childcare and child psychology. He’s contributed to several research studies on the effects of childhood obesity and their surroundings. He’s also a part-time blogger who usually spends some of his time to update his blog.
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What causes the symptoms of excessive video game use?
Hi Daniel
Thank you for the chin scratching question. When my son was younger, he was a heavy video game player and at times he still is. As youth, he would play daily usually for multiple hours at a time. My wife and I set a boundary that first sign his game playing affected his school work we would pull the plug. It never happen, in fact it seemed like the more he played the better his grades got.
At the peak of his video game playing, I remember buying him a t-shirt with the words, “Just One More Level”. I feel the video game designers intentionally create these games with multiple levels of increasing difficulty to encourage the player to keep on playing in order to reach the next level. The games are carefully crafted as to not to be too difficult that a player gives up in defeat but challenging enough to hook a serious committed player to play for hours on end.
Gerardo