—
It’s 6:00 p.m., You log off from a long day’s work looking forward to spending some quality time with your family. When you finally get home and lean down to say hi to your son, who is gaming, he responds with “shhhh dad I’m busy.” We get it- We’ve been there.
With many parents and kids still on lockdown, CES underway and Playstation and Xbox releasing new consoles in November, it is safe to say the last few months have been hot for gaming.
The question becomes, how can parents enable gaming in a safe and productive way?
Here are a few tips and products to help.
Set Limits
Setting boundaries is an immensely important piece in every facet of life. It is also important to do so with respect to your children’s gaming time.
Set the expectation up front that your little ones only have a specific number of hours each day or each week for gaming and the other hours of downtime will need to be filled with alternative activities like getting outside, spending time with family, homework, and chores.
It’s a good idea to allow for freedoms with respect to when the gaming hours are used, so your kids don’t feel overpowered or micromanaged.
Encourage Healthy Gaming Habits
While mandating a gaming hiatus altogether is not going to work for most, it’s a good idea to set your little one up with an ergonomic gaming station that encourages healthy gaming habits, like this standing gaming desk from MojoDesk.
Giving your little one the option of standing while gaming helps encourage healthier habits and ensures they don’t spend hours on end sitting on the couch slumped over a controller.
Make Gaming Social
Doing things your kids love with them is fun and rewarding. Try setting some time aside each week to play video games as a family or watch along as your little one plays their favorite game.
When safe, it is also a good idea to encourage kids to invite friends over to play together in person vs. strictly online. This makes gaming a more social activity and socializing has positive effects on kids for a multitude of reasons.
Parent Tech Tips and the Takeaway
Gaming, when done with the right guidance, can be a powerful and productive force in your kids’ lives. Gaming can foster collaboration, creative thinking, problem-solving, and tech-savvy.
As a hot item on holiday and post-holiday wish lists, the new PS5 and Xbox Series X have been notoriously tough to get your hands on. Fortunately, Walmart, Target, and Antonline have all restocked the devices. It’s also a good idea to protect those prized gaming purchases – Asurion provides a tech protection plan through AsurionHome+ which covers most new, old and future gaming tech products under one roof no matter the brand.
—
This content is brought to you by Jaylin Khan.
Photo: Shutterstock