DS escalating consequences given by DH

Your husband approached the situation badly and needs to rethink his parenting skills, however.....
You have just completely undermined his authority and have shown your children that they can come to you in a hope of overturning their punishment. From my experience, you must stand united as parents otherwise your children will learn to play you off against each other.

I’d leave the poor lad alone, to be honest.
Reading your post, I kept expecting you’d describe a teenager completely out of control, but instead you’ve described a boy who does well at school, has a few chores, enjoys gaming, and likes chatting to his friend who’s on an exchange. That all sounds pretty normal for a 15-year-old.
I also think you’re both watching and managing him far too closely. Timing his phone, timing his gaming, sitting on him to study, monitoring when every game starts and finishes… he’s 15, not 5. At some point he needs a bit of trust and the chance to learn to manage himself.

And the biggest issue here isn’t the gaming anyway, it’s your DH’s reaction. The adult in the room should be the one able to regulate his emotions. Shouting, changing the goalposts halfway through an online game and escalating everything into a massive row isn’t helping anyone.
He sounds like a decent kid. I’d ease off a bit and let him actually enjoy being 15 before he’s expected to be an adult.

Your husband approached the situation badly and needs to rethink his parenting skills, however.....
You have just completely undermined his authority and have shown your children that they can come to you in a hope of overturning their punishment. From my experience, you must stand united as parents otherwise your children will learn to play you off against each other.

I’d leave the poor lad alone, to be honest.
Reading your post, I kept expecting you’d describe a teenager completely out of control, but instead you’ve described a boy who does well at school, has a few chores, enjoys gaming, and likes chatting to his friend who’s on an exchange. That all sounds pretty normal for a 15-year-old.
I also think you’re both watching and managing him far too closely. Timing his phone, timing his gaming, sitting on him to study, monitoring when every game starts and finishes… he’s 15, not 5. At some point he needs a bit of trust and the chance to learn to manage himself.

And the biggest issue here isn’t the gaming anyway, it’s your DH’s reaction. The adult in the room should be the one able to regulate his emotions. Shouting, changing the goalposts halfway through an online game and escalating everything into a massive row isn’t helping anyone.
He sounds like a decent kid. I’d ease off a bit and let him actually enjoy being 15 before he’s expected to be an adult.

This concerns me too. Bedroom keys have not been used in years since we moved in. This is first time in years they were taken from drawer where they are kept. The sittingroom downstairs has a key in the lock as dh works from home and would lock it when in a meeting.

Sorry this will be long.

DS age 15 is smart, kind and funny but too into screens. Does very well at school but needs to be told to study and sat on. His phone is controlled by us by Quostodio app so it is limited to approximately 2 to 3 hours per day. He is allowed to game at the weekend for 3 hours ish although it is often longer. If he was let, he would stay on screens all day long. During the summer, he can game some evenings also. He has a few jobs he does. Usually has to be reminded: feed the dog, walk the dog, empty the dishwasher. In July he was involved in gym project in the garage with the whole family - clearing out the garage, painting it and putting new gym equipment together. His best friend is abroad at the moment on an exchange. He looks forward to gaming with him in the evenings as there is a time difference. He socialises mainly online.

It is hard to get ds off Gaming. He recently started playing Rainbow Six Siege Where once you start playing you get peanlties and rank can be affected. But if given a warning to turn off once game is over he will come off. This can legitimately be in 30 mins though once the game finishes often the first team to reach 5. So in theory could be up to 9 rounds.

Dh and I had both previously agreed to give DS a fair warning to wrap up gaming sessions. But last night DH demanded he turn off the console instantly while ds was in the middle of a live match. Dh said it was in the loading screen. Ds said it was actually started.

The Escalation: Expecting an immediate shutdown within seconds I feel set ds up for instant failure. When he didn't comply instantly, dh stayed in the room giving out til the match was over. I was in bed having spent evening ferrying dd to activity and asked him to get ds off the game following what i know needs to be done in order to get ds off and over the high and dopamine hit of the game.

I woke to it conpletley escalated. Dh saying he was losing 45 minutes of gaming tomorrow. This went to no gaming tomorrow, to uninstalling the game and to taking the pc out of the house altgoether. Dh definitely eacalated things. Did not hold his boundary calmly. Said ds was harrassing and judging him ('what do you do all day' kind of comments from ds). He pointed out that dh spends hours and hours every day on his phone. Dh was shouting and in his face and ds was saying he was a bully and treats the girls differently and does not give the girls such punishments.

i tired to intervene and calm the situation down. There was no calming dh down who was getting bedroom keys to lock ds in and telling me to f off and slamming doors. Eventually dh locked himself in the sittingroom downstairs and went to sleep while I comforted ds and he cried himself to sleep.

I woke up to ds telling me dh had removed all his time from his phone which i feel is vindictive. Dh says he doesn't respect him and answers him back the whole time. Last night ds was cursing at dh which is extremely rare for him and he was so dysregulated I can see why although it is not right and it needs to be addressed in a calm way after the fact.

10 year old dd was awake during it and recognised the overreaction and stepped in to tell dh he was going too far. He shouted at her that she had no scream time tomorrow.

he is now not talking to me and dh I think. Seems to be talking to dds. How he is not ashamed of himself and reflecting on this is beyond me..

This happens about twice a month always with ds and I end up trying to support a reasonable consequence and have tried on calm days to explain to dh that he is 15 with a developing brain and his push back is normal teenage behaviour and he is actually a very sweet lovely boy. What would you do in this scenario. It is a constant source of conflict between us and tbh I make no apologies standing up for ds because I think the behaviour is so unfair. I just want consequences to be porportionate. I actually feel ds did nothing wrong initially and then lost it completely and didnt shower himself in glory. But how does dh align all that with thr fact he lost his shit and behaved really badly. Aibu to expect dh to be able to regulate himself and deal calmly with his son. He is a gamer himself which I think makes it worse he doesn't understand.

Beacuse it was late. Dh watching old episodes of star trek. Wrecked. Got up looked at the clock and said god how late is it need to go to bed.

Yes his son not obeying him I think is massive and talking back to him is like he is the worst person in the world when I tell him it is normal teenage behaviour. Had an amazing relationship with him from age zero to about 9 or 10.

I agree Im amazed at how much this seems to be tolerated.

Its like turn the telly off, when told to turn the telly off, you turned it off

When told to get off the house phone and end your call, you ended your call

Now, it seems acceptable to just carry on.

It’s a game. So it should be allowed to continue another hour or two?

A child should also end a game if the parent tells them too. Life will not end if he stops midway and he should have the emotional capacity at 15 to do this.

It shows how pervasive gaming has become in households.