Anyone want to join me ,in setting limits for my gaming addicted son.

[Veganforlife]

He has autism.we are under camhs,since the schools broke up he's had free reign of rolobox ,minecraft..we have not been successful getting him to do other things..we have tried ..
So new year ,new start.
We have decided no laptop,no tablet ,till four pm each day.off by seven pm.every day the same.
This is going to be so hard .hes already screaming .
Is anyone else doing the same ,I could really do with support.

4-7 seems reasonable. How are you going to enforce it? Many consoles have parental controls so you could fix the times through that. Also, if he is playing online then you could setup the time restriction via your home network. I don't know why more parents don't do it.

When do you have supper? Will he finish he gaming and then be going straight to eat. That might distract him and make the transition easier.

Are you able to talk to him and discuss what he feels is reasonable? (I know he will say ' me to play for 16 hours a day) but by involving him in the decision you might find he's more amenable as he's had some input in it

I have a 12 year old DS and don't restrict. He works hard at school so I'm happy for him to play with friends for however long really - in the realms of normality. I'd definitely not just impose time limits plucked out of the air though.. you might be better off allowing him to go on several times a day. With my son I just make a comment about how it might be nice for us to get some fresh air/ do another activity for a while and he usually agrees. I understand it may not be that straight forward with your son though

I also wouldn't make the limits time sensitive as he could be in the middle of a game when you tell him he has to come off

Well we made it through the first day.wasnt as hard as I thought.hes on it now ,obviously,I'm now able to breathe freely.hes needed a lot of help amusing himself.seems to of forgotten how to play ..hes 9 so maybe they don't at that age ..we read lots of stories and played with cozmo.thanks for the comments x