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Can we make less lenient "screen time" rules?

Christa - posted on 07/30/2012 ( 1 mom has responded )

83

42

I have an 7 yr old step son, he will be 8 in September. My husband and I have a daughter arriving in 5 weeks and I'm concerned about how my step son will handle the new rules for video games and movies his dad and I have talked about.
Right now at the other house holds: he spends time at he is allowed unlimited use of the tv and games and is allowed to play whatever he wants including some M rated games.
This makes both my husband and I uncomfortable but when we try to encourage age appropriate things he is bored with them. I would rather he not play at all and we are talking about setting a limit to his "screen time". But we are concerned that since he has been so desensitized already we will have trouble enforcing this.
A lot of the reason we are talking about the rule change is because he is starting to have trouble in school, and we want to have the same rules for all 3 kids ( I have a 3 yr old who is on opposite weeks with my step son), and we don't want to expose the younger two to the mature content in what he is currently allowed to watch/play. Is this a reasonable expectation? Are we right to reel back how lenient the rules are? Any suggestions?

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Kristin - posted on 07/30/2012

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It is a reasonable expectation, however keep in mind that his game content will always be more mature than your younger 2 childrens. My oldest is 16, my middle is 6 and my youngest is 16 months, I understand the huge age gap between my kids and made new accomidations for my oldest. We put a tv in his room with a gaming system where he was allowed to play his games under the time limits we allowed. The younger children were not allowed to be in my oldest sons room so this worked well for us, My oldet son was also very mature for his age and we allowed him certain mature games as well when he was 8 under the umderstanding that school comes first. With my younger 2 i did a different parenting techinique where they are limited to tv and game playing, which works well. However, society makes it so kids get addicted to games and tv. I think it is good if you want to limit his time on tv and such but be prepared for a battle, especially since his mother may not be on the same page as you and your husband and it may not be as easy as you think it will be. You may want to try talking to his mother as well and all of you getting on the same page and to help him with his school work. Good luck.

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