Many parents willingly hand over cash to their kids as allowance or for birthdays and other special occasions, but do you know what that money is being used to purchase?
These days an increasing amount of kids are spending money–your money–on video games. Games that most parents have no clue how to play. Think about it; would you know the toggle from the touch pad if your child invited you to play his video game?
Studies show that parents rarely, if ever, play video games with their kids. Rather, most moms and dads simply fork over the money to buy the games without having any knowledge of the themes, characters or ratings associated with them.
If this describes your video game philosophy, experts have five words for you: “Wake up and get involved.”
Child psychologists say children are much more apt to follow their parent’s rules and advice when it comes to video games if they show them that they are interested and have some knowledge about the popular form of entertainment.
Other tips from the experts include:
*Helping your children pick out video games. This is especially important if you have young children. Look for games that age appropriate and are void of violence and negative stereotyping. If you have older children, who go shopping for video games without you, be sure to discuss the types of games you are comfortable with them playing.
*Don’t buy or rent a video game without checking the rating on the game.
*If your kids don’t extend an invitation, then sit down and join in. Note: Parents should be aware that some video games are designed so that they become more violent the longer you play them. Therefore, you should prepare to spend more than just a few minutes playing a video game with your child.
*Limit the amount of time your child spends playing video games. While it might not be necessary to ban game playing outright, you should establish rules for how much time per day your kids can play video games. Also, once you make the rules be sure to enforce them.
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