About this Blog
Momfidence! cheers on commonsense parenting and sighs at the rest. How to worry less, wing it more. A.k.a. parenting by the seat of my mid-rise mom jeans.
About Paula SpencerI'm the author of Momfidence! An Oreo Never Killed Anybody and Other Secrets of Happier Parenting, and a mom of four in Chapel Hill, North Carolina (where you can't even buy Oreos at the two wholesome groceries nearest to my home). Some Kindred Blogs
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The Real Question About Video Game AddictionApril 20, 2009
Are video games addictive? YES says a new report in the journal Psychological Science. YES says a mom who has seen kids spend hours on end sitting next to one another with twitching thumbs but no eye contact. That's a no brainer. But the real question is, so what are you going to do about it? As Nancy Shute points out in this USNWR blog post, just knowing something is addictive doesn't mean it's necessarily damaging and should be pulled away -- reading is addictive, too. Hard to give a hard-and-fast how-much-is-too-much rule, or to definitvely state the point at which a child's headed for a life of ruin (if excellent hand-eye coordination). You know your child. You know when he's shirking chores or flunking math. You know whether your gamer is still pleasant and charming or becoming a cretin with no social skills who needs a shower. You control the horizontal and the vertical ... and the controller. If videogaming a problem, or looks like a potential problem, do something about it. Set limits. Hit the library and check out a book. If it's not yet a problem, quit worrying. Don't get scared by a study.
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