I think a lot of wives find themselves frustrated with their husband's playing video games and don't know how to handle it. We all have different levels of tolerance and while some wives may get annoyed after 5 minutes of gaming, other wives may tolerate a few hours before they feel frustrated. Here are some of my thoughts when it comes to video games.
- My husband plays as a hobby. I can suggest limitations, but I can't stop him from playing completely unless I'm willing to give up my own hobbies which is something I would never recommend.
- He plays video games to unwind from his frustrations at work just like some people choose to watch tv or read a book.
- We have rules about video game ratings and what games are acceptable in our home. He's not allowed to play games with graphic violence or language in front of me and especially not in front of our child/ren.
- I try to remember that he works full time with tons of over time, goes to school, does his homework, and gets good grades so it's okay for him to indulge every now and then and play for longer periods of time than I would normally like.
Like I said before, we're all in different situations and our husbands have different desires toward playing video games so our experiences are all different.
- What are ways that you handle your husband's video game appetite?
- Do you only allow a certain amount of time per day/week that he can play?
- Are there rules for when he can play like once the chores are done?
- Do you have a budget for buying video games?
- What do you do to feel less frustrated by it?
3 comments:
So by the time my husband gets home from work/school, he has no time for any kind of video games. He has homework or regular work or he just wants to go to bed. Usually video games are done on the weekends. We have a Wii and I almost always play with him. I love playing Mario World and Mario Kart. We even has Lego Star Wars and Harry Potter and Batman and Indiana Jones.
So basically I'm saying that I can't really help with this post. He has a couple games that I wont play and he usually plays them if he gets home and I'm out with the kids.
We don't really have a budget for games. We just decide if it's important or if there is something better we could spend our money on at the time.
Sorry I couldn't be any more help.
My Husband does enjoy video games, fortunately for our budget his favorites are ones that he downloads from the internet for free and plays on an emulator.
We don't really have any set time limits on how much he can play, although the days that he plays a lot he's in a worse mood in the evening, so I try to encourage him to limit his screen time. :) He is generally very good at limiting himself to a certain amount of time and making sure other things get done as well.
He usually just plays when I'm at work, which I really appreciate. We have sort of an unwritten rule that he'll check with me if it's okay that he play when we're both at home. It's likely that will change when I'm done working after our baby comes, but we'll face that then. :)
I agree with the original post on how to cope with "too much game time" It's important to communicate. Women like to speak in "female" where we'll say something like, "Our kitchen is really dirty" and mean, "honey, will you come help me clean the kitchen?" But the man interprets it to mean, "the kitchen is dirty" Then the woman gets all frustrated that her husband is still playing a video game. It's important to be direct and ask what you want to ask.
I agree that asking for help instead of stewing about it is very helpful. My husband also likes to play older ones on an emulator that are free. When there are new games he wants to buy, he usually sells old ones he is finished with to supplement most, if not all of the cost, and he buys most of them used to save money too.
Every once in a while when it is getting to take up too much time, we will have a gaming break for a week. Like Sara said though, I can't ask him to give up something without being willing to too. I give up my online time that week, Facebook, blogging etc. and during those weeks we are only allowed to play games together. It is a pretty rare thing, but one that works for us.
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