Teaching Children Better Time Management Includes Game Time!

At 7am my 10yr old son walks down the hall and says, "Can we play today?" Every morning I hear this same question and every morning he is given the same answer, "On game day."

Between my husband and I we have 7 children. He was a single father of 3 boys when we met and they were already in the habit of playing games non-stop from the moment they returned from school until bed time. While this kept them off the streets it certainly didn't help them score higher than a D in school. In our efforts to get their focus off video games and onto school we made the commitment to change computer use in our home.

There have been many ups and downs in our efforts to limit computer time, and even being a stay at home mom it has been hard to enforce the new guidelines of limited play. The kids will argue, beg and bargain each day in their efforts to get more time and often in my hurried schedule I find myself caving because they made some good points and at least they are out of my hair.

I wanted some way to teach my children will power and commitment to these new rules and how I was doing it wasn't working.

In all my years of parenting I have learned that children uphold commitments best when a few things are in place:

1. They make the commitment themselves
2. They are set-up to succeed
3. They know the consequences ahead of time

By making the commitment themselves I am not referring to them giving their consent or being in agreement, rather they are informed up front of your desire, in this case, to limit computer time and they commit to comply or not use the computer. One way to accomplish this is by having them sign a computer use contract.

We have put together a Computer Use and Time Management Contract to clearly outline our expectations AND the consequences of their choices. The use of this contract allows our children to make a commitment to comply with the new house rules and know the consequences if they don't.

To set our children up to succeed is a vital step when changing current situations or instituting a new house rule. Our children were so used to playing at will that it was very easy for them to ignore the new rule, putting us in a constant "failure to comply" position.

To help our kids succeed we have utilized timers and a specific game day routine, but for some households this isn't the ideal solution because a parent may not be available to monitor it. For those households, taking advantage of parental control software that monitors offline activity such as time management is the best means to help their children succeed in starting a new habit.

Regardless of how a parent chooses to approach instituting limited computer time it is important to have a plan in place. This is why we chose to make our Computer Use and Time Management Contract available for use to our visitors. You are welcome to download or print the contract for personal use. All we ask is that you limit it to personal use and do not duplicate it on your own sites. If you have a website and would like to make this contract available to your visitors please contact me to learn more about what options are available.