Disicpline & Video Games

After reading MckMama's post about discipline (you can click here to read it) I was thinking about my own forms of discipline in my household. I tend to be more on the strict side. Spanking didn't work for me. I tried to spank Jacob once and he laughed. That was the end of spanking for me.

When Jacob was little time outs really worked. When we lived with my Mom she had a set of stairs and his time out location was the third stair up. He would sit for about 5 minutes and then apologize for what he did wrong. I would tell him that I love him and then he would give me a hug. Sometimes he would fight the time out but mostly he would do as he was asked.

As Jacob got older time outs seemed to work less and less. He would sit there but that never seemed to stop the issue. I had to come up with something else that would work better. Now Jacob loves loves loves video games. I knew that this could be something taken away to change his behavior. Sometimes he will be grounded from video games for one day and other times he will be grounded for up to a week.

I actually like when he is grounded because he is more willing to do crafts or play board games when he knows video games are not an option.

While video games are my leverage in getting Jacob to behave I do have video game specific rules.

Here are my video game rules ...
1) Video games can only be played for 30 minutes at a time. I set this rule after Jacob was consumed by video games. He told me that he dreams and thinks about video games all day long. Then I read an article that children with ADD/ADHD are more prone to video game additictions.

2) In order to play video games he has to complete 2 workbook pages from a Hooked on Phonics type workbook. I started this rule when we were struggling in kindergarten. This has helped Jacob to learn more and also he now realizes that video games are a reward.

3) All video games must be rated E for everyone. I admit I know nothing about video games. My brothers were never into them so I didn't realize that they had ratings. Jacob loved playing with WWE Wrestling video games except I walked into his room when he was playing it and the language was awful. Since he was allowed to play this game for awhile before I heard the foul language I am still allowing him to play this game every once in awhile. The volume has to be off and he cannot play this game everyday.

So that is how I discipline. It may not work for everyone but it works for me. What are your rules in your house? Do you discipline with spanking or grounding? What works for you?

On a side note: Jacob decided he didn't want to do workbook pages to play video games. He was talking back so he is now gounded from video games for today.