X-Box is ruining this country

I have a 14-year old son that is: extremely polite, conscientious, sport-minded, plays 3 sports, along with golf and skiing. He gets good grades and you'd want your daughter to date him or your son to have him as your friend.....

BUT, the x-box is a huge, huge regret in my life.... He has x-box live which allows him to "socialize" with his good friends from our tv room.

He is not allowed to use it Sunday night through Friday am, but it is extremely disappointing at how long he will play on weekends. Yes, he plays basketball, runs with the dogs, he's thin, happy and easy to please, BUT this thing has me ready to pull my hair out!

TLDR

My brother is 15 years old, home educated, and has on certain occasions been ranked in the top 50 in the world on the leader boards for some of the x-box games he plays. He spends a MAX of two hours doing school work a day, but I don't even know how many hours he spends playing xbox at night. It's much, much more. That right there is enough for some people to form mountains of arguments to criticize my family and parents for allowing this. But allow me to elaborate.

In addition, my brother is part of a fencing club. According to his coach, he is the most athletic boy in the club. He's currently training for the junior Olympics which are to be held in Maryland this year, recently traveled cross country via driving route 66 with my father and then taking a train home, will start college next year at age 16, and, frankly, has a faint 6 pack with biceps that allow me to catch many, many young girls staring at him. He is kind and compassionate. He typically gets up and walks out of the room when we watch the second Sherlock Holmes movie because he HATES the scene where Sherlock is sitting at dinner waiting for his date who never shows. He loves his dog and cat, and he has about 5 or 6 boys over almost every weekend to have "all-night" parties in which they steal my TV, his friends bring over their xboxes, and they all hang out and play COD, Halo, and other games all night long. He typically goes to bed around 9AM after such events, then gets up and (after some probing on our part, yes) gets his chores done.

You see, my brother COULD have turned into a boy who sat in front of the TV eating junk, gained weight, and became anti-social. But instead, my parents found a sport he loved, encouraged him in it, and he's turned out to be the most amazing little brother I could have asked for. They just didn't allow it, simple as that.

P.S. Yesterday I spent 8 hours playing Zelda: The Twilight Princess on my wii. Tomorrow I'm going to go get my horse out, then run 3 miles, then go to organic chemistry before coming home and sleeping so I can get up for work Wed. morning. You can't blame it on the gaming systems: it's the environment.

I gotta say that maybe the people who are calling this a parenting problem, and not a console/electronics problem, are too young to remember what life was like before computer gaming.
Me? I remember black and white TV.
We were so much more active. Bike riding from one kid's house to the next looking for something exciting. Pick-up-football and basketball and kill-the-pill for hours. All day baseball in the summer. Swimming and tennis on the off days.
I have two teenage sons. They turn on an electronic game before they eat breakfast, and from what I can tell, their friends and other age-mates are no different.
The games are too addictive. And, I am not so worried about the lack of activity they cause as I am the lack of imagination and socialization that occurs because the kids always have their nose on a screen.
I do not think I am perfect because i did not have computers in my life, and I don't think people who have grown up with them are necessarily deeply flawed. But I have noticed my kids missing out. I have definitely seen that my older son became very isolated because he could sit with the games and tune out his troubles.

We have a Wii, PC, Kindle Fire, cell with games and some other small handheld cheap games from walmart.... my children do not sit in front of them and veg out. When they are asked to save & log off, they do so. They have a limited amount of time on video games/gaming systems and it is strictly enforced. They don't complain because they know that it makes them lazy if they just hang out and do nothing all day. Also, my children aren't allowed to play games without my express permission - i dont care who else says they can, if i don't say 'yes', then the answer is 'no'. They are not allowed to play games when they are getting ready for school or until after homework is done and chores are done. Even on the weekends, we all do chores together or go to the park or go outside and play. Playing games has never been glorified or seen as a major part of our daily lives. Often, I will either play games with them or if i want to play, i'll wait until my chores/day is finished and only play then as a good example of time management. It sounds hella strict, but i let them know when they can or can't play, what they can or can't play and how expecations and responsibilities always come first.

My 4 1/2 yr old daughter and I love playing the XBox together. We will play Just Dance, or any of the sports games, not only because they are super fun, but because those games keep us moving. I also make sure we go outside to play everyday, even if it's for a half hour. I usually have the tv on all of the time for background noise when we are home, but I limit the amount of time her cartoons are on. I don't want her to be a couch potato. I do notice that when I have her cartoons on and I ask her a question, she ignores me or will not look away from her cartoon, so that's one reason why I limit her tv time.

The issue you mention has nothing to do with gaming systems. It has to do with the kids parents. If the parents aren't willing to turn the tv off and take their kids outside to play, they are just fueling their child for laziness as well as not encouraging socialization skills. I remember growing up as a kid and riding bikes with other kids in the neighborhood, playing in each others yards, saying "hi" to people you pass by in the street, and just overall politeness towards others. Now where I live, people don't say "thank you" when you hold the door open for them, they don't wave back, and nobody plays outside anymore. My family is one of the only ones on our block that are always outside. My daughter pushes me to take her and our dog for a walk, or to chase her outside. She makes me move and I will continue to raise her that way and encourage her to remain active and to say "hi" to almost everyone she sees. That is what parenting is about.

FYI to any parents out there battling with their kids to "GET OFF THE XBOX!"

You'll be happy to know that the Xbox 360 has a "family timer". You can set how much gaming time the kids get per day. Using that really helped me be able to better monitor my kids gaming time. No more fights, no more yelling GET OFF THAT THING!

When the time is used up, it just lets them know (with a few warnings before hand so they can save progress etc.) and goes to the pause screen. They can't play any longer. It's a GREAT feature.

http://support.xbox.com/en-US/billing-and-subscriptions/parental-controls/xbox-live-parental-control

I would say you're seeing a parenting problem and not an xbox problem.

^ I enjoy gaming and enjoy gaming with my kids but as a parent you gotta step up tell 'em enough is enough now go out and play or read to whatever. As parents we have to watch what we do too as they model us. When they come in do we have our nose planted in a social network site for hours on end rather than sitting on the deck with neighbors? Anyway...sorry for the soap box but more often than not the kids are either reflecting what they see or the parents aren't stepping in being parents to the snowflakes... confessedly I'm as guilty as the next dad.

Getting a PS3 in 2 weeks!! FTW!!!

It's not the xbox or the tv that makes a child obese, it's their whole lifestyle. Calories in v calories out.

I game with my son and he will also game on his own. In moderation. We do loads of other stuff too from the active to inactive.

Consoles are a part of most kids lives and it's what he and his friends talk about a lot. Cheats, achievements, fails, etc. Why would I want to deprive him of his xbox and deprive him of that interaction at school. We didn't get one on that basis alone but it was a consideration.

As for your son's friend and parents, sorry but he would be a friend we would work to avoid, that lack of manners, respect and control won't set your son a good example and who knows what would happen when you are not there.