Gaming Comes With A Few Parental Headaches
Gaming is easily accessible these days, meaning it's rare for parents to have a kid who doesn't get into video games at a certain age. And once you have a gamer in the house, there are some interesting new dynamics that they'll have to get used to. It can have its pros, like seeing your child get excited about new releases or feeling happy about beating certain levels or challenges, but it can also have downsides, like excessive screen time or moments of disobedience. Here are just 20 things about raising a gamer that parents likely have to deal with.
1. Dinner Is Always Interrupting An Online Match
When your kid is a gamer, they tend to make dinnertime feel like an inconvenience. They know dinner happens around the same time every day, yet they're always in the middle of a match, never coming down when you call for them. Sometimes, everyone's halfway through the meal before they appear!
2. They Somehow Need Another New Controller
You bought them a new controller for Christmas, but come January, they somehow need another one. New releases in the gaming community are inevitable, but it can still be frustrating when your gamer kid keeps requesting the latest design just because there's extra buttons or some new feature they don't have.
3. Bedtime Doesn't Mean The Gaming Stops
You might wish your kid good night at 10 p.m., but lo in behold, at 11 p.m., you hear mysterious clicking still coming from their room. Whether they're trying to sneak a game past you or a match lasted way longer than expected, it becomes harder to control bedtimes when gaming is involved.
4. Updates Are A Priority
To a gamer kid, nothing feels more urgent than discovering that a massive update needs to be installed before they can play a game. Suddenly, everyone in the house is being asked not to stream, download, or slow down the internet in any way, just so their update can be done more quickly.
5. Their Headset Voice Is Loud
For some reason, gamers speak at two times the volume of their normal voice when talking into a headset. Suddenly, every celebration, conversation, and complaint is easily heard downstairs or across the hall, likely where parents are trying to relax and enjoy their own private time.
6. Homework Competes With "Just One More Game"
It's hard to get your kid to focus on homework when the computer or TV is just a few meters away. And no matter how many rules you set, that temptation doesn't go away. It definitely becomes a problem when your gamer kid starts arguing back that they'll complete everything after a game.
7. Gaming Purchases Never Seem To End
Spending money on games goes far beyond just buying the actual game and console these days. From downloadable content to season passes, character skins, and in-game currency, the expenses are just rolling higher and higher. It can be incredibly frustrating for parents who aren't willing to spend that much on a single game.
8. The Internet Becomes A Household Emergency
The moment the Wi-Fi stops working, no matter how briefly, you're sure to hear about it from your gamer who's already upset it disrupted their match. Getting the internet up and running again is suddenly being pressed by them with remarkable urgency, with parents feeling rushed to restart the router or figure out the problem.
9. Vacations Compete With Consoles
For most parents, vacations with kids are about sightseeing, good food, and time to relax. But for gamer kids, it's about asking whether or not the hotel has good enough Wi-Fi for them to bring along a console and their favorite games. Even travel can't separate a gamer kid and his game time.
10. Losing Can Change Their Mood Instantly
It's one thing to have a moody teen at home, it's even worse having a moody gamer teen around. Depending on the results of the game, their cheerful, upbeat mood can turn into frustration and anger with the flick of a switch. Sometimes, all parents can do is hope their kid is having a lucky run.
11. The Gaming Setup Slowly Takes Over Their Room
It started with just one console and a TV, and over time, parents watch as their room transforms into a gaming haven. A gaming chair, LED lights, headset stands, charging docks, and more are all lined on their desk and every inch of the room. Let's just say cleaning their room will start to feel like a game of Minesweeper.
12. You Hear Gaming Slang You Don't Understand
There's enough slang going around on the internet with Gen Z, but having a gamer kid in the house opens the door to even more meaningless words. Buffs, nerfs, NPCs, DPS, parents won't understand a single thing, but they'll certainly be welcomed to more acronyms than they've heard in their life.
13. Leaving The House On Time Is Challenging
Every parent with a gamer kid has experienced tapping their foot by the front door, growing less and less patient as their kid requests more time to finish up their game. It's always five extra minutes to win the match, to reach a checkpoint, or save their progress; at some point, parents learn to leave even earlier to avoid this delay.
14. Their Friendships Are Only Virtual
It's nice knowing that your child has friends to play games with, but it can definitely feel a bit strange, especially for parents of an older generation, to see their interactions be completely virtual all the time. They're with their friends, but not really. Some parents might even hope that their gamer kid starts getting some more in-person friendships when this becomes too frequent.
15. Snacks Start Making A Mess
For whatever reason, many gamers tend to develop messy habits, especially once they start bringing snacks up to their room for long gaming sessions. Parents might find empty chip bags thrown on the floors, empty soda cans left on the table, and more. It might be their room, but no parent will accept that kind of mess happily.
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16. New Games Always Seem To Come Out At The Worst Time
That game your kid has been talking about non-stop for the past three months? Yeah, it always comes out at the worst time, like during exam season or a busy school week. Because parents know that once that game is out, concentration on literally anything else becomes impossible.
17. Family Screen-Time Rules Become Complicated
In an attempt to reduce their kid's gaming hours, parents might set daily screen-time limits, which sounds straightforward, but becomes complicated very quickly. Kids might argue that YouTube isn't the same thing as gaming, or that playing with friends is important for their social life. Let's just say this rule brings up a lot of debates.
18. Sharing The Television Can Become A Problem
If the console isn't in their room but connected to the family TV, expect lots of fights over who gets to use it. With everyone competing for the same screen, negotiating television time is going to be a difficult task, especially when things like game matches are unpredictable and gaming sessions could last for hours.
19. They Want To Explain The Entire Game To You
Showing interest in your child's hobbies is generally a good thing, but gamer kids can sometimes get lost in explaining details their parents know nothing about. A simple question about what they're playing may lead to explanations about characters, maps, rankings, strategies, and years of fictional history.
20. Turning The Game Off Can Become A Major Event
As this generation's "go to your bed" equivalent, desperate times call for desperate measures. After issuing several warnings, if your gamer kid is still being stubborn, a parent's last straw might be to turn off the console in the middle of a game. Listen, sometimes kids need to learn a lesson the hard way, even if that means losing hours of progress.
