Would you let your kids play as much games as you do?

[tardcast]

This weeks Subject is :
Would you let your kids play as much games as you do?
Pretty straight forward really.
Personally at times I have played far too many games for too long throughout life, its made me neglect alot of relationships and ignore priorities, god knows how I made it through Uni.
I still love games, and still play far too much (though no where near as much as I'd like to), however knowing what i know now, would I let my kids play games as much as I have, especially as much as I used to between the age of 9-16.....

Will you let your kids play as much as you have?
If not, why? I/you turned out fine after all?
If Maybe, under what conditions, and how will you regulate it?
If yes,how can you not be worried about the damage to real life social interaction your kid might go through?

DISCUSS!

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I would be proud if they did.

Proud.

I'd support them if they wanted to go to anything like tournaments, competitions or if they wanted careers in gaming.

 

[Applejack]

They need to spend time with friends and stuff so as long as they do that and don't play mature games it's ok.

 

[Jedamethis]

Yup. Hell, I'd let them do what they wanted most of the time. I've been told I'd be an awesome parent.

 

[UberLemonBoy]

Hell no
they need to have lives and friends and not be fat

 

[Brisingr]

Hell yes, I'd punish them if they didn't.

Joking Joking .

 

[SteinFaust]

only as long as they can keep their grades up.
there have been times where i'd play a game to the wee hours of the next school day. that is a mistake i regularly make, and regularly regret.

 

[Treeinthewoods]

In all honesty, no. I was limited when I was young and had to stop playing games to go outside, do homework, read, hang out with family. Now I can play all I want because I have a job and support my family. Until my daughter is old enough to make her own adult decisions I will make them for her, and that means she has to get some exercise and study.

Also, still no, because she would be hogging up my console and I want to play.

 

[S.R.S.]

No I wouldn't. What if they got better than me? I do not want to hear "Ha ha dad! I think you like getting tea-baged n00b!". The horror

 

[Harkonnen64]

Probably not as much; I've managed to neglect a number of projects which I would have done well to have completed in lieu of playing video games.

 

[The Procrastinated End]

Definitely, if it weren't for video games I'd probably be the unimaginative idiot in my group of friends and the current one and me would have to fight it out.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

only as long as they can keep their grades up.
there have been times where i'd play a game to the wee hours of the next school day. that is a mistake i regularly make, and regularly regret.

Pretty much this.

As long as school work is going OK, they have friends they see in real life, they actually get up and do some exercise occasionally, and I know (and approve of) the content of the games they're playing, they may game to their heart's content!
"But hypothetical Daaaad!"
"Yes, hypothetical child?"
"All my friends are playing GTA 23: episodes from moon base gamma! Why can't I?"
"Because I'm a bastard it has an 18 rating, and you're 8. Wait until you're 14, at least. Also, don't lie, hypothetical gender-unknown child. You don't have any friends."

I'm going to make an awful father in relation to everything other than gaming. Or whatever the new fad will be in the future. I'll be one of those embarrassing parents who insists on trying it too.

 

[ArchAngelKira]

I would do a hell of a lot better then those parents that let they're kids play Grand Theft Auto.

 

[Kialee]

Of course, it'd be silly and hypocritical of me to do otherwise.
I was exposed to violent/mature/horrible/amazing games when I was very young, and it hardly did anything to stunt my growth or development. Unless my children showed signs of sociopathy or just plain hate games, I'd let them have at it.

Not that I plan to have children.

 

[Cheesepower5]

No, then I wouldn't be able to play as many games...

 

[migo]

Absolutely. I grew up with no TV and no game console. That was a problem, as whenever I went to my friends houses who had either all I wanted to do was watch/play. Interestingly, they had no interest in that at all, and wanted to play outside. I shook that after going to the house my parents taught music at and the hosts let me play and watch as much as I wanted. 3 months in I got bored of it, hardly watched TV and spent most of the time socialising. Letting kids play games and watch TV innoculates them against really wanting to do it all that much. Let them play games, don't artificially restrict it. If there's homework to be done, that has to get done, and if they show they can finish it however they like, then no need to tell them to do homework first. Then whenever they have the opportunity to play with friends they'd much rather go outside and play with water guns or play ball of some sort. It's the best way to do it.

 

[Scarecrow]

I would let them play as many games as they want, but only the games I think they can handle. I would not give them GTA if they where 5, as a exsmaple.