What were your family videogaming rules?

[ccovell]

Hi, folks. I'm doing a simple bit of research for one of my classes.

When you were a child, what family rules did you have in your household regarding videogaming? Eg: time limits, sharing with siblings, punishment, timeout periods because of tantrums, etc?

Feel free to share your answers.

[celerystalker]

When I was a kid, it was only half an hour/day until I was probably 12 or so other than special occasions. This resulted in a lot of sneaking into the living room as quietly as possible at all hours to sneak in extra time, especially with my NES. My brother and I would sneak up early most Saturdays to play through Contra.

[Aussie2B]

Probably not helpful for your research, but I had none. By the time I got big on video games, my only sibling had already lost interest in them, so sharing was never an issue (I had the reverse "issue", in that I virtually never had an opportunity for multiplayer gaming until adulthood). I also always got good grades in school, so my parents had faith that I'd take care of my responsibilities without needing restrictions on entertainment. I also extremely rarely got in trouble, so denying me entertainment was never used as a punishment either. However, I did have natural limitations to my gaming time in that my parents divorced when I was a kid. I'd go to my dad's house after school and was picked up by my mom in the evening. Since my own TV was at my dad's house, so were my systems, so after eating, watching TV, doing my homework, etc., I'd get maybe an hour or so of gaming time each weekday before I'd be picked up. I'd stay at my dad's on weekends, so Friday night, all Saturday, and most of Sunday, I could play games as much as I wanted. I've never been one to marathon games, though. I want to take a break after an hour or two, so on weekends, I'd swap back and forth between playing games and watching TV or pursuing other hobbies.

[YoshiM]

I grew up an only child and I usually asked if I could play Atari (as it was in my parent's bedroom) and later I'd ask if I could play NES as it was on the main TV. Toward 8th grade, the NES made it to my room but I self policed my time on there. I typically would go outside and ride my bike or hang out with friends.

I never got into any major trouble that caused a game system to be yanked. In the few times I was grounded, it was beibg stuck in the house. I felt bad enough, so I wasn't in the mood to play. Only once did my parents threaten to turn off my NES but that was because I was getting very loud in my frustration trying to beat SMB 2.

[Pr3tty F1y]

I remember that I wasn't permitted to play my NES before 7AM because I started getting up before 6AM just to play on weekends

[Robocop2]

I really only had the rule that I had to be done with whatever homework I had before I could play games. Only child and really other than playing games; there wasn't much to do so really the restrictions were laughably minimal at best. But my mom wasn't the best disciplinarian in the entire world.

[WulfeLuer]

Things were kinda...different. I wound up with an NES, but I didn't have a whole lot of restrictions at first outside of not playing when the news or Star Trek was on. I was actually encouraged to play the thing a lot because my mom at least (no idea about dad) believed it would help with my fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination (I was something of a neurologist's dream come true when I was a little kid). A year or so down the road I started getting grounded from it for being a hellion at school. Then a TV appeared in my brother's and my room and things got more complicated. I'd get in trouble and controllers and or cables would disappear, but I was home alone a lot so either I found them and outfoxed my parents by sneaking them out and returning them before they got home, or they'd get returned anyway.

I don't remember fighting much with my brother over it; we mostly fought over stuff and who claimed which part of the room. The availability was mostly linked to whether or not I had my crap together at school, and when I managed to get some modicum of discipline by high school, things pretty much became under my own control.

Of course, since I was still a total jackass in some ways, I quietly handed out cables and/or let any of my buddies on restriction play on my consoles. Even nerds can have a 'screw the man' mentality.

[Niku-Sama]

Homework done, that was pretty much it. I think after a while though they pretty much gave up because they could see that school wasn't doing much for me at around 5th or 6th grade. Plus I would find creative ways to play the games that had been taken away from me.

[buzz_n64]

I remember most days I was only allowed to play about an hour or two a day. My mom tried to tell me that the radiation of the television was bad for me. She also said that something similar to the video games making a zombie out of me. lol Mostly I was just encouraged to focus on homework or to go outside and play.

[Tron 2.0]

When i was a kid no rules for how long i could play.Long as it didn't get in the way of school my parents didn't have a problem with video games.

[jb143]

I don't remember any actual rules. Other than asking if we could play since it was connected to the main TV living room. Sometimes with a response of "Did you (finish your homework,pick up your room, etc...)". I only remember it being taken away maybe once or twice when my brother got frustrated with a game and threw the controller across the room pulling the NES off the shelf.

[Tanooki]

I wasn't limited on time as long as I got what I needed to get done that wasn't gaming too.