How I Get My Kids Away From The Television}

All my kids talk about getting every year for Christmas is video games if they don't go downstairs and find Gears of War 2 under our new pink flocked christmas tree I do not know how they will survive. It makes me a little nuts since I do all I can to get my kids outdoors. I would prefer to get them something like new football equipment or bikes, really anything they can do outside. Alas, I suppose boys will be boys. Arguing with the boys over "appropriate" lengths of time is just too much work.

That being said I've tried to find some tricks for my family and video games. I do a couple of things in an effort to force them outside. First off I limit their time every day to one hour (they can earn more). I have discovered that limiting the time is key to everything else because then they know time above and beyond that is to be earned. To be more fair I've allowed them some methods of earning more television time. That leads me to talk about trick number two. They can get more television time by either doing chores or spending time outside. I like the chores option because it is nice for me to have a few less things to do, and the reward for them isn't bad either. I set it up so it ends with one hour of chores earning one hour of television time.

The number two way they get more television time is by spending some of their time outside. For every hour they spend outside they get fifteen minutes of video games. Like I say this isn't a huge payoff, but I also don't really think asking them to be outside is a huge thing to ask. This mostly pays off for them on weekends. They can play outdoors for the day on Saturday and then spend the night playing video games. I do not even mind if they play a night of video games after a good day outside.

That being said I'm ok with one or two ending up under prelit flocked christmas tree this year if it has the effect of getting my brats outside and getting some stuff done around the house for me. They had better like the games they're getting, because I know I'll like my "gift" of one more thing to use "against" my boys.