🤦🏻♂️You gave your child a new video game or device and now it’s all they want to do. Relax, you didn’t do anyting wrong and your child is not screwed up. Believe it or not, this is totally normal.
🧠Psychologically, when we’re introduced to something new that we enjoy, it often becomes the focus of our attention. It’s why we like to binge a new TV show, make multiple recipes from the same new cookbook, or complete a new puzzle or LEGO set within the first few weeks of owning it. We aren’t “obsessed” with our new puzzle or cookbook, we just enjoy this new hobby, and the same is true for our kids. And when told they should do something else, kids often don’t like that, and try to bend or break the rules we’ve put in place.
🤯What’s really interesting is that kids actually extend this same “rule breaking” urge to video games ALL the time. Kids often try to break the game, see what rules they can get away with, or what will happen if they don’t do what the game says. In all cases, the game simply sticks to the rules; games prevent players from skipping levels, from accessing off limit parts of the game, etc. A child may try to break a rule in a game 1000 times, and the game will simply enforce the rule. We can take a hint from video games in this area and enforce the rules and boundaries with the same cool, consistent enforcement as the very games they enjoy
