Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Video Games and Relationships

My friend Shy Girl frequently complains about her husband's video game playing interfering with their time and also with his completing tasks within a time frame. I'm never quite sure what if anything to say, especially since I can't relate to her experience. So most of the time I simply listen and remain silent and all is well.

That is until I gave her two "Rent one video game, Get a second video game rental Free" coupons. The moment I surrendered the coupons to her I knew I'd crossed the line. It was too late for me to back pedal so I spent the next ten minutes listening to her diatribe about why he may or may not receive the coupons.

For the most part, SG made salient points about her hubby's altered behavior during game play:

~ He outright ignores her
~ Will not rise to answer the phone
~ Eats in front of the TV
~ She must wait until game play ends before he'll leave with her to go somewhere
~ He can't be bothered to let the dogs out/take out the trash
~ He monopolizes the big screen TV
~ The game play is so loud that it drowns out everything else in the house
~ Game play lasts a minimum of two hours

Can any of you relate to this and if so, any suggestions?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I had a friend with this very same problem. We broke his controllers. He'd go out and buy some more. We'd break those, too. He'd lock them up. His xBox mysteriously fell while cleaning. Much shouting and name-calling ensued.

It finally ended when I confronted him while he was building his new lockbox for his video game stuff and asked him, "How much did all this crap cost you?" I got a dirty look and a snotty answer.

Says I: "When are you going to build the lockbox to put your wife in?"

He threw out the entire system, games and all, that day. He hasn't touched another controller since.

E. said...

Ah Steven, you saved a marriage and strengthened a friendship! I'll this with my friend and see if she can't garner support from a friend of hubby's!

I believe if he gave her an hour of focused attention daily it would suffice. He could continue playing and they'd both be happy.

THANKS for sharing. I've missed you.