13 Y.O. Livid With His Mom For Grounding Him After He Deleted Her Games’ Progress
We all know how crucial rest is to people. And I don’t just mean sleep, but also having fun, spending time on hobbies, or hanging out with friends. Rest is especially important for parents of young children who don’t get enough sleep at night. They need every respite they get, whether it’s a short nap or something they love doing.
A mom raising a newborn and really needing her rest posted on Reddit wondering whether she was a jerk for grounding her son and taking away his devices for borrowing her game console and deleting all of her games and saves.
More info: Reddit
Playing video games can be a great way to relax, just like any other hobby you love
Image credits: Chris Ainsworth (not the actual photo)
A mom was wondering whether she is a jerk for grounding her 13 y.o. son after he used her Switch console for Fortnite
Image credits: Original-Oil-1792
Image credits: Iain (not the actual photo)
The mom let him play on her console, with the condition of no Fortnite as it wouldn’t fit on it without deleting her other games
Image credits: Original-Oil-1792
The teen still installed his game on the Switch, deleting the mom’s games and saves irreversibly, leading to him being grounded
The poster starts the story off by saying that she and her 13-year-old son love gaming, so the son has access to all game platforms at home. The son is also very spoiled and has Fortnite on all of these platforms.
The son had broken his own Switch console a while ago, so he asked for his mom’s and got it under one condition – he wouldn’t install the Fortnite game on it, as it is too big to be on the console without deleting anything else. The mom is also currently taking care of a newborn, and uses the console to get some much-needed rest when she can get it.
He installed the game anyway and deleted the mom’s games and saves. She was naturally upset and grounded him, taking away all of his devices. The son was livid as well and tried complaining to his grandma, who in turn started berating OP and saying that she can’t parent.
A question that naturally arises from this is whether parents should share their games with their kids. According to The Guardian, games can be complex, and it could help greatly with understanding kids’ interests and what they do in their free time, allowing to keep them safer as well.
Gaming together or separately could provide a way for parents and children to have more open conversations rather than ones at the dinner table.
If you think you’d like to start playing games with your kids, you should first pick the game you’d like to play. If you have a difficult time getting into games in the first place, it may be a good idea for you to choose the game, as kids are usually more flexible when it comes to choices of what to play. If you’d like to bond with your child over something or have no idea what to play, you could also have your child choose what to play – you may be pleasantly surprised.
Next up, you should understand how to play. If you’ve never done it before, you should familiarize yourself with the controls. If it’s your first time, you may need some guidance from your child until you start getting it. Don’t worry about losing too much, as all the funny fails may lead to a bonding experience and a small memory of you two gaming.
Image credits: incommunicado (not the actual photo)
Once you’ve spent some time gaming, you should talk to your kids about your experiences. You’ll be able to bond and explore new topics and ideas thanks to the time you’ve spent gaming with them. But you shouldn’t forget to set limits. It’s important not to let chores and homework pile up. Know when you should call it a day and stick to specific amounts of time gaming instead of overindulging frequently.
Although gaming with your kids and enthusing together with them about video games is a great way to bond, there are downsides. With more than 390 million registered players, you’ve probably heard about Fortnite before, but it’s very rarely painted in a positive light. A 2021 study on Medium attempted to analyze why the game is so addictive.
It found that the thing that kept kids coming back was the fact that very little success was needed to move from the bottom of the leaderboards to almost being at the top. Since hitting a couple of well-placed shots can nearly lead you to victory, kids keep coming back to the game believing that “I’ll place those shots in this next game.” This huge amount of hope to succeed with relatively little effort inspires them to play and play until they get that win.
With this in mind, you’ll find lots of studies and articles arguing that video games are either bad or good. Ultimately, it’s up for you to decide how much game time is best for you and your kids.
While games can convey many benefits, improving coordination, reaction times, critical and creative thinking, at the same time playing too much may be detrimental, especially if you spend too much time on any one game.
So make sure to set boundaries for your kids and yourself, and if you’re both gamers – please talk about the consequences of deleting each other’s save files.
The community decided that the mom wasn’t a jerk, saying that 13 is a good age to learn responsibility for your actions. Commenters also said that the son should consider himself lucky that the mom doesn’t go out of her way to delete his saves. Share your stories about gaming with your family below! We’re eager to hear what happened when your parents caught you playing “just one more game” at 3 AM.
The commenters decided that the mom was not a jerk and that she was right to ground the teen so he’d learn consequences
Image credits: Scott Akerman (not the actual photo)
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People can say it's a game, but in a lot of games you can easily put 100+ hours of progress into a savegame. For some, it's silly, but the comparison is still there. I see no difference between putting time and effort into embroidery, or a large puzzle, or into a video game, losing it to entitled brats hurts the same.
To me, it doesn't even matter what it was -- the issue is the lack of respect for others. He's 13, that's plenty old enough to understand that you don't destroy others' things, regardless if it's physical or digital.
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For me that'd be the last time JR touched any console that belongs to me. He broke his? Oh, too bad, he should have been more careful, mine is mine and he has to learn he can't have everything.
Delete Fortnite and any fortnite data from all the other consoles. See how he likes it. (better yet, find a way to ban fortnite from the consoles, iirc there's a way to put a lock on downloading games on some devices but im not sure)
I'm not sure hitting back is the best solution. It teaches retaliation when what the kid needs to learn is empathy and to consider others. He's not three. He's thirteen. He's old enough to have a real conversation about the problem here, which isn't moms missing game data. It's this kid lacking the ability to consider others. Making him hurt is just going to p**s him off and he'll probably lash out more. He's not going to suddenly have compassion for how he harmed someone else. The problem will just continue. Kid needs consequences, sure, but he also needs boundaries, support, and probably some therapy. Also, a lot of conversations so mom can evaluate what his exact needs actually are. If it were my kid we'd talk this to death, and once I was sure he understood what impact he had, I'd decide on a consequence or make him come up with some ideas for consequences. That said, my kid was instilled with a deep sense of compassion for others, so what works for him might not work for a kid who is capable of thoughtless cruelty.
Load More Replies... People can say it's a game, but in a lot of games you can easily put 100+ hours of progress into a savegame. For some, it's silly, but the comparison is still there. I see no difference between putting time and effort into embroidery, or a large puzzle, or into a video game, losing it to entitled brats hurts the same.
To me, it doesn't even matter what it was -- the issue is the lack of respect for others. He's 13, that's plenty old enough to understand that you don't destroy others' things, regardless if it's physical or digital.
Load More Replies... For me that'd be the last time JR touched any console that belongs to me. He broke his? Oh, too bad, he should have been more careful, mine is mine and he has to learn he can't have everything.
Delete Fortnite and any fortnite data from all the other consoles. See how he likes it. (better yet, find a way to ban fortnite from the consoles, iirc there's a way to put a lock on downloading games on some devices but im not sure)
I'm not sure hitting back is the best solution. It teaches retaliation when what the kid needs to learn is empathy and to consider others. He's not three. He's thirteen. He's old enough to have a real conversation about the problem here, which isn't moms missing game data. It's this kid lacking the ability to consider others. Making him hurt is just going to p**s him off and he'll probably lash out more. He's not going to suddenly have compassion for how he harmed someone else. The problem will just continue. Kid needs consequences, sure, but he also needs boundaries, support, and probably some therapy. Also, a lot of conversations so mom can evaluate what his exact needs actually are. If it were my kid we'd talk this to death, and once I was sure he understood what impact he had, I'd decide on a consequence or make him come up with some ideas for consequences. That said, my kid was instilled with a deep sense of compassion for others, so what works for him might not work for a kid who is capable of thoughtless cruelty.
Load More Replies...
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