If your reading this article my guess is like me, you have a pre-teen/teen at home on the Fortnite drug.

For those of you who are just tuning into what Fortnite is, welcome, your nightmare has officially begun. You’re probably like I was, many months back, where I kept hearing my kids and their friends talking about it. Well, lets start by getting you up to speed. Watch the video below to learn what the game is all about.

 

 

So, as you can see by the trailer, the game is pretty much a multiplayer shooting game where you and a bunch of other players are dropped on an island. The island has tuns of weapons lying around and the object of the game is to be the last player standing. The game is often described as a healthy mix between Minecraft and The Hunger Games (seriously, if you don’t know what Hunger Games is, I will personally give you my Netflix password so you can binge watch all 4 movies ASAP! OK, I’m kidding but, go watch, thank me later.)

 

Honestly, this game is crushing it in the gaming world. I mean, if you have a child between the ages of 7 and 30, believe me, they have heard of Fortnite.

First off, lets talk about why the game is so addicting.

  1. Two words: Battle Royale, this is a version of the game where players can work together in duos, threes or groups of four to be the last “group” standing as opposed to when they were working alone.
  2. When players die there is no blood or gore. This can easily attract the average young gamer.
  3. It looks much more like a cartoon than it does “real-life” (unlike Call of Duty ).

Alright so, if your anything like me, over the summer months you probably let the kids have more “game time” than usual. Unfortunately you have unintentionally created a gaming monster! Now, with the school year starting your wondering “how do I get them off Fortnite and into their books?” Well, I’m right there with you! Luckily, I have some tricks that worked in the past and I figured I’d share with my fellow parent community.

Here they are.

1. Weekday Restrictions

This might seem like an obvious one but, for the parents wondering whats the point? Let me explain, like the title suggests, your child may be seriously addicted. Weekday restrictions can serve as mini “rehab” for your gamer. We are not cutting them off cold turkey, but we are definitely reducing their dependance on the game each day. Believe me when I say, this may lead to some serious death stares, but it is to be expected. That being said, your job will be to ignore and never, I repeat, NEVER give in!

 

 

2. Pay Them

No, we are not simply paying them to put the game down. That would be MADNESS. Instead, we are going to find useful things for them to do around the house like wash the car, clean the guest bathroom, straighten up the cluttered bookshelf, attic or garage (you know, all the icky stuff us parents never want to do). The key to this one is trying to find things that will take several hours or better yet, days to complete.

3. Cooking Dinner

Ok, err on the side of caution with this one! It might end up being a death sentence or result in pizza night haha (who doesn’t love pizza anyway). Cooking is a valuable skill that every young adult should learn at one point in time or another. So, the plan is to give your little Fortnite addict a specific day out the week where they will be responsible for cooking dinner for the family. This will be sure to give them an entire evening of fun in the kitchen all while giving you a much needed break.

4. Opt for Family Fun

“Back in the day it used to be that the more your kid was at home playing games or staying indoors, the less you had to worry about them getting themselves into trouble somewhere else. ” – Eddie. S

Thats no longer the case because video games can lead to antisocial behaviour and a loss of interpersonal skills! Ok this actually isn’t true because many studies have attempted to find a correlation between video games and antisocial behaviour but, none have really been successful in doing so. Don’t believe me, check it out for yourself >>> HERE<<< .

Either way, taking the time out to play a family board game like Monopoly or simply trading in the game controller for a Nerf Gun will be sooooo much fun for the entire family. Believe me, this one works regardless of age and it will have your Fortnite addict saying “Fortnite who?” Again, thank me later!

Personally, in my house we have family game night every Friday night. The moment I get home we play video games, order pizza and go to town! Things get pretty competitive in my household so everyone looks forward to Friday night. Now, I’m not delusional, I’m pretty confident that as my little guys get older we might have to change it to Thursday nights because they wont want to miss the “neighbourhood party” but we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.

5. Suggest Alternative Games

Some parents, myself included, have to accept that video games are going to be apart of our child’ s youth whether you like it or not. What I have done in the past is offer more “kid friendly” games as a substitute for Fortnite. Not all of them will stick, but I’ll share the two that did. The first is Plant vs Zombies this game is still technically a shooting game but have an ESRB rating E (everyone) as opposed to Fornite which has an ESRB rating T (teen). I find that it can be just as exciting as Fornite but another that is really popular in the gaming world right now is Roblox. I have linked another quick video below so you can almost immediately see the difference in the two games.

 

 

Roblox is pretty neat because kinda like Fortnite it is also a multiplayer, online game. Once players are in the game, they can design their own games and play them together. This game also offers players the option to play many types of games an they can also message one another online. So this is something to be weary of. Now. depending on the age of your teen they may view Roblox or Plants vs Zombies as fairly trivial. For you stick to tips 1 through 4.

 

Well, I hope these tips help another parent or family. Make sure to comment below if you try any of these at home and they are successful for you!

Of course, I could have made “BECAUSE I SAID SO RASHAUD!” number one on this list but, who am I kidding, you tried that already right?

Until next time!

Sincerely,

Ms. P

 

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