Dad delete's 4 yo son's game, family is taking sides over his decision. AITA?
When this father has had it with his son's video game obsession, he asks Reddit:
"AITA for deleting my son's game?"
I, (30M) & my GF (30F) have 2 kids. A 4 year old boy & a 9 month old boy. Over the past year, our oldest has taken an interest in playing video games. We have a xbox one, ps4, & wii. We have no issue with this. We let him play in moderation & a lot of times play with him. Its fun & we enjoy it.
We've had an issue with him in the past ordering things on the xbox. As a response I've set parental controls on the xbox. We've also told him multiple times to not order anything & if he doesn't know what going on to ask one of us.
The ps4 is fairly new since we bought it about a month ago. With our busy work schedules we haven't been able to set parental controls but we did download a few games for him to play. He's played before & we haven't had an issue with him ordering.
Yesterday, after I picked him up from school, he asked if he could play. I said sure since we weren't doing anything & we weren't picking up his brother from my GFs parents until an hr or so later. I set up the game for him & told him to have fun. I went to the bedroom to change out of my work clothes, & when I came out he was on an order screen.
I asked if he bought anything & he said no. The xbox is attached to my account while the ps4 is attached to her account so I texted her asking if she was charged anything. Sure enough she responded that she was charged $60. I told him he knows better & that its not good to lie.
As punishment I deleted the game he was playing & turned off the ps4. He threw a fit but eventually calmed down. He was still upset though. He & I later on left to pick up his brother. While there he told them what I did & I stood by my decision.
Earlier today I get a message from my GF saying that her parents gave her $20 towards the order & asked her to redownload the game again. She asked why & they said they don't like seeing their grandson upset. She refused the money & told them that by them trying to pay for his mistake they're enabling him.
They told her it our fault in the first place since we didn't have parental locks on. We both understand that. However, we've told him multiple times & he knows better, so there has to be consequences. Now I'm wondering if I overreacted. Granted we don't intend on never letting him play again.
We do plan on downloading the game again for him. Probably after my GF & I get back from our small vacay (we're going to see Matt Rife a few hr away from where we live). I feel like not having the game for a few days will enforce that actions have consequences, but maybe I could have left it & not deleted the game AITA?
Let's see what readers thought.
nashamgirl88 writes:
NTA, it wouldn’t make any sense for him to be allowed to keep a game he stole. If he took a play set from the store without saying anything you wouldn’t let him keep that. Definitely set parental controls though, I can’t imagine it takes that long.
myiglooismelting writes:
YTA. You are "too busy" to be a responsible, mature parent, so, you punish a 4 YO for your mistakes? In what world does a 4 YO understand any or all of this, when you cannot?
roronoro writes:
NTA. What your son did was ultimately theft, he used your gf's card without her knowledge and purchased a $60 game, which isnt cheap! You made the right call by deleting the game and are making the right call to not enable him by redownloading it, this will be a valuable life lesson later in life i am sure.
May i suggest putting on a parental lock on both systems to avoid this situation further?