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Chinese Parents Make Their Son Play Games 16 Hours a Day to "Help Him See the Truth"

By Weilin Li
Nov. 30, 2022 updated 03:00

Children being overly attached to games is sometimes a difficult problem for Chinese parents. Now, a pair of parents in Wuhan, Hubei, has come up with a very "immersive" plan.

On November 22nd, Yang posted some pictures on her social account. "When all the children were in class, my 8-year-old son, who is currently in the third grade, officially suspended studying online for school today because he spent too much time on games."

Yang said that after her son communicated with the teacher for half an hour, the son made the decision of his own volition.

Yang’s son playing a video game at home.Yang’s son playing a video game at home.

The plan had some conditions; the parents told their kid that he had to play games for 16 hours a day, eat three meals at regular intervals, and they would not wait if he missed the dining time.

In fact, before this, Yang tried many things to distract her son from games: she made an agreement on how long he could play games after finishing homework and took him out for sports on the weekends, but none of these methods worked.

So the parents set strict key performance indicators (KPIs) for their son’s game performance and required their kid to review and summarize his game records at noon and in the evening.

A summary made by Yang’s son for his game performanceA summary made by Yang’s son for his game performance

According to Yang, November 22nd was the first day of school suspension, and her son was very excited to no longer be burdened by the school.

But by the third day, the child had broken down four times. On the third day, after taking some suggestions from Yang’s social media followers, she found a professional player and asked him to defeat her son when he felt that he was good at playing games.

A professional player defeated Yang’s son multiple times.A professional player defeated Yang’s son multiple times.

"If you win, keep playing; if you lose, summarize the process. For each failure, add one hundred words." Yang told her son.

Although Yang encouraged her son when he performed badly, her son was defeated throughout the process because of the great disparity in skill.

Eventually, the son lost interest in the plan. Yang said that when he was about to conduct the third review of 600 words, his emotions were completely out of control, and he collapsed for the fourth time.

Yang’s son tired after playing games and writing summaries.Yang’s son tired after playing games and writing summaries.

Yang confessed that she didn't know if this method would work or not, but she wanted to let her son know that nothing is easy.

Their child returned to online classes on the sixth day and promised to make up the homework from the previous week. He had finally realized that playing games and studying do not contradict each other. If he can study well, he can play games better.