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SALT LAKE CITY -- Marriage therapists say they're seeing more couples come in who are having big trouble with the amount of time the husband plays video games. A survey by Divorce Online showed 15 percent of women say their husbands' obsession with gaming is a cause for their divorce. It was only 5 percent a year ago in the same survey.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Jonathan Swinton, with Swinton Counseling in Salt Lake City, sees a trend of adolescence stretching into adulthood. He says men now in their 20s and 30s grew up with Nintendos and such at home.
"They sort of expect they keep getting to have this fun thing they had when they were younger, even though they now have responsibilities of kids and spouses and money and houses and all these other things."
Swinton says marriages can survive if there are boundaries.
"This is the time they get to play, and then they don't argue so much about it," he said.
"People I've seen who have successfully set those boundaries decide, ok, I'm going to allow myself 30 minutes a day, or a 3 hour block a week. They set aside this block of time that's agreed upon by both spouses. And they stick to the boundaries."
Swinton says in his practice, he sees that it is mostly men who are so-called "addicted" to playing video games. But anything that takes up a lot of either spouse's time can cause troubles in a marriage.
He says it boils down to selfishness, and whether a "me first" attitude gets in the way of "we first."
E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com
