Computersight -

I had to go one day to see my therapist because my wife was wondering why I was spending so much time on my computer. I spend at least 90 hours a week if not more. People began to wonder what the heck I could possibly do 90 hours a week on the computer. It is rather strange when your child gets so bored not getting enough attention from father that he has to steal the keyboard, eat the mouse and turn the monitor on and off, worse yet push the power button when you are in the middle of things, important things. He is at that age when he cannot say Daddy, I need attention! It is real bad when you come home from work and go to work again. Or you set up a computer for your wife in the next room and test message her while the two of you are on it. That is bad when both family members are teaching each other to stay away from Daddy’s area when he is computing. Posting signs, getting room time you see I like room time why do you think I set up another computer in the other room. When I get room time it is like being at the office.

Computing is bad when you want to go to the movies at home watching them from your computer, you set up the surround sound while you make popcorn and move the couch in the proper position when you only have a 19″ screen to watch them on. “Oh my God”, the power goes out and you have a back up generator with just enough power to operate the two computers that are in the house.

You see when you compute you have to stop in the middle of life to figure out that there is a life outside of the computer. You have the power button, change of batteries, dusting of the computers, making sure that your software is in order in the disk tray, seeing to it that you have a PC magazine ready at the dinner table. Is this not bad? It is an addiction just like gambling or any other fix that will keep you occupied for the rest of your life. 22 years of computing has brought me to my knees at times. It is real bad when you crash the whole machine and love fixing it. It is really bad when you bring in the laptop on vacation to your mother in laws house. It gets super bad when you watch TV and turn it to computer shows. Computers are addicting and can reek havoc on your marriage as well as spill over to your children. When your 3 year old wants to get a keyboard to play with or at Christmas you pack his stocking with a mouse. He actually enjoys playing with it. If you are smart you make sure that your spouse gets a wireless keyboard or something really cool like a pink painted monitor. Include her when you do the paint job.

Can you imagine how many times you have been told to step away from the computer only to find yourself helping out your wife on how to use the thing. Computers take away everything about a relationship that you can imagine. I wish that I did not own one at times. So I pretend that the computer is not there and often times creep over to touch it, while the wife is reaching for the fly swatter to slap you with it. It is an addiction that is for sure.

It gets super super bad when you show your 3 year old how to play games and set up a computer desk in his or her room in my case at his desk. He learns to sit at the chair and tear apart a keyboard in a matter of 5 minutes. The fun part is when you tell him to put it back together, and he does. You know that you have a real problem when all that interests your child is the computers. Can you relate to the entire family calling in a intervention to try and resolve the issues when it is your child that is the one with the problem or your wife tries to explain the situation and as the story goes it gets turned on her because she cannot communicate with me because the computer is the interventionist. That is really bad, I ask for help by going to various web sites on computer addiction.

So if you have this issue remember to take 5-10 minutes a day to say good morning and good night. The rest of the time is yours for computing. Just what you asked for.