Tom comes home from a long day at work.  He flings off his shoes, shirt and stops at the fridge for a beer before getting down to business.  No, Tom is not planning a romantic evening with his wife, nor is he sitting down to work a second job, he is getting online with his friends to play XBOX live.  Tom doesn’t just play for an hour or two, he plays well into the wee hours of the morning, and his wife Judy has just about had it.  Judy is a nice looking woman, she takes care of the house and works a full time job.  When she comes home from work in the evening to look at the back of her husband’s head, it makes her blood boil.  She has tried to discuss this with him, but he doesn’t hear that what she is really saying is “If you continue making that game your number 1 priority, then I am out of here”.

Tom doesn’t realize that he is having marriage problems.  He thinks that she is just nagging and that it really doesn’t matter, but Judy sees it differently.  She sees his continued game playing as him saying that she doesn’t matter to him, and neither does their relationship.  So what should Tom do?

There is nothing wrong with having interests outside of your marriage, as a matter of fact this is a very healthy thing, however, when your outside interests become your life, so much so that even if your wife answered the door for you completely naked, that you would still head for the couch and play XBOX, then quite frankly you are either addicted to the game, or you are using playing this game to escape from reality and your wife.

Limit your play time and set up times to play the game and stick to them.  Let your wife know that you have heard what she has been saying and let her know what your game times will be.  Then set up some alone time for the two of you, letting her know that you are setting aside time for just her as well.

When all is said and done your wife will be happier, and so will you.