What to do....

I hear many of my fellow ASD mothers talk about the game consoles that they encourage their boys to play in times of stress or when their kids wont sleep so that they as parents can have a break or sleep themselves...

Last night Mikey was introduced to a PC website ABC for kids. over the last few months he's gained good enough muscle tone in his hands to control a pen and also a PC mouse.
he was so addicted to this website that he was refusing to come home from nanna's because he didn't want to stop playing so Adam brought mikey home and put the ABC site on our PC and allowed him to play it.

While this is very good for him in one way because it encourages him to learn and also excites him with his own abilities to do things and get a reaction from the actions... it posed a bit of a problem that i'm now wondering about.

Mikey didn't want to go to bed and he woke up at 3am demanding to go on the PC... it has been 2 hours, i have not allowed him onto the PC to play this game and hes awake and not letting me sleep...

I'm forced to wonder if we should allow mikey access to this website and our computer whenever he wants to and create an obsession with OUR pc... if we should buy him a game console and create an obsession with that... or if we should never revisit the site again, avoiding an obsession and try once again to direct him to a stable sleeping routine and creative games like blocks and drawing and hope for the best.

Bare in mind that if we allow him limited times, it will increase by default to all the time. it has been the case with most things that i have had in mikeys life... from DVD's, to my mobile phones.... it starts out limited access... and becomes very quickly a forcefully demanded object that i have been forced myself to completely withdrawn him - and that takes alot of effort.

I am strongly against computer games and the hold they have on people = boys in my family in particular.... i came from a household where my brother used to plug his gameboy into speakers and listen to a game playing it's repetitive music over and over again... that hypnotic sound drove me insane.
I know kids who are so obsessed and absorbed with computer games that it's all they do! no playing outside, no interaction with family... the game system is it.

i'm finding that i'm fighting an inner battle not to give this child of mine another thing to obsess with... i am concerned that if i give him a game system... it will take him and his sensory problems will never resolve because he'll always just turn to the game console for respite...
but then again... do i need that game console for respite...

normally for any Neurologically Typical kid... you would have the mindset of - thats ok when i want to take it away from them i can... but for an Autistic kid... taking away an obsession like that is like taking away the air they breathe... Mikey has an obsession and sensory response from his dummy... if we even try and take that away most of the time we're met with an extreme response... this is his comfort. so imagine what will happen if mikey developes an obsession with a game console and i try and remove it...
Mikey had access to a game for about 2 hours and it was insane how addicted he got and so quickly... there is no way to 'divert' the intentions of a boy like Mikey... they dont understand.

to be a tad Carrie Bradshaw.....
It made me wonder, with a boy who is EXTREEMELY susceptible to addiction and who has no understanding of boundaries or limits... is it better for him to be obsessed with reality... or a virtual reality?