It's easy to lose track of time when you're trying to beat that level on Candy Crush Saga. But it's another thing when you become violent the moment someone interrupts your gaming time. As is the case when a Sydney gamer assaults pregnant partner while live streaming.
Sydney gamer assaults pregnant partner in front of a live audience
The 26-year-old man broadcasted himself playing the game on Amazon-owned streaming service Twitch on December 9th 2018. But the viewers tuning in weren't prepared for what happened next.
A female is heard repeatedly asking the man off-camera to stop playing and join her for dinner. He replies each time with a variation of "I'll be out soon, give me a moment".
After being asked one too many times, the man responds with "Can you not? I said I'll be out soon." He promptly gets out of his chair and walks away from the computer.
The woman says "No computer, I'm sick of this ****."
An audible slap is followed by crying from the woman. The man then sits back down in his chair and resumes his streaming.
Off-camera again, the woman shouts "you f***ing woman basher. You hear that, all you people there? He just hit me in the face."
She explains that she cooked dinner an hour ago and the whole family has been waiting to eat together.
After some more arguing, he gets up from the chair and appears to hit something off camera. The woman begins to wail, with a small child beginning to cry.
This happens one more time, with the man addressing the woman as "you dog. You don't pay the f***ing bills."
The woman addresses the audience with "I hope all of you people know that I'm pregnant and he just bashed me."
Another final moment happens where the man gets up which is followed by the woman wailing loudly. However, this time a child can be heard shouting "daddy, daddy!
New South Wales police arrested the man at 11:30pm the same night, where he was charged with common assault. Two girls aged three years and 20 months were present at the time of the alleged assault.
When gaming addiction becomes dangerous
Having downtime is important to keep your sanity when you have kids. But research shows that more young adults struggle with gaming addiction today than previously thought.
Because of the nature of compulsive gaming, it is similar to gambling. People crave more and more of the behaviour to satisfy their addiction. And according to WebMD, stopping someone with a gaming addiction causes them to become irritable and miserable.
Keeping your spouse in check isn't an easy task. After all, husbands can often seem like an extra giant child! But if you notice there is a danger of gaming addiction forming as an unhealthy way to cope with the stress of parenting, try the following tips to improve the situation from getting worse.
- Talk to him at a time when he's not playing
- Communicate that you love them, but their time spent playing games concerns you and you miss them
- Emphasise that it's important that you both work through the issue
- If willing to change, replace some gaming time with private time between you two
- Consider couples counselling
Source: Sydney Morning Herald, WebMD
Also read:
Dad discovers disturbing paedophilic messages on son's gaming profile!
How to curb your kid's gaming addiction
A mum explains why husbands stress mums out more than children