We're giving in... information wanted!

DVOM

Thu, Nov 22 2018, 9:47 am

From the time my boys were born, we have had a very limited screen policy in our home. My husband has ADHD and has read a lot of the research on what screen based activities do to the developing brain. We always felt that art, building, running around outside, pretend play were better uses of our kids time. Of course, there have always been exceptions. We will allow a movie occasionally, but have really keep a careful cap on how often this happens. I'd estimate around 5 times a year. We have no gaming systems, no nothing. On a rare occasion we will allow a kid to help us look up what they want to order for a birthday present on Amazon. But that's it.

This is about to change! My oldest, age 10, has been petitioning for some sort of gaming system for the past year. He's a great kid, trustworthy and responsible. Most, if not all, of his friends have multiple game systems in their home. They are also allowed to watch a lot more TV, sports, and movies than the very minimal we allow. My husband and I have talked and talked about it, and we don't feel like we can put him off any longer. We've talked to our son about the limits we would put on the system (no school nights, limiting the amount of time used, stuff like that.) He generally respects the limits we put in place in other areas of our family life, and trust he will be able to do the same here.

So now we're trying to find the best gaming system to meet our needs. It seems like there are just soooo many of them! Are any of you guys gamers? We need help choosing a system, and the descriptions of the different products seem to be written in Chinese. We'd like to spend around 100-200 dollars and have a device that does not have internet access or can have the internet access blocked. Are there any benefits to having a portable, hand held system, or would a system that hooks up to a TV monitor be better? I'd like to buy a 'cool' system. If we're buying one already, it might as well be a good one that has street cred for our kid. Any ideas?

amother

Powderblue

Thu, Nov 22 2018, 9:57 am

We have a ps4 and my son loves it but firstly there are probably newer ones on the market and secondly it was more than $200.

While I agree that you should let your son play if that’s what all his friends are doing, just a friendly warning that most of his friends likely don’t have that many rules as I’ve seen with my son’s friends. I let him play for a limited time every day including school nights, but his friends seem to have unlimited time to play. So I’m always down his back about keeping to the limit.

professor

Thu, Nov 22 2018, 10:01 am

amother wrote:

I'm also always limiting much more than friends unfortunately. It became so bad that he now goes to friends house right after school to use HIS switch! He knows I won't let him play on his own > Sad

I am afraid I'm losing control and my kids would become couch potatoes chas veshalom

1091

Thu, Nov 22 2018, 10:56 am

We just gave in too and got the ps4. Ordered for online pickup a Best Buy. Using parental filters you can block access to the internet browser but the system does need to be connected to the internet.

You will need a newish tv or monitor. You can hook up to a laptop and access through the remote option but then the parental controls won’t work.

Ours is set to limit the time each night and automatically shut off at a certain time.

Games can be taken out of our library so we’ve already discusses only purchasing one or two.

amother

Gray

Thu, Nov 22 2018, 10:58 am

DVOM wrote:

I got my son ps4 but DO NOT hook it up with internet access!!!! Games only.

DVOM

Thu, Nov 22 2018, 1:32 pm

amother wrote:

Yes, I'm sure that is going to be the case for me too. I'm not sure there is any way to get around it. It is going to be hard to strike a comfortable balance.