Nintendo DS Lite... and the children?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Echo what FF and a few others have said. Mine have an X-box and two DS's plus a Wii. Sounds a bit over the top but my experience is that they become self-limiting. You might at first have to teach your daughter how to manage her time on it and that it can't interfere with other things she has to do but it's all part of setting boundaries. We've moved from having strict time restrictions and electronic free days to virtually no rules on it as it just fits into the overall scheme of things.

The DS's in particular, get used on long journeys and as they are wireless they can play games together which is actually quite social. I did get alarmed at the rate games disappeared down sofas and other places and eventually bought them a proper case each to store games and DS's in. We still occasionally say that's enough now but not often.

By the way the Wii is the best, ours is used by the whole family, it's great fun, though I do have tennis elbow at the mo ;)
 

ChrisKH

Guru
Location
Essex
My two have had them for a year and yes, they really enjoy them and they are very useful for long journeys and flights, etc. On the downside they are slightly addictive so you do need to ration use and be clear about this from the start and set boundaries. The eldest now has a PS2 and is really into Ratchet & Clank. We have had to set rules when it can be used and no more than an hour a day. He wouldn't speak to me yesterday as I said 'no way' to any use before school in the morning or before homework was finished.
 

striker

New Member
4 kids, 3 PCs, Wii, 4 GBA, 1 NGC.

Term Rules: play only on Friday night, Saturday (unlimited after homework) and Sunday (2 hours)

Holiday Rules: when ever they aren't doing something else, which isn't much

Whatever you do don't kid yourself that they aren't very addictive, they are and also the behaviour of our kids changes drastically after they have played for a while and have to stop. (Withdrawal I reckon)


Dave5N: Real shame about the piano lessons. Mine wanted to give up but I won't let them until they get grade 6. Its a skill that is v. hard to learn when you are older ( I know I've tried) and they will possibly live to regret they gave up (I know I do) 15-20 minutes a day will give them a skill for life.
 

medals

Well-Known Member
Location
Coventry UK
I'm with Chris on this one. Our two (girls 11 & 14) have had one for a year and yes, they can be addictive. But as long as you lay out rules from the start it's ok.
The DS hasn't stopped them doing everything else they did pre-DS.

However, for me it's been different, get Tiger Woods PGA golf, it's brilliant! xx(
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
we've got 2x PC's, 1x laptop and Izve got a PSP. Generally they don't play them in the week, then we limit it to an hour or so. The PSP is easy to hide, and only my 7 year old boy plays it. My daughter is happy with the PC games for kids and Cbeebies web site. We've just had the can we have a Wii, but my wife said that it would be boring if you and your friends had the same things...that's worked so far as we have quite a few pc games. One pc with the main games is passworded as we caught my son logging in before school...he soon learnt.
 

Arch

Married to Night Train
Location
Salford, UK
With regard to the exercise thing, having a Wii, wasn't there a link a little while back to a study showing that using a Wii didn't actually provide any meanigful exercise? So nice try by the little lad, but that bit of reasoning is wonky...xx(


(BTW, no kids, no game things of any sort, except SimCity on the laptop, and Snake on my phone, both addictive enough!)
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
Arch said:
With regard to the exercise thing, having a Wii, wasn't there a link a little while back to a study showing that using a Wii didn't actually provide any meanigful exercise? So nice try by the little lad, but that bit of reasoning is wonky...xx(


(BTW, no kids, no game things of any sort, except SimCity on the laptop, and Snake on my phone, both addictive enough!)

I thought he was a Lounge lizard!
 
Top Bottom