Would you let your 8yo buy this?

[FlopsyDoodle]

My son had his 8th birthday last month and due to Coronavirus his grandparents couldn’t visit him for his birthday. They’ve been shielding and as they’re not happy to buy stuff online they posted him £50 and told him that he could spend it on whatever makes him happy.

I let him have an hours screen time each day where he can watch YouTube videos, play his switch or play one of his games that he’s downloaded on the iPad. Despite having lots of (what I would consider) decent games he constantly goes back to this free game that I downloaded for him ages ago about this Hungry Shark. It seems pretty basic - you have a shark and it swims through the sea and you see how many points you can get by eating stuff. It’s got in app purchases but I’ve disabled them obviously but he’s been saying for weeks now that he wants to spend his birthday money on a new shark for the game. This new shark, which doesn’t seem to have any additional features, just looks a lot cooler is £48. £48! For a bloody shark on a crappy game.

But - it’s his money, right? It just seems so much money for him to piss away. He keeps getting in such a tizz about it. It’s a limited time offer and he’s convinced it’s going to go away. I asked him to ask his grandparents at the weekend if they were happy for him to buy it. They are, but they are of the impression that he’s using it to buy a whole new computer game, not a little animation wit hi n a game that he already has.

At the moment I’m at the ‘I need to have a think about it’ stage. Wwyd?

DH and I think it's quite likely that this kind of thing will in the future not be allowed to be aimed at children, although it's difficult because technically the game developer could just say their game isn't aimed at children, couldn't they. But even to have a minimum age requirement of 12/13 if the game uses these kinds of tactics, I think, would be reasonable.

I'm in the "let them buy what they want" camp. I remember as a child how utterly irritating it was that my mum wouldn't let me buy stuff I enjoyed because she couldn't personally see the point of it - computer games, etc. I wasn't very good at articulating why what I wanted was a good present. My kids have bought what I believe to be utter shite - but if it's shite that keeps them happy then who am I to judge

I also don't think every single purchase a child makes should be meaningful. In fact it's a good lesson to learn in wasting money - remind him that if he buys it, that's the £50 gone and if he goes off the shark then tough

I would say no to this also, whether he gets in a Tizz or not. The £50 gift is just a gift, and the value of the money,probably won't mean anything to your son. But children can get addicted to these kind of games, and anything new, has to be a must have , in their minds.

£48 for a shark - ouch! Absolutely not, it's a complete waste of money and you could buy a premium Nintendo game for that price.

This is one of the reasons we've completely moved away from tablet games now. Fed up if the constant bombardment with ads (often inappropriate), upgrades and intense gamification.

Not an issue you can fully solve immediately but your son needs to start building his understanding of the value of money. My son gets £3 per week pocket money, so would know £48 was a massive amount. That's not appropriate to spend on a game upgrade, which at that price seemed to have been put in the game likely to drive accidental purchases IMO.

That would be a really good Lego set. I think at that age money just burns a hole in their pocket. I would let him have £10 to spend on whatever and bank the rest. My kids were able to buy their first cars by accumulating like this. My youngest always had to buy something in a shop but at least it was a something. I was really pissed off when he went on a school trip and he bought his best friend something he wanted because best friend hadn't any dosh. All very well being generous but it was my £5. He was still being generous until his late teens when he discovered that a 'friend' had been regularly fleecing his account. That was a life lesson learned....

I would let him as it may be a good lesson. My Mum gave my kids £20 each last year for a reason I can't remember so my dd spent hers in Smyths in a toy and my ds asked if he could spend it on Fortnite, I tried to talk him out of it but he wouldn't be put off so I let him go ahead. 2 days later he had spent the money and was over whatever he had spent it on then moaned for days because he didn't have any money left and nothing to show for it while dd had her nice new toy. He learnt his lesson and is now more careful.