Does every 11/12 year old REALLY have a Xbox ?

[dingdongmerrilytyiu]

DS11 in year 7 had a teacher-student well-being zoom check today. Parents were instructed to be with child.

Teacher asks my son whether he is keeping in touch with his classmates "on the Xbox". He replied he doesn't have one. "Oh via PlayStation then" says the teacher. My son replied he doesn't have one. "Oh whatever the other one is called then"...at which point I said we don't have any of them.

She appeared genuinely surprised: "oh, wow, well that's great. You're the only one who has said that, everyone else seems to be on them when they're not doing schoolwork...how do you keep in contact then?" And my son says "phone calls, texts..."

I did discuss it after with my son and ask him if he was bothered and if he wanted one. He said no, he was fine with his games on his phone.

I've been holding out until he started asking me for a gaming device because it's just one more screen for them to get addicted to and for me to fall out with him about overuse. I have friends who've really struggled with this. It's not that I object to them; when my son wants one I will get him one, but is it really true what the teacher said that everyone else in the class has one? I feel really guilty if so.

It's a grammar school (state school) in a mixed area; some wealth, mainly middle class I guess but defo some kids there who are on pupil premium like my son.....am I restricting his friendships by holding out on this?

If he has access to a pc you could try Xbox game pass- it allows certain games to play pc and Xbox together. They often do trial offers for new subscribers.

We have three xboxes and a switch in our house. All three use them to connect with friends - we have time limits on them.

I would get him one if he feels left out, things are tricky with lockdown etc. If he doesn’t then I wouldn’t bother.

@Nix32 my son said that the graphics are all much better, the controllers are better and obviously there are games that you can't get on the switch. Because we have both he tends to only use his switch if we were going on a long car journey for example.

There is nothing wrong with the switch just that if I was buying a console for a secondary school aged child I would buy a PS or X Box. I think the switch is seen (certainly amongst my ds and his friends) as a secondary console or the one they all started off with when they were 8ish I guess.

@treeeeemendous That's really useful, thank you. He's mentioned it as an idea for his birthday but doesn't really know why, because he's quite happy with the Switch, so I'm reluctant to spend the money just for the sake of it.