10 year old picked on for not playing computer games

[Duckduckgoose78]

My DS in Yr5 came home from school today upset, saying he's being picked on by two boys in his class because he doesn't play computer games like Roblox or Fortnite. He's also feeling left out of the gaming chat in the classroom and in the playground because he can't join in with them.

It's a conscious decision on our part to not let him play games, we don't have a console (apart from the Wii) and he has a busy life with lots of activities after school and at the weekend so there's no time anyway! He would likely not be able to self regulate, and although he is much better now, he did used to get very upset when he lost at mario kart on the Wii.

How do we help him deal with the social exclusion he's feeling at school? He's only been at this school since half way through Yr4, 18 months or so. He's found it hard to integrate into the class, but has a small core group of friends with things in common now, and had a good time on school residential last week with them. We really don't want to introduce games, but are wondering whether we're putting him at a disadvantage by not having them at home. Are we being unreasonable by not letting him game? Help!

You could say the same about some sports. Are there studies that normal levels of gaming leads to mental health issues? I’m not talking about excessive gaming -loads of time sat inside, disengaged from the real world can’t be good for you. But I find it very hard to believe an hour of gaming a day or so is going to lead to any problems.

Some things in life always need restriction, sugar, fat, sitting down, alcohol, screens. But it doesn’t mean we can’t do them at all.

Your approach sounds very balanced, and I'm afraid I shall be nicking the concept of seasonal reasonableness. Displacing frequent cycles of sibling squabbles and resolutions comes with a developmental cost.

@mollyfolk That's an interesting question with the comparison with sports. I've no real background in this area, perhaps there's someone on this thread who has some knowledge here: I wonder whether the movement and activity inherent to most sports makes the adrenalin produced less of a problem than a similar amount of adrenalin being produced whilst being sedentary.