to think that handheld computers should be banned for under seven year olds?

[BigHairyLeggedSpider]

At risk of a flaming but I think that they've got plenty of time to zombify in front of computers, and it risks compromising their imaginations.

Portal! It did my head in towards the end. Brain dribbles out ears.

Now I really want to play Doom. Will have to have a mosey through the cabinet and see if I can find the old version.

click click BOOM - so satisfying.

BHLS... I have a bellybutton phobia too and you are the only other person I have ever heard of with same.
Not a big fan of computer games myself but the hand held ones seem to totally zombify some kids (mine).
Bet Leonardo da Vinci wouldn't have done half so much in his life if he'd had a DSi as a kid

Sure he would shockers he would have designed games that were even better than the ones he had to play on his DS as a kid. The designers of Portal are evil geniuses.

i am hooked on ds's ratchet & clank games

really? does everyone's dc have DS's or whatever they are called ... I was completely horrified when a friend bought one for her 2 and a half year old son.

Is this inevitable? Was hoping to avoid all such things until my dd was a teenager (never into gaming myself ... can you tell? )

Why on earth should small children need a hand-held computer in order to practice "brain training"? Brain frying more like! Pshaw!

Morloth you have made my day with your breeding of geeks.

However things have never been the same since the demise of text-only adventures

Riven... the thought of bellybuttons makes me want to curl up in a ball. I have to sleep with mine covered. Seeing other people's makes me squirm and cover mine with my forearms ( couldn't do it with my hands because that would be wrong...?)
Apparently I have always been this way and my little brother thought it would be funny to wiggle his finger in hs sticky out one.... uuuuuhhh.... which made things much, much worse.
Cropped tops and piercings are my ultimate nightmare.
I have learnt to focus on the eyebrows

Riven Im on your side!! I dont think games and consoles are bad! Im of the opinion that they have their place,ds1 and dd have them, they get excited by the adventures they have playing the games. They had a wee shot of them this evening and I think that spend just as much time telling me about whats going on as they do concentrating on the game.
I have a ds, we ahve various consoles in the house which they both play. goodnes you cant move for technology in this bloody house!!
I didnt mean that i thought they were bad, what i meant was that perhaps there are parents who do consider these as 'bad'just as someone might think sweets are bad, or that junk food is bad etc.

My dc have just turned 6 and have just got a DSi. DD will get one when she turns 6 next year. There were several reasons we waited. Personally I don't think a DS is any worse than TV, I think all screen time is equal and they all have their uses and plus points but can only speak for our Mac,DS,laptop,TV as we only have those.

We waited so we could spend the money on lovely toys(you can get a looooot of Playmobil for the price of a DS).

We also wanted our twins to look after them properly and be able to read so they could get the most out of them.

We have a 1 hour screen time rule most days with a very strict 1 hour rule on the DS. If either of the boys kick off when it's time to put them away they loose it for a week,it works a treat. We have no screen time before school.

Dtwin1 is a Playmobil/Lego addict,he's at school all day so feel he deserves down time. He still plays with his toys just as much. Dtwin 2 is an avid reader,he'll often choose reading over his DS /screen time. He's working his way through the Secret Seven books(his choice) so his Ds hasn't seen a lot of action lately.

I really like some of the games,my boys have gained a lot from Cooking Mama,Nintendogs,Brain Trainer. We just got the Drawn to Life one for Xmas.

I think all kids mature at different rates so you can't really say what is the best age however I do think it's crucial to regulate usage properly which it's perfectly possible to do. The parents who say you can't are those frightened of their own dc imho.

My boys have gained masses from TV,using the Mac, Pc and their Dsi's. They can differentiate between a Mac and Pc and do the most wizzy stuff(last night Dtwin 2 made a Magic Treehouse Reward Chart himself by finding clipart online himself and putting it into a grid he made). They are just getting to grips with the non game stuff on the DSi,there is masses you can do and I feel all of our screens really benefit all 3 of my dc.They rarely "zombify" and to be frank having spent all day at school and with homework to complete I wouldn't really be upset if they did for an hour.

Emotive subject this!!

See, we're a very geeky family. We all get pretty obsessive over stuff we like. I'm a nature, literature and science nerd and I love RPG games. I'm fine with using computers in moderation with the oldest DS as it teaches them so much and helps with boredom on long journeys. I've introduced the eldest ds to some much better games to what he was playing already.

The youngest DS - 5 - I'm happy with playing computer games, but I'm not happy with the fact that since he's had his DS when asked what he wants to do thats the first thing that he chooses. Before he had it it used to be " cook something, play outside, invent a game" etc. I just think that they've got plenty of time to start down the sitting in front of screens for hours route. He's five. Give them a few more years of non-screen play. We don't have full custody by the way, although we have them a lot, so I cant moderate how much he plays.

Hopefully he'll get bored of it soon, but I can't see it!!

shocker your post made me squirm. I hate them. I hate them being touched, I hate seeing other peoples, I hate seeing (bleuuughhh) fingers go in them. I'm having a hard time writing this even. Mine is prolly full of 32 years of fluff. I don't know, I've never looked.

And WHY WHY WHY do people, when you tell them this, insist on showing you their piercing or sticking their fingers in it???

I'm so glad I have company. Bleuuughhhhhhhh.

Vile.

CirrhosisByTheSea

You've put it far better than I have!

So, when he says he wants to play it and you think he has had enough, just say "Nope, you have had enough screens for a bit, do something else".

Not an emotive subject at all I think, people just have different ideas.