Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

4 year old and computer games

6 replies

Feellikerubbish · 06/06/2012 14:13

My son is 4 and up until a few months ago, was allowed to play 10 minutes of games on my phone each day over the weekends. He noticed we had a games console at home and have seen his uncles play. We then decided that rather than keep him away from games where he might want it more, we'd allow him to play for an hour each Sunday. It went quite well for a well apart from a bit of a tantrum when he had to switch it off. He started staying at his uncles house, a few times and wasn't restricted when playing games. Now all he ever wants to do is play games or watch TV. We went to a relatives house and he literally played for about 3 hours. He even wet his pants a bit because he didn't want to pause it and go to the toilet. Any ideas on what we could do? We do try to do lots of other things with him but still he seems only interested in cartoons or games.

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
kiwidreamer · 06/06/2012 14:58

I think you just have to set the rules for your home / family and stick to them, yep it means putting up with whining and whinging but he'll soon figure out its pointless and find something else to do.

My DS is almost four and if he eats all his dinner without fuss and bother (was a big issue for a period of time) then he can play 20 mins of ceebeebies or nickjnr on the computer, if he doesnt switch the computer off after 20mins then I give him one warning that he wont get to play at all tomorrow if he doesnt follow the rules for computer time. My DS isnt at school yet so I'm not sure if 20mins each evening will still be workable then but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it!

I dont think its unreasonable for you to ask your brothers / BILs to not let him spend so much time playing games and if they dont respect your parental wishes then I'd question having your son having extended time there without you.

Firawla · 06/06/2012 15:10

My almost 4 year old is not interested in consoles yet so not sure about that, but he does like playing on phones, ipad and watch tv.
If you offer other suggestions to him about activities like you playing a game with him or going out somewhere does he still insist on keep playing games?

My ds would play for a long time like you say at relatives houses, if there is not much toys to occupy him then its easy for him to occupy himself on ipad, especially if I go out and inlaws are watching him then he will do that. I don't think its too much a big deal as its not every day, as long as they dont carry the habit over to home then personally i dont worry a huge amount. Unless it affects behaviour, then immediately we take it off him (we did have to do this before as he started to get quite rude when people were speaking to him, as he was "too busy on the ipad") I think the novelty has worn off with mine for that now though so he doesn't do it quite so much?

With other activities that you would rather he did.. are you doing it together with him or want him to get on with it by himself? with mine if he was playing on the phone and i ask him to finish with it, he might moan but if i sit and do something with him instead then he's quite happy to do that, but if i say okay give me the phone and now go and play and amuse yourself, then he would moan more. So i find thats an easier way to take them away from these things as it distracts them, or even give it like while you prepare the dinner then there is a natural finish - dinner is ready, so put phone/ipad/whatever away and eat, then after that go do something else?

If he is making a big deal every time its time to finish, and causing a lot of problems maybe rethink him being allowed on consoles and tell him that he can only have a go if he doesnt make a fuss when it's time to finish, otherwise he will have to wait til he is older?

skybluepearl · 06/06/2012 22:58

Have a screen time allowance - sit down and explain the new rule. An hour a day or 30 mins in total? If he uses more time, remove the computer/screens for a few days.

skybluepearl · 06/06/2012 23:00

Set an egg timer. Expect him to turn the game off as soon as the timer goes off. Pre-warn him 3 mins b4 the timer goes off. Remove game for three days if he continues to play.

skybluepearl · 06/06/2012 23:01

Have a screen time allowance - sit down and explain the new rule. An hour a day or 30 mins in total? If he uses more time, remove the computer/screens for a few days.

Can you request that uncle take kid to park instead or plays footie?

thegreylady · 07/06/2012 11:24

I have 2 dgs aged 5 and 3
They do not have access to any computer games at home.I have a tablet on which the 3 year old likes to do colouring/drawing and the five year old likes angry birds.He is allowed two lots of 5 games in an afternoon and it is less than once a week.Just say no and mean it.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page