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Behaviour/development

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

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Original poster

Do you set any time limits for Wii or computer games?

75 replies

hellion · 11/05/2010 20:13

My seven year old is really getting into playing Wii (mainly Super Mario). We have had the Wii a year and a half, but in the last month or so he has been wanting to play it all the time. I was limiting him to 45 min sessions, which worked fine when he wasn't wanting to play every day. Now I need to set some new goal posts. It isn't helped by the three year old who is wanting to play it all the time. I just wondered what limits (if any!) other people set.

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Dancergirl · 11/05/2010 22:05

Yes I do. We're not a particulay techie family. We have a Wii but havent actually worked out how to use it yet so they don't go on it. My two older dds like the cbeebies website and Moshi Monsters (which I hate!). They have to ask before going on and I set the timer for 10 mins or so. I'm mean aren't I?! They have only just got a dsi each (at age 9 and 7). I'm a bit more relaxed about that but if they're still on it after half an hour I'll tell them to turn them off. And no ds or computer after 6pm.

Why not say he can have a go on the wii twice a week or something?

ByThePowerOfGreyskull · 11/05/2010 22:09

We have a 3 and 6 year old who love mario karts.

they are not allowed to play on the wii during the week,
they are allowed 1 hour on saturday and 1 on sunday.

during the week I will occasionally allow them to play on CBBC or Cbeebies on my laptop but that is usually for 30 mins whilst I am getting supper ready.

They are never allowed to play after supper - I don't find it conducive to settling down and realxing before bath time.

Hulababy · 11/05/2010 22:10

No, never really had to as yet with 8y DD. We have a Wii and she has a DS and an iPod Touch. She does use them but is never obsessive with games. Her Touch is different as she uses it for music a lot.

meltedmarsbars · 11/05/2010 22:11

Exactly as PTPOGS says - none on weekdays, 1 hour each weekend day, which can be carried over.

And no telly till you've done your music practice!

blametheparents · 11/05/2010 22:15

Yep, weekends only here.
Though sometimes for a bit more than an hour.
Never allowed on games consoles during the week.
Sometimes allow 30 mins of Club Penguin or similar on the pc during the week, but again never after dinner.

geraldinetheluckygoat · 11/05/2010 22:24

I do things like mario carts only on weekend/fridays afternoon after school. I dont limit time as such at those times, unless we have other stuff to do. I let them play stuff like wii fit (they like the balance games and skiing) and wii sports, where they or we are all playing together and moving about whenever they like, as long as theyve done spellings or whatever. they really go for it with the sporty games, which i think is more engaging physically and mentally than the sitting down games!
ds1 also has a leapster which has games teaching reading and maths, and he can play that when he likes.
they dont use the laptop. Becasue i need it for work and i dont want them to break it!

Kammy · 12/05/2010 08:47

Same as the others for my ds age 8 - 1 hr screen time Fri, Sat and Sun. He can negotiate a change e.g. from Fri to Thursday if something else crops up.He would be on it all the time otherwise!

It works fine.

weegiemum · 12/05/2010 08:52

We use it all week (a good bribe for behaviour for ds if nothing else).

They have 30 mins "screen time" on mon-Fri - computer, ds, Wii. 1 hr at weekends/holidays.

Plus some TV, but tbh at this time of year when the weather is good, the TV is hardly on.

sarah293 · 12/05/2010 08:54

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reeva · 12/05/2010 10:22

6 hours per week. It seems a lot and I'd rather DS just played with it occasionally like any other game but he'd play it non-stop 24/7 if I let him.

sarah293 · 12/05/2010 10:32

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meltedmarsbars · 12/05/2010 10:36

Unlimiting worked for dd1 when she had hers.
For ds, who is computer and techno mad, he just can't stop.

He is learning to make choices about computer games just as we taught him not to eat crisps, chocolate and fizzy drinks for every meal. He needs help to make decisions.

sarah293 · 12/05/2010 10:38

This reply has been deleted

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kitkatsforbreakfast · 12/05/2010 11:08

We started off with limiting it (we have 'screen time' in this house so it covers TV as well as the wii and computer) to weekends and Fridays, but, like Riven said, it then became something they would pine for.

Gradually we let them have their own control over how much they played.

ds1 will self-limit. ds2 will not. After the Christmas holidays they had played so much that they seemed to have lost all imagination and were 'bored' if they weren't glued to a screen.

So I banned all screens altogether. For 5 weeks or so there was no access to anything electronic in this house. They whinged, moaned and begged for a week or so, then gradually started to do other things. Once they had shown that they could play properly without askig for any screens, then they were allowed them back again. It took about 5 weeks, but now they are back to playing when they want (after homework) and play far less.

If they start playing too much again, I will ban it again until they get more creative.

amandafhughes · 12/05/2010 11:40

I'm so interested to see all your posts as I'm having real trouble with my 6 year old son. He has become obsessed with the Wii Super mario Bros. We restricted it to Friday after school and weekends. We have said 1 hour on Saturday and one on Sunday, split into two half hours if he wants. However, this has meant he craves it all week. Then on Saturday mornings he plays it as soon as he gets up and then has a huge tantrum, shouting, kicking, hitting when we tell him the time is up. Then that leads to him losing it for the rest of the weekend. I wish I'd never bought it now. If we allowed him free rein he would not self-limit but would play it for hours on end becoming tense and angry as a result anyway. We have encouraged other interests - Beavers, swimming lessons etc. I don't mind him playing the Wii for short periods as it helps socially with his friends and he enjoys it, but I can't bear the knock on effects when I tell him to stop. If he stopped when I asked him and behaved nicely when it was over I would allow it more often. I've told him this but he doesn't seem to understand (too young?) and just says 'you hate the wii. You hate me doing things I like'. Any advice would be so appreciated. He is a sensitive, quiet, loving boy and seeing the anger and violence it creates in him worries me.

reeva · 12/05/2010 11:46

amandafhughes - Ds is/ was the same. He was getting up two hours early to play it, turning down days at legoland to play it, etc. He also proved to have a gift for twisting my words so that if i hadn't said loudly and definitively no - maybe just asked him to do something else instead - then he would take that as a yes. He even started reading the manual for interest when he couldn't play it.

I tried self limiting - I let him play it until hopefully he was sick of it, but after 20 hours over three days, it was just getting worse and I had to stop it.

BigTillyMint · 12/05/2010 11:52

Yes, we say half an hour or so a day on their DS's.
They don't actually use them every day.

However, we have banned DS from the Wii and computer games as he gets so competitive and then frustrated when he can't complete a level or time is up and he wants to carry on.

Infact no-one has used the wii in months, apart from for the i-player! Maybe I will let him try it again soon?!

101handbags · 12/05/2010 12:32

My godson in 7. He is allowed one hour per day max. Parents bought him a wind up timer (like a kitchen timer), when he puts the Wii on he sets it for an hour, when it rings he knows his time is up and he has to stop. It seems to work well...so far.

madhairday · 12/05/2010 12:33

We say half an hour screen time a night, after any school work, then an hour at weekends. I do let them go on the Wii Fit though if it is raining or cold outside as they are bundles of energy and I see this more as exercise than a computer game - dd loves the running one. ds, 6, is obsessed with Mario Kart too but recently club Penguin on the PC has taken over somewhat. We say it is their choice what they take their half hour on - ds, pc, wii, playstation. They are quite good at stopping when told.
We let them watch TV on top of that but not more than 1/2 hour (except saturday mornings which are made for lounging in your PJs in front of TV...sometimes anyway )

LillianGish · 12/05/2010 12:47

I'm like you Riven - haven't really needed to limit. As with most toys they played a lot when they first got it, but now it's like any other toy sometimes they play a lot a lot of the time they don't play at all. Just got ds (7) a DSlite for his birthday (hesitated over this as it seems a much more solitary pursuit than the wii), but once again after a couple of days of obsessive playing (basically getting the hang of it) he just plays occasionally. In fact I took it to a very long wedding a few weeks ago thinking it might keep in quiet during the long reception - he didn't even ask for it, he was too busy playing with the other kids. In fact it was my mum (now in her 70s) who helped me put things into perspective when I was dithering over the rights and wrongs of electronic toys she said :"That's what they play with these days - it's just another toy, get over it. If I'd taken your attitude you'd have been playing with whips and tops!"

Romanarama · 12/05/2010 12:57

Amanda, sell it. Kids don't need computer games for social reasons and he'll play them from time to time at his friends houses anyway. Get him something different but fun that you'd like too - a tree-house or something- whatever suits you and the kind of things you'd prefer him to be doing. It doesn't sound like the wii is doing your ds any good at all.

Marne · 12/05/2010 13:01

Dd1 (6) is only allowed to go on the Wii or PC at the weekend. I don't like her going on it in the week/after school as she finds it hard to get to sleep after playing a game and i like to spend time with her talking about her school day. She only plays it for an hour or 2 at the weekend and its usually as a family (2+ player games).

ln1981 · 12/05/2010 13:13

we limit time at the moment for ds1 (6) and dd (4), an hour a day max. tbh they dont actually play the wii or their DS's every day (maybe only every 2 or 3 days) but if they ask, they get them.

kitchendevil · 12/05/2010 13:17

why have we all (myself included) bought these stupid games? I hate my children being on them. I caved into peer pressure (they wanted away playdates with console-rich friends) and now it just wrecks our family time. Ban it and you're a harridan. Allow them on it and you've a sedentary, sullen, obsessed child...

3rdnparty · 12/05/2010 13:19

we put it in the loft.... week before easter...it became an obsession with ds he got totally into it and wouldn't talk about anything else and everything became can i do wii after that/when can i do wii and then tantrums when it went off ...it also added to my lazy parenting as everything was bartered on the wii....

however we all sat down and i said i didn't like how many arguments it was causing and the stress in the house so it went away.... ds didn't mention it for ages and told friends when they visited it had gone to the loft coz too many arguments!

.... we are going to try again for his birthday as we did enjoy playing it together but get a timer planning on using at weekends mainly ...but if it gets painful again will be gone....probably to winter/xmas... sorry for long post

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