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Parenting

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Original poster

Is my DS the only 6 yr old without a ...

186 replies

pipo · 30/01/2011 12:36

DS?
He has asked for one for his 6th birhtday next month. he assures me that EVERYONE in his class has got one. is anyone else's dc as deprived as mine? i'm not even sure why i'm not keen for him to have one - it just seems a grown-up sort of toy when i want him to play with lego, go to the park and be bored enough to make up his own little games still. has anyone else successfully got away with not getting one?

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TheGoddessBlossom · 30/01/2011 18:14

My DS is 6 and got one for Xmas - so did his 4 year old brother. 4 year old watches DS1 play on his mostly. They play on it when I am busy or I need them occupied. It does not replace any other activity that I can think of.....

dementedma · 30/01/2011 18:48

DS just got one for his ninth birthday.

ClenchedBottom · 30/01/2011 19:06

Neither of our DC have them. Not sure that DS (5) would know what one is? DD (7) looked at her cousins' at Christmas but wasn't too fussed. Few of their friends have them either, ie 1 out of DD's circle of 6 close friends.
I think we're just not very streetwise round here.
Suits me!

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CaptainKirksNipples · 30/01/2011 19:20

I have a dsi that my 6year old uses. We have an iPad, laptop, a wii, and xbox with kinect. The school uses electronic stuff at school, interactive white boards, programmable robots and computers. I think they are at a slight disadvantage if they have NOTHING at home but I suspect most kids have something. There is a little boy at school that doesn't have any type of computer at home and his hand eye coordination with our games is awful. He is clever though.Technology is only going to become more advanced so probably best get kids used to it just now!

jjkm · 30/01/2011 20:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

taffetasplat · 30/01/2011 20:05

DS (7) got a DSi for Christmas, after much nagging. We don't have a Wii or anything else. We have restrictions on it, but he is a bit obsessed with it at the moment, I am hoping it will wear off as its new.

At the moment, its confiscated for a week because his behaviour has deteriorated and I wanted him to reconnect with other free time play apart from screen time.

jemimapotts · 30/01/2011 20:21

My DSs are 11 and 9 haven't got one and we are not hippies.
They would have really liked one a few years ago, but don't really mention it now.
We got a wii last year which they play with off and on. They'd really like an x-box but there's no way on this earth they will get one. They have been on sleepovers where they spent hours playing some hideous 18 rated game where people are violently killed, robbed etc. It's just wrong IMO to let boys of this age to play such games. They should be out playing sport etc.
My two DSs are avid readers and I am sure lack of a DS has helped them develop this essential skill.

NellyTheElephant · 30/01/2011 20:28

I'm a bit freaked out by this. My DD will be 6 this week and I honestly had no idea what a DS was (I do now as I just looked it up on Amazon). She's never mentioned it so I guess she's happy without, I didn't realise that children played these sorts of things so young.

COCKadoodledooo · 30/01/2011 20:28

Ds got one for Christmas 09, 4 days before his 6th birhday. Not one of the dsi or xl jobbies, the cheapest package we could find.

We did buy him the Lego StarWars game, but since then everything else he's chosen has been educational (completely free choice of age appropriate naterial btw!).

He doesn't play it that much tbh. Time for that and the Wii (which is only used as a family activity) is limited to weekends and school holidays, and then rarely more than half an hour.

He is also an avid reader, and plays a lot of sport - I don't see why some people think these are mutually exclusive!

strawberrycake · 30/01/2011 20:29

16, 13, 8 months. Never owned a console. Have a few PC games on the family computer. Not really been a big issue. I think culturally though our kids don't ask for things much, unless asked if they want it. We're not mega-strict but it's not the way we're brought up to ask for presents.

spottycushion · 30/01/2011 20:30

My ds has one and got it for his 6th birthday ,he plays with it every now and then and if i think he has been on it too long i tell him to turn it off. Sometimes he says oh mummy but nevermind he has to learn .

CoonRapids · 30/01/2011 20:32

I decided that I would have a DS and DS would be able to borrow it, so I got one for Christmas a year ago. It means I can keep control as it's not 'his toy'. When he turned 6 summer last year he started getting interested in it and quickly turned into an expert on Mario etc., whilst I have lost interest .

Depends on the child. My DS is a fairly solitary, non-sporty, computer type and so tends to get obsessive about games and deeply involved and finds it hard to stop when he has to (and remember to go to the toilet, for example)....So it can cause trouble to be honest. Others have said that their children are more detatched...

So think carefully through the various scenarios before you buy but don't necessarily say no. These things are part of modern life and children to need to learn about them and how to use them appropriately alongside all the other activities they need to do.

jemimapotts · 30/01/2011 20:33

COCK, I often see children playing DS's when in the past they would have read a book. Also children spend far more time than they did in the past sitting inside playing on consoles. It's wrong!

Bonsoir · 30/01/2011 20:35

No. My DD (6.2) doesn't have one and as far as I know none of her friends do.

She sometimes borrows DP's iPhone and plays a game on that, but she is only allowed to do that in the car/train and she is never offered it.

She does have an iPod nano and a Flip camera though.

OgreTripletsAreSoCute · 30/01/2011 20:38

I agree with CoonRapids about the ownership issue, we deliberately bought the Wii as a family item and not for anyone's birthday or Christmas so it is like the telly we all own it as a family.

I don't think it is wrong for DCs this age to have a DS at all, just not right for my DS at the moment, because of his addictive personality.

Francagoestohollywood · 30/01/2011 20:48

No, mine are 8.5 and 6.5 and don't have one or any other electronic games.
Ds (8.5) is the only boy in his class who doesn't have a wii or psp etc.
They can use the family computer, half an hr a day.
Ds as an ipod shuffle.

munstersmum · 30/01/2011 20:50

DS got one this year at age 6. He enjoys it & it is great for when travelling.

It has been interesting to see which games he chooses to play (all have been bought as pressies so he's had no say). His favourite is Farm Frenzy so no killing aliens there & he likes the DS Flip of The Faraway Tree which has brought his reading on in leaps & bounds

We do not have a Wii, ipod, PS, mp whatever & he's rarely allowed on the computer because I use it for work. Many of his friends have a DS but I would say more have a Wii.

Homsa · 30/01/2011 20:52

I won't be getting one for my DS, who is 7 and has ASD, as he's already so obsessed with his Wii. We've limited the time he's allowed to play on it to 30 minutes per day, and he accepts that, but then spends ages reading his Wii booklets... The only positive is that it's given him something to talk about with his classmates, so helps him fit in. However I do think the negatives outweigh the positives, and there's no way I'm letting a DS into our lives...

hormonalmum · 30/01/2011 20:55

dd1 has been asking for a DS since she was 4 as lots of her friends had them. One child we know got one for 3rd birthday!!!
I would say more than half of her friends have them.

We said that she could have either a DS or a a party for her 6th birthday. She has chosen a DS - although will be allowed 2 friends for tea on her actual birthday.

I intend to use it as an incentive tool tbh though and perhaps encourage her to practice spellings with the text bit before playing game for limited amount of time.

SpawnChorus · 30/01/2011 20:56

Someone suggested that i get DD (6) a DS and I laughed. I honestly thought she was joking I only saw one for the first time a couple of weeks ago...aren't they a bit fragile / fiddly for 6 yr olds?

I don't think any of my DD's classmates have one.

MrsGuyOfGisbourne · 30/01/2011 21:00

we thought we were being a bit premature when we got DS1 one for his 10th birthgay 3 years ago...

thumbdabwitch · 30/01/2011 21:05

I don't have a child old enough for it to be a problem yet, he's only 3; however, when we went to the Zoo in Dubbo last year, we saw a family including a boy, aged around 8, while we were at the echidna enclosure. Now, echidna are rarely seen in daytime but there they both were, out and about! Yet this boy could not, would not take his eyes off his DS, despite his grandmother's entreaties.

Of course I don't know how long he had had it, but I would have thought it might have made more sense to leave it in the car so the boy could engage with the point of being there? And his family, of course.

cat64 · 30/01/2011 21:10

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

COCKadoodledooo · 30/01/2011 21:13

Meh jemimapotts, nowt like a bit of generalisation is there?

I just don't get why it's seen as all or nothing, because that's bollocks. Certainly in this house.

taffetasplat · 30/01/2011 21:41

yes that post made me feel pretty shite, tbh.

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