This is why I dont want DS to grow up...EVER

[FrayedKnot]

A friend told me the otehr day that she bought her DS a playstation for Christmas (he's 13) not because he wanted it, but because his friends won;t come round to play at his house because he doesn;t have one.

She said he has never played with it since he has had it apart from when his mates come round.

Please tell me life for a 13 year old isn;t always like that

I don't think it was like that when we were kids, not really, was it?

I can remember liking going to my friends house because they had a coloured telly, when we still had black & white, but I wouldn;t not have gone to a friend because they didn;t have one.

It wasn´t like that when I was young. This is such a shocking and sad situation.

i agree - very :( state of affairs

it's a toughie, but i think if my son came home with news like that i'd have said 'find some new friends' rather than bought him the playstation.

it's hard for kids to be different and stand out, but the ones that learn to nearly always grow up to be stronger for it. (i'm a teacher so have known a LOT of kids in my time!)

fn yes it is
but is becoming a fact of life now that peer pressure is just getting out of hand basically

I witness kids on our estate that arent played with and called stegs because they dont have a pc of their own with internet access and for not wearing the latest top branded sports gear eg lacost, adidas and nike
reebok is old hat round these ways now.

sad but parents like myself are just upping the stakes all the time iykwim

I'm a bloke who was born in 1972 and I think it was bit like that when I grew up. I remember buying Adidas trainers just because they were trendy and I didn't want to be teased even though I personally couldn't give a stuff about what I wore, and I remember going to a couple of kids houses just because they had a lot of Commodore 64 games that I wanted to play.

Hmmn, I guess I was a shallow little s**t.

No it's not always like that.

There are lots of parents out there who think it's important not to give in to peer group pressure and who want our children to understand that fitting in with everyone else is much, much harder than being true to yourself.

We are generally considered wierdos by the other schoolgate mums, but do we care? Do we bollocks!

Hi FK (it's me btw) Yes that's very sad. What's even sadder is that we already have one for dh!

I've stopped letting ds play on the playstation when he has friends round as I think it's antisocial. He's only 5 though.

i keep telling my 13 year old that any minute now it will be cool to not have a mobile...he is the only one in his class

Ateacher did ask the class last year to put up their hands if they did NOT have one ....three boys did and he said ' there you go - the bright ones'

My daughter is worse - succumbs to peer pressure!

Hi PY! I had spotted your name change and seen you in passing.

Caligula how old our yuor children? Do you see it affecting their relationships with other kids?

FrayedKnot - at the moment only nearly 7 and 4, so I know I'm at the easy stage and it will gradually get more and more hellish.