DS gaming issues

[Teambluemuma13]

So my 10 yo DS is the kindest sweetest little boy you will ever meet... however, he's gotten into a habit of sneaking his xbox, switch and ipad on in he early hours of the night.... I want to build trust with him and him to be able to resist temptation but unsure on how we can do this.
He's been on an electronic ban for a month due to using his switch in the early hours, me confiscating it, him sneaking it back out my room and doing it again. He's had his electronics back 1 day.... 1. Stinking. Day.... and he's done it again.
We can always tell when he's done it as he's tired, ratty and sullen looking the next day so he never gets away with it.

I'm stuck as what to do... do I continue to ban him and him be gluttonous when he gets it back, rinse and repeat... I'm stuck...

Remove them completely.

Are you using the parental controls on the devices? Usually there's a way to set them so they will just display a "Good Night" message and be otherwise inoperable between specified times, such as bedtime and morning.

I would take them and put them away each night, I mentioend doing this with my child if they were caught doing, when they first got devices, but the notification sound annoyed them on their Ipad so they put it in the kitchen each night and that was it

Now they just do it out of habit

The onus is on you I'm afraid to check his room every night. He won't be able to be trusted until he has got past the addiction.

At that age, what worked with my son was to remove the controllers or the charger (put them somewhere he couldn't find or reach), but leave the gaming console itself where it was (so he had a visual reminder) Also I wouldn't give chance after chance or entertain negotiations either... id give one warning, and then after that the controllers would be gone. Sounds harsh I know, but I got sick of the sound of my own voice, and just found that in that particular situation...quicker consequences worked better. Now at age 13 he is more mature so I'm able to just say that he cannot stay on it late as he needs his sleep/energy for school etc and I rarely get any backlash... but I believe being older now he can rationalise that the consequences of not playing it at all is not what he would want.

He’s 10! You need to be the parent.