Screen Time - 8 year old

[mummy1202]

Hi everyone,

My 8 year old son is very much in his Minecraft era. He got a switch for his 8th birthday and is so consumed by it and asks for it constantly, alongside watching Minecraft videos on YouTube.
At the moment, I let him play for 45 mins ish a day, but he very much uses it as a reward - if I do this, can I play my switch?

I don’t know whether I’m being too strict and should just give him free reign, but I’m so aware of not letting him be completely consumed by it all the time and lose interest in other activities? 😭 He has a wee brother as well, and I find that he is now asking all the time as well because he sees him on it.

Wondering what other people do?
I feel like he asks for it the second he wakes up, until the second he goes to bed!!

Im new to the whole gaming thing, loads of his friends play Fortnite together etc too and can play anytime, so just wondering if my strict limits are making him want it more?!

Thank you in advance x

Put some rules in place. You can have the switch for X amount of time after dinner weekdays. After lunch weekends. Stick to them! Its hard to come back from.

I have a DS8 too :)
We do no screens at all in the week unless an exception happens (sick parent, someone working away or out for the evening unexpectedly).
He then get 1.5hours of screen time to do with as he wishes a day at the weekend. We do have some extra screen time in the holidays but we set those limits out depending on how his term has been and other plans.
He also asked for it constantly but knows the rules now we are 2 years on from the Switch present (from his grandparents not us!!!) He just askes as he says 'one day you might say yes'.

One rule we have is no games connected to others. No chats enabled on fortnight. Not allowed to add friends etc. This is a hard line for us until he is alot older and we don't really care what others do.
He can do the switch sharing thing in the room as the person. You can connect two switches to the same game in the room apparently.

You don’t say how old his little brother is but there was new guidance recently released about screen time and children under 5 that may be relevant.

I think it might be worth looking into why children enjoy gaming - look up dopamine and how it effects people when they game. I think that as long as children aren’t addicted to it (ie can come away from it and do other activities without an argument or worse) then as they age time can be increased but it needs to be a balance.

Children at age 8 playing unrestricted on Fortnite isn’t great IMO - at that age children need to spend time out and about doing things for their physical and mental health.

Hello, I’m going to declare myself as a Failing Parent of a 7.5 year old DS!

We also have a switch - DS has a MarioKarts, a very old game of Lego Star Wars (fabulous) and a very old Harry Potter game. He can put the Switch down but he is totally utterly addicted to Minecraft on the tablet.

It’s a big problem because dh and I are not on the same page - dh says it’s no worse than TV.

I have banned Roblox in my house (older dd got addicted) and I only let ds play Minecraft in creative mode. He absolutely loves watching Minecraft videos on YouTube too. I keep an eye on this as it’s mostly rubbish.

My ds watches FAR too much YouTube and plays FAR too much Minecraft - to my shame. He has a mountain of Lego and often “watches YouTube whilst playing Legos. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

I try to balance the non screen time, but I’m sure everyone else has stricter limits than we do. I reckon in total he has 3 hours of screens most days on average, mainly after school.

We insist on:

• 20 mins of reading every day and a library visit once a week
• TT Rockstars and Spelling practice 5 times a week (about ten mins of each)
• No devices at the dinner table
• for every 15 minutes of “rubbish” on YouTube he has to watch 5 mins of something sensible eg programme about dinosaurs or space or how cars are made or listening to classical music (he actually really likes classical music). In reality I don’t police this but I say “you’re watching too much nonsense. Let me pick something else, or you can give the device to me and you can play with your toys, your choice.”

DS also does 5 hours of sports activities per week, plus drama, plus he spends a lot of time in the garden (he mowed the lawns for us at the weekend under dh supervision!), cycling recreationally and having play dates, playing chess, practising piano.

He loses his devices for bad behaviour at home or at school, bad language etc. I do let him have his games as a quid pro quo for being a good boy - I make it clear that devices are a privilege he loses if he isn’t toeing the line.

I do tell him off for “multi tasking” - he is not allowed to play games on switch whilst listening to YouTube! No way. He has a playlist of songs and music he can access but NOT allowed to be watching and playing.

I definitely think it has harmed his language development, his concentration, his attitude, having too much screen time.

I wish my dh never got him these “toys” but it’s too late and my dh is happy for ds to use them. I am sad about it.

I agree with pp about No Chat. Just prohibit it. If they can’t chat they are less likely to want to be online too!

I have prohibited Roblox and Fortnite too. And the violent side of Minecraft. I don’t care if it singles out my boy. They allow too much mindless violence and are highly addictive and had an awful affect on dd and her peers during Lockdown.

There are some nice puzzle games you can get - my ds likes games where you fit blocks in, like Tetris; or chess or solitaire or mahjong or whatever