SNES & pen knife as presents for an 8 year old boy.

[Catladyagain]

My son is turning 8. We have promised to bring a games console into the house but I have said no to the new generation because of Online dangers and mainly because of the way modern gaming is now designed to be extremely addictive. He tried Roblox and the meltdowns were unreal. Hubs is broadly on side but feels son will be very disappointed by the appearance of the wires / clearly older piece of kit. Admittedly I've tried to sell in the benefits of 2nd hand / pre-loved & failed after several clothes items and toys broke or looked rough - so this could be an underlying issue.

Has anyone successfully given their child a SNES when they've played Switch at friends?

Also has anyone given their 8 year old a pen knife? I'm super keen to do this too. Hubs is terrified of the idea and thinks its very dangerous. We have a very cautious child who has wittled at forest school & has great dexterity from lego play, so with some initial set up and supervision I am totally unconcerned. Thanks!

Another vote for switch with no online access.

Both my children got their first knives at 7, when they became Scouts. Not pen knives but puukkos, traditional Finnish belt knife, the official Scout one. They are kept in a cupboard though and only used at appropriate times (mostly on Scout camps but sometimes for whittling sticks in the garden). I got a penknife around that age though that I bought myself on holiday and always kept it with me. I got DD one when she was 10 which she keeps attached to her keys so I suppose she does technically take it to school but we're not in the UK.

Unless your kid is in the scouts or something, they absolutely do not need a knife of any kind.

You can buy a system that’s preloaded with older games, I have one for nostalgias sake. But i would not buy a knife and I’d opt for a switch myself or delay getting a system

I love how Finnish schools do wood and metal work, using proper tools and making proper things. My oldest made all kinds of things over the years in school, like model ships and periscopes in primary school and a chair, functioning clock, and a chest of drawers in upper school. They teach them well how to safely use tools when young so they can be trusted to get on with it with minimal supervision when older.

I got my daughter a wood carving set at 9, it came with chainmail gloves and she’s only allowed to use it with supervision. I also held out on the switch til 10 but agree with pps that nothing happens online.

I meant to add that DD has asked for a penknife as a friend who is a bit younger has one. I wasn’t that comfortable, so haven’t, although I would allow her to use one with supervision in certain situations like camping.

A pen knife for a child is a massive no. Push back on the games console too, as will just end up with an addicted, angry child.

I do remember a million years ago, ( early 70s) we used to go in to the local Post Office that sold a bit of everything, and buy pen knives. I must have been about 6 and my sister 11. I had a small penknife, about 2 inches long with a mother of pearl handle and a folding blade at either end. But nobody was a psycho who thought about stabbing anyone. They weren't very sharp, but were definitely real knives.

Wtf 😂 do you live on a rough London estate? We live rurally and knives are just another tool. Kids go to scouts and cadets, with sensible teaching, it is really just another tool.

Gaming addiction on the other hand... Absolutely. But I think the SNES is a much better approach.

I wouldn’t buy the old console. I’d rather have none. A pen knife is fine is used under supervision.
Either buy him a decent console or none at all as half of the enjoyment is socialising with friends.
You could buy the new one but restrict online access to school friends.

We have all the consoles, the kids have their own ipads with unlimited time, and I gave both my kids penknives around that age when we went camping.

No trouble from any of the gifts, they put the ipads/games down when asked (I give a 10 minute warning as some games you need to get to a save point). They aren't allowed to talk to strangers online, and they know that if anyone they do talk to (eg. school friends) is rude or mean then they should step away (and it has happened, and they've spoken to me about it)

I think you would be better off getting the switch, and talking him through internet safety and going through the pain of enforcing 'when I say stop playing, it's time to stop playing' - just like you would at bed-times or when it's time to put your shoes on, or any of the other things kids need to do each day without fuss.

Having said that - if you're dead set on something retro, personally I think SNES is a good choice - streetfighter, super mario brothers - solid games - I spent a lot of time when babysitting for the family down the road playing those (we didn't have a console at home)

It is called Nintendo Classics - my husband downloaded it from the Nintendo switch online website

I had a penknife at around that age, definitely a great present as long as he's supervised while using it.

And I'd go for a Switch rather than a SNES. There are plenty of good single player games that don't have the addictive qualities that Roblox or a lot of online games have

Yes to the knife, no to the console. Do you live somewhere he can easily be outside in nature with the knife? If he's used one before and is generally a sensible child there's no problem

Is the pen knife so that he can cut the wires on the antique console?

I wouldn't buy him a SNES - they're so old that they're collectors items now, the games will probably be expensive/going up in value. The graphics/gameplay will feel prehistoric next to modern stuff. And it won't connect directly to most modern TVs, you'd need an adapter.

If you want to go retro a Wii or Wii u would be a better option I think. But realistically it sounds like a Switch is what he really wants.

Just remembered something- cords on old consoles like SNES are very short because TVs were much smaller and at eye level rather than mounted on walls so people sat closer to the tv to play. Depending on the size of your room it could be very uncomfortable looking up to play.

Absolutely agree re older games. I remember, how ever many decades ago it was now, playing Sonic The Hedgehog on two different consoles (Sega mega drive and something else), and dear lord, it kept me up all night. They didn’t have “saves” at that point so if you died you died. I got so obsessed with it, not wanting a game to get the better of me (I know! 😂) I’d stay awake playing all night until I finally managed to play the whole game through, right to the final level, in one go and “won”! That wasn’t normal for me as I’m not much of a game player at all really, but there’s no doubt that was addictive in a way.

And don’t get me started on Tetris! Could be played on so many platforms, in so many forms, and I would spend hours playing at a time. I had to stop eventually when I started dreaming in blocks and when I was out anywhere id see patterns in things all over the place! It’s done me well for packing/stacking stuff now tho as I can make pretty much anything stack to fit in any space. God, even the dishwasher to a point! I just love making all spaces as efficiently packed now 😄 but I do not want to go back to playing games much! I avoid Tetris at all costs now, because I never want to get so obsessed again!

I was given a switch last year, with a game with characters I love, and I am far more sensible with that, don’t use it that often. But I’m playing the game locally, on the switch, I’m assuming it does connect to my WiFi but I haven’t used it to play online, so surely you could get a switch and not use the WiFi and he can just play games on it without needing to be online at all?

Just to add, I’m not sure if it’s much of a thing anymore, but years ago I used local freecycle groups - you need to offer up something before you could get offered something. We used it a lot to collect lots of different old consoles for free. This was when my dc was maybe late primary onwards (I’m actually not quite sure!), but we managed to get most of the old consoles at the time, back to the first Nintendo and even consoles before that. It was a fun thing to do and my child loved collecting and playing them. Some of the bundles of consoles and games that people gave away for free was amazing! I’ve never used fb marketplace (for example), or even any of the free groups, as I don’t generally use fb, but might be worth looking on there. You could do, as we did, make it into a hobby of collecting old consoles, especially if you’re thinking of a snes as a starter present?

A switch is much safer and better than an Xbox
as for a pen knife does he go to cubs? then yes as they teach them responsible handling and can he be trusted not to show off to his friends and not take it to school or out of the house

I gave my son a set of whittling knives, and a Swiss army knife, at 8-9, and a Playstation at 12.

He is now 16, and has an axe and a wire thingy for cutting through branches.
They've mostly been used for den building.

I see them as tools. I also gave him a tool box with a hammer, screwdrivers and various screws, nails etc.
He used to spend his pocket money on rolls of tape and rope!

He built all his own flat pack furniture, as well as the shelf units in the living room.

We do live rurally, though, if that's significant.

@Catladyagain
Just to add, I’m not sure if it’s much of a thing anymore, but years ago I used local freecycle groups - you needed to offer up something before you could get offered something. We used it a lot for household items etc, and also to collect many different old games consoles for free. This was when my dc was maybe late primary onwards (I’m actually not quite sure!), but we managed to get most of the old consoles at the time, back to the first Nintendo and even consoles before that (eg including zx spectrum and a Sinclair). It was a fun thing to do and my child loved collecting and playing them. Some of the bundles of consoles and games that people gave away for free was amazing! I’ve never used fb marketplace (for example), or even any of the free groups, as I don’t generally use fb, but might be worth looking on there. You could do, as we did, make it into a hobby of collecting old consoles, especially if you’re thinking of a snes as a starter present?

They did also have new consoles too, which did also involve playing online for certain parts but could also be used offline. I think at first the PlayStations etc stayed downstairs until they were appropriately mature and had never shown anything but full honesty (plus were connected by Ethernet/LAN, so needed to be near router, until they were old enough to be able to set that all up for themselves, upstairs) . Just as with their phone/social media rules at the time, and for their first, personal PC that they had in their room ; they knew that I could check any one of them at any time, and obviously I kept a close eye on what they were doing online, and they had no problem with that at all. It’s what we’d done from day dot, while not obsessively reading/watching every single thing. But they were genuinely trustworthy due to knowing we could see it if we wanted to. Obviously the further along the teenage years their privacy increased. Kids do need supervision if they’re given the opportunity to be online, and I think it’s quite normal for them to have it, but agree that maybe via gaming consoles when they’re still young isn’t really the way to do it. I see an old console as something fun at that age, but also a switch could be used offline too.

A Switch is a great family piece of kit and doesn't need to have anything to do with going online. Computer games have been addictive since their invention. A Switch can be great to take on holiday and play family games, who doesn't love a Mario Kart tournament!!

The SNES is brilliant but it’s one of the most expensive consoles to collect for.

Yes, my Dc had pen knives at 8, Opinel do ones with a rounded tip, aimed at kids. And the collar design stops it folding over on to their fingers

They only had / used their knives out camping or camping type situations, became excellent whittles of marshmallow toasting sticks, and then ‘pioneer skills’ learned at cubs and scouts.

They could also lay and safely light a successful campfire at 8,

No idea about consoles. They weren’t much into gaming. Possibly because of lots of the above and similar activities.

London kids, too.

They very much understood the difference between knife as a tool used safely, and weapon.

None of them (gang of camping friends) had accidents

I found a guideline for children's first knives in Finnish. It suggests rounded tips for 6-8cm long blades for under school age children (under 7s) and for over 7s it suggests 8-10cm blades and says while you can consider a rounded tip for a child who hasn't had a knife before, most school age children can handle knives with a sharp tip. Quite a cultural difference!