Question
Our boys are 8.5 and 6. They have 2 older cousins that are nearly 16 and another cousin who is 8. We do not allow video games in our home. We had the Sport Wii and Mario over a year ago, but their behaviour was terrible with it, so it went away for the past year.
99% of their peers (andtheir 3 cousins they see)have games of various sorts and they play some games when with my nieces. The issue we are having is that the 8.5 year old really wants a video game, but not a Leapster (which is aged for 3-9), but more strategy games. He saw a Kurio tablet that someone had and now is saving the $100 for one. We told him we have to research it and are not sure we will allow him to purchase it-even if he does save the $100. On the flip side, we want to let him know that we are proud of him making a goal of saving $100 and attaining it (if in fact, he does). If we do allow the purchase, the item would stay in our living room and would be limited to how much time could be spent on it.
We want to strike balance with this. We are always telling them both 'no' to any video games it seems and they are always asking for some.
We do many card/board games. Lots of outside stuff, etc. The watch minimal TV.
We are looking for some direction of how to handle the video game dilemma. I know that John stated in an article or book that his kids did not have video games. I played them as a young person and it was not an issue, but we did not have them in our home until we were in high school.
My husband and I do not have a smartphone, Ipad, etc. We are not very into technology things-we have tracphones and 1 desktop.
Thoughts?
