175
votes
Accepted
My child wants GTA V for his birthday
You say that you don't want him to play it -- that's your answer, you should not buy it for him. Parents set the rules.
Explaining why you aren't buying it can help him accept this decision more ...
- 22.6k
172
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
When I was around your son's age, my mother was worried I was playing too many video games. Her strategy was to get me involved in other after-school activities, like theater, which I ended up loving....
- 6,223
112
votes
Accepted
Is it bad being a "bad influence" for my younger cousin?
I lived in a family which was fairly restrictive. They were quite religious, we always ate healthy, never any junk food, all our activities were vetted and scrutinized. It was also emotionally ...
- 9,007
111
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
He's a 10 year old boy. He's going to display addicting behavior. I and my friends at that age had a shoebox full of baseball cards, and all we talked about was the big league baseball team for our ...
- 1,139
69
votes
Accepted
How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?
This is anecdotal but...
Throughout highschool my life was: wake-up, go to school, come home, game, go to bed, repeat. As I developed other hobbies, I did those instead of gaming. As money to buy ...
- 2,130
59
votes
My child wants GTA V for his birthday
In addition to the pretty good answers already provided, I'd like to point out that GTA 5 is not in any way suitable for a 10 year old.
There is one specific mission that gives a very good example why ...
- 690
46
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
Jeez...
Well, 10 years old may be old enough to explain the monster of capitalism and the design of everything around as a scam to nickel and dime you into a life of scraping by just to make someone ...
- 4,602
42
votes
Accepted
How can I handle kids telling me extremely boring stuff?
To some degree, kids need you to act interested when you aren't; you can't fully avoid their 'boring' talk without it leaving them feeling unheard or unappreciated. There have already been two great ...
- 4,265
39
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
Although my previous answer is highly rated, the recent edits to the question have changed it dramatically, so this new answer is targeted to the edited question.
Given the smallness of your ...
- 6,223
35
votes
How can I handle kids telling me extremely boring stuff?
You don't have to be interested in the subject. Nobody is interested in everything in a conversation. But if you back up a level and think about teaching your kids how to interact with people, that ...
- 1,992
31
votes
How can I handle kids telling me extremely boring stuff?
First: show an interest, but do it authentically, when you can. Listen to their conversation about Minecraft, and listen well enough that you can ask intelligent questions. This is a useful skill ...
- 63.5k
30
votes
How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?
Are you looking at an addiction, or at a symptom, or just a hobby?
--- EDIT ---
In 2018, after this post was made, ICD-11 was published with "6C51 Gaming Disorder" as a diagnosis. And — yes —...
- 529
26
votes
My child wants GTA V for his birthday
I guess it boils down to whether you think your son can cope with the content, i.e. can distinguish between the fiction and reality and process the displayed emotions and actions, or not. In my ...
- 397
25
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
Up front, I'm not a parent, so take my parenting advice with a good handful of salt.
I'm a software developer, I've worked on games very much like Clash of Clans for a number of years and can safely ...
- 457
24
votes
How can I handle kids telling me extremely boring stuff?
This might help you. Or not, but it doesn't hurt to try:
See if you can change your mindset.
You don't have to listen to your kids talk about their current favourite thing. You get to listen to them ...
- 341
22
votes
My child wants GTA V for his birthday
Wrong expectations lead to disappointment. Let him know in advance that GTA is not what he's getting for his birthday and ask him what he wants instead.
You and others who raise the kid (partner, ...
- 2,899
20
votes
Should I play Minecraft with my kids?
Yes, you absolutely should
Your boys are trying to share something valuable and important with you. I doubt you'd be this worried about it if it wasn't digital - what would you do if they wanted to ...
- 331
19
votes
Separated parents. As a dad, how do I exercise tough love without being the bad guy?
I am going to comment and answer each paragraph.
(Keeping it civil and not fighting in front of your son is absolutely the way to handle it. You aren't 'fooling' your son, but you are modelling how ...
- 17.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Is it ok to play a computer game with a 3yo
The primary reason "screen time" is considered bad for children is that, even when somewhat interactive as games are, it does not stimulate their brain as much as other things do. Kids need all sorts ...
- 63.5k
17
votes
5yr old Addicted to Mobile Devices - Need Advice!
I completely agree with you about it being the challenge for this generation.
In my classroom I used to have to teach low-functioning children how to do tasks and to increase their attention span. I ...
- 17.4k
17
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
There's so much going on here, I don't know where to start.
How is an 10 year old able to spend money online at all? This is one problem. There's no way he should be able to do this without you ...
- 6,270
16
votes
Is it bad being a "bad influence" for my younger cousin?
From my perspective as a mother, the only thing I cringed at was the unlimited junk food part, largely because I have family that sees my (6 year old son) fairly frequently, and their "we're supposed ...
- 2,767
14
votes
Accepted
How to convince my wife that some digital gaming is beneficial
I am a gamer. A rather heavy gamer. So is my husband. Our goal for our future children is to avoid any and all screen time for as long as possible. There are absolutely some negatives to small ...
- 2,130
14
votes
How to deal with excluding my son from the favourite activity of his peers?
I think the key here is to understand what you're trying to accomplish, in the short term and in the long term.
In the short term, you're trying to avoid harm to your son. You'd like to ensure his ...
- 63.5k
13
votes
Accepted
How can I get involved in the parenting of my girlfriend's sister's 5-year-old who spends too much time on screens etc.?
You are too involved. She is not your child, the mother is not your sister, you aren’t an experienced parent yourself - you have no authority or bearing here. It’s excruciating to watch someone parent ...
- 664
13
votes
How can I handle kids telling me extremely boring stuff?
I had the same issue: Even though I have played Minecraft myself and actually introduced my then 6-year-old to it, I wasn't that interested in the intricate details of his farming mechanisms 5 years ...
- 2,037
12
votes
My child wants GTA V for his birthday
I'm going to play the devil's advocate here as most of the answers are very similar. By age 10, barring a severe development disability, a child knows what is and isn't real (https://news.utexas.edu/...
- 998
12
votes
Accepted
How can I curb my (and my older brother's) game addiction?
Bracing for the downvotes, so here goes:
Successful games of any sort (video or otherwise) are either explicitly or effectively engineered to produce addictive behavior, and you are being manipulated ...
- 236
11
votes
How to handle my little brother's addiction to videogames?
Don't worry about the Minecraft playing.
"'Marc', since he discovered YouTube and gaming, is a huge fan of Minecraft and spends way too much time on it, at the point where it's getting obvious that ...
- 507
10
votes
Making reading books the only option on long car commutes a bad idea?
You are trying to give your son 2 boring options and hope that the boring option which requires more effort to be bored will win out. Honestly, I don't see that happening. If you want to instill a ...
- 13.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible