Hellobee Boards

My DD is 6.5, we have a Nintendo Switch and a ps5 in our house. DD has no idea the switch can be a handheld device - we treat it like a console. For the switch we have Mario racing, Mario party, and a random game that has assorted carnival games. We typically play as a family or at least one of us with DD. And then there is one random game, Astro's playroom, that she plays on the ps5. It's a one player game but one of us is with her when she plays it.

She goes through phases of wanting to play instead of watching something or using her kindle. And then won't play them for weeks. I don't think she is old enough for more advanced video games and wouldn't be okay with her playing them yet. I know some kids, mostly boys, that she spends time with play some of the older games. She says they talk about them but it hasn't impacted anything. Not sure if this is a girl vs. boy thing (horrible stereotype, I know...)

All that said, DH is a huge gamer so I expect DD to be curious as she gets older. But even DH agrees that we need to be deliberate about what games she plays at what ages.

My son turned 7 in March. He loves minecraft and some other random games. It’s an option during screen time. It’s not a battle or anything and it gets taken away if he’s having behaviour issues.

All we have at home is an old Wii that barely gets hooked up (bowling/boxing/softball), and a vintage Nintendo console for Mario or Donkey Kong games. DS (6-1/2) was interested until the newness wore off.

He DOES talk about minecraft all the time though. He goes to a friends house on Wednesday's and I think watches him play. And he gets Pokemon trading cards from his friends at school too.

I'm not sure if or when we'll commit to a more expensive game system. I'm leaning towards not getting one but we'll see.

My daughter is 8 and we're in a similar situation, with "things that other kids do" in general. She has zero interest in games (though all her classmates talk about Roblox and Minecraft nonstop), she doesn't play team sports (nearly every kid here seems to be in at least one), she doesn't watch YouTube or any mainstream TV/movies (PBS Kids continues to reign supreme for her). I worry a lot that she's going to end up getting excluded because she's not into the same things that others are, but I also try to use it as an opportunity to reinforce to her how important it is to do the things she loves rather than conforming to other people's interests. If she were to express interest in something, I wouldn't have any issue giving her some exposure to it, but I wouldn't push her to do something if she's not interested.

My kiddo has had a few times where she had the same experience as your son with being excluded, and I try to tell her that sometimes kids will want to play in ways that aren't going to be interesting to her. Her options are to either join them anyway and roll with it or to find another way to play. If the boys are actively excluding him altogether, might he be able to ask them if there's a way he can play even though he doesn't know the characters? Could someone explain a role to him or create a new one for him to have? That's worked for my daughter in the past and kids typically (unless they're being jerks) find ways to be imaginative enough to play.

My kids are 5 and 7, and we have a Switch. My 5 year old isn't really into it, the 7 year old goes through phases where he wants it all the time and then he loses interest. We only have the more family-friendly games - MarioKart, Mario Party, Olympics, etc. He does sometimes talk about things like Minecraft but has never really expressed interest in playing.

He had a playdate pre-COVID where he came home talking about having played Minecraft and some zombie shooting game, and I was super unimpressed (he was barely 6!!!) - "luckily" it didn't become an issue because COVID hit and then he changed schools and lost touch with that friend.

Can you talk to the camp, though, about making sure kids aren't being excluded? That feels like a problem to me.

My oldest is 8. He plays in afterschool and on a friend's device (rarely) but so far I've kept it out of the house. Maybe we're really bad at time management, but there's no time for games most days, anyhow.

I don't think he feels that left out. There's a lot of other hobbies his friends share - sports, mostly.

My boys (8.5 and 6) have the Switch and play a few games on there (definitely Minecraft) and are also obsessed with Roblox. And are even more obsessed with watching YouTube videos were people play Minecraft and Roblox. It's annoying.