Hey, I might be in the wrong here because I am not a parent and won’t have kids.
My nephew turned 6 and I wanted to buy him the new switch whenever it comes out. Brother told me he doesn’t want that and thinks it’s too dangerous and overall screen time is very bad for children. I understand what he means but can’t that be regulated with lets say 1-2 hours per day limits?
What I also don’t understand and this is a personal arguement between my brother and me is following: When I turned 5 years old in 1996 my father bought us a N64 and we were playing golden eye, donkey kong etc. on splitscreen all day and night and had a blast. All our friends were at our place and most people had a N64 or Sega or whatever console.
And yes we went outside and had fun and were creative. We copied a few games like golden eye with our water guns or other games like Super Mario 64. At home when our parents went to bed we sneaked out of our beds to the living room and started playing golden eye and other games all night long.
But I understand him and respect him, I won’t buy it and I will save my money. I just don’t understand why most parents nowadays are so extreme. I am 100% on limiting time and nowdays it’s got to be easier than back then to just set a 1-2 hour limit on consoles. I am no friend of buying phones for kids at age 3 or 4 or sitting them in front of a screen so they are quiet. I understand all that. But I don’t understand all the harsh choices most people make with being strikt and going complete against stuff.
If I had a kid I think I’d give it a Nintendo to because I think it can be good for fine motor skills and in the future we will be in front of screens even more than now. It’s not great and not ideal but it is what it is and I think kids should learn early how to use consoles, phones, etc. in a positive way (limited time, under supervision)
As of now my nephew never touched a phone. This isn’t anything bad but compared to his class mates I think this is weird. Imagine when he is in school and his friends tell him to scroll and he has no idea how to even scroll? Isn’t that weird?
I don’t know what they are doing with my nephew it’s hilarious cause he can’t even hold scissors and he is 6 years old. If he can’t use screens, phones etc. I was expecting atleast him to be able to cut a straight line??
I don’t think there is much of an argument to be had on whether or not he is “too young” for video games or whether or not his parents “should” or “shouldn’t” let him have a video game system.
The fact in all of this is that he isn’t your kid and people have the right to raise their kids the way they want to. Unless they are abusing him, there’s nothing you can do and nothing you should do about it.
I am also childless. At the moment I have a young niece and I have friends with children. All of these people parent kids in different ways and have different small requests about the ways I might interact with their children. Some of them don’t want the kids to play around with a phone, but will let the kids play video games. With others, they let the kids fuck around with the camera feature of a phone. With some, they don’t want me to say certain kinds of negative words like swear words in front of the kids, whereas with others, the parents will swear like sailors in front of the kids. With some, they have specific nap times that if we want to hang out, we have to schedule the hangouts around. With others, they just do whatever and let the kids fall asleep whenever.
It’s your job to just be respectful with what these parents want and interact with your nephew within these parameters. You can still be a good uncle and still have fun with your nephew without causing a strain in you and your brother’s relationship.
It’s not your own child so this debate is pointless.
I like the idea someone brought up of seeing if they would allow the kid to play video games at your place when he comes to visit you. That way he wouldn’t be owning any of the games himself but he could still potentially get to play stuff if they were ok with it.