Thread: how long are your children allowed to play on DSi?

MT spends forever on it, or he would do if we didn't stop him!
It seems to be his first choice, everytime, and only when I say its time to come off, will he even consider anything else
And then, he wants to go on my phone or club penguin or something

I don't think its a good idea for him to have too long on it, I prefer him to play, or read, do a jigsaw
So if we are going somewhere, I have stopped him taking it, he just switches off when he has it
And I hate seeing kids playing on them in restaurants

Weekends only. And actually they usually only play for an hour or so before they get bored and move on!

short bursts, 45 mins max. they would live on them tho if we let them.

DS is not really interested in it. But I do think putting time restrictions, non negotiable, in place, right from the start, is a good idea.

Ours only read, practise their Latin and play the harpsichord.

No lacrosse or water polo? What sort of parents are you?

I have found that in general if allowed unrestricted access DS2 will play on it all day, but the next day he will be back to lego or something else. I don't know whether prescribing set time limits makes it a sort of forbidden promised land. Actually the lego almost bothers me more - there is a permanent sea of it in the living room and both boys are obsessed. It's just one of those parenting quandraries isn't it, whether to let them make their own fun or organise wholesome activities instead.

I can remember when I was their age we had a little computer game we called the "splat machine". It had little stick figures jumping out of a burning building and you had to ferry them across to the ambulance with two firemen holding a trampoline thingy. We used to play for HOURS on it. I don't remember my parents ever saying "come on, stop playing with that thing" Maybe they just hid it...

Ok, seriously, only weekends here and then only when it suits us. They can do what they like from 7am to when we get up
(normally 9) on a sat & sun. They usually play the wii or watch telly. We're usually too busy with other stuff for them to bother with it the rest of the time - esp. in summer.

Ours are like Jen's. We don't impose a time limit but they are generally good at not playing it all day/night. Infact DS2 hasn't played his at all over the Easter holidays. Neither has DD1 for that matter but that's because she lost her stylus & refused to look for it so DH confiscated her DS until she decided to look (which took until yesterday and her totally trashing her room in a temper!).

We do have a rule of no console/pc games before 10am or an hour before bedtime though.

No time limit imposed here as they don't tend to spend very long on them, sometimes weeks without playing on them, they mainly use them on holiday in the caravan. How long has he has one Tilly? Could it be a novelty? IME when my DS or DD have become 'addicted' to something that I am not happy about, then I give them a daily time limit, then that seems to ween them off!