video games... - Page 6

[SandraS]

Originally Posted by Theoretica

Just out of curiousity...NOT attacking or anything...I just don't understand?

There's a ton of documented research that screen time at ALL prior to around age 3 is seriously detrimental to their verbal & cognitive development. How do you reconcile that with letting an 18mos baby play vgs?

I seriously don't want you to feel attacked at my asking, so it's genuinely NOT the intent.

Because I don't believe it. My whole family grew up with televisions and Ataris. None of us have twitches.

My 15 year old grew up that way and he exceeds all of his state tests, he's on the honor roll, he plays sports and musical instruments, etc. Lotta damage done by watching Barney a few times at the age of 2, I'd say!! LOL! My 11 year old is on the same path... and so will my 4 year old and my 1 year old. No doubt about it.

I just don't buy it. I think using the TV as a babysitter 6 hours a day may cause problems, but I know watching a show or playing a video game every once in a while is HARMLESS. Period.

In my house. What you do is up to you!

[benj]

Originally Posted by mamazee

So if your kids enjoy them, they'll have a purpose? As I recall, your kids are too young for you to know if they'll like video games or not.

I suppose. An outright ban on video games is not my intention. If they enjoy them, they can enjoy them elsewhere, not in my home. Since I don't enjoy video games, this is not something that I would really encourage...but I wouldn't get upset if they did enjoy them. I'd much rather bond with my kids using different mediums. My whole point of asking the question was to see different perspectives: I was not trying to convince people of anything, and I am VERY open-minded, really.

[mamazee]

Originally Posted by benj

I suppose. An outright ban on video games is not my intention. If they enjoy them, they can enjoy them elsewhere, not in my home. Since I don't enjoy video games, this is not something that I would really encourage...but I wouldn't get upset if they did enjoy them. I'd much rather bond with my kids using different mediums. My whole point of asking the question was to see different perspectives: I was not trying to convince people of anything, and I am VERY open-minded, really.

Your home is also their home. What if they want them and have their own money somehow (like from a grandparent) to buy them? Or if they're bought a video game system as a gift and want to keep it?

[benj]

Originally Posted by mamazee

Your home is also their home. What if they want them and have their own money somehow (like from a grandparent) to buy them? Or if they're bought a video game system as a gift and want to keep it?

I doubt anyone would give it to them as a gift. But if it's their money, then sure although I would hope they'd spend their money on different things. Alas, I can't control everything. However, I'm not providing this for them.

[GuildJenn]

Originally Posted by Theoretica

Just out of curiousity...NOT attacking or anything...I just don't understand?

There's a ton of documented research that screen time at ALL prior to around age 3 is seriously detrimental to their verbal & cognitive development. How do you reconcile that with letting an 18mos baby play vgs?

I seriously don't want you to feel attacked at my asking, so it's genuinely NOT the intent.

I'm not sure the body of research really comes down to "all screen time before 3 is seriously detrimental." There are so many problems with doing studies on kids because:

1. You can't really put kids in front of the TV 12 hours a day and measure it
2. It's hard to control for all the different factors, like which parents are likely to put their kids in front of the TV
3. What the screen time is about might be really important but I don't think most studies have been able to address this.
4. Media changes pretty quickly. To get a little bit back to the original question, video games today really are quite different than Tetris (which actually is/was a pretty nifty game in some ways).

I'm not sure there have been really good studies that could prove causation. There have been some interesting correlative ones, but a lot of them have been pretty well criticized.

I know that there is a body of thought that all screen time is awful, and actually as a broadcast-free family with a limited library of DVDs, I definitely took that under advisement in our choices. However I have to say that they can pry my Signing Time and Popular Mechanics for Kids and BBC Earth DVDs out of my dead hands before I would take those out of my child's life at this point. And we did start ST at just over a year old.

Having read up on this for literally years, starting when I was teaching reading and there was some thought that TV basically knocks out higher-level thought so that kids don't learn to read fluently (not something that really panned out in a big cultural way), I'm not convinced that we really know for sure yet.

You can't feed kids pesticide-laden apples, cheese whiz, red dye and aspartame, prevent them from going outside, and stick them in front of the TV and then do a study and say it's the TV that caused them to become diagnosed ADHD - when ADHD diagnosis didn't even exist commonly 30 years ago.

It's really not like mixing DEET into the milk.

[M S E]

i totaly agree @sandara s, i am a gamer, and i allow my son to play an hour a day (on weekdays) after school work is done, and 3 hours on the weekend... only games rated E (for everyone) or lower. NO shooters or rpgs.....and BTW my son is on honor roll. SO NO,VIDEO GAMES DO NOT RUIN YOUR KIDS, VIDEOS GAMES ARE FINE IN MODERATION.
 

[cateerob]

my 18 yr ds and 15 yr dd have  been playing games since they were very young not my choice but  my ex had every game system going, i have never regulated the amount of time they play when they were pre school age they were bored after 30mins then when they were older  as long as homework and chores were done they were free to do what they wanted until bedtime, some weekends  they had a new game they would play all day, and sometimes they would not play for weeks that pattern has continued for my 18 yr ds,  my dd has lost interest few years ago  but sometimes plays her DS a long journey..i don't think it did them any harm when they were younger i would often play with them and the games they played were age appropriate. I think playing   games on a console  is alot safer for kids than browsing the Internet, and much better for them to using thier minds rather than slumped on the sofa watching cartoons/tv

Also my son had two friends who were not allowed to have games at home but their parents didn't mind them playing in my house, those boys seemed to spend most of their free time here and would be upset when my son said lets go out on our bikes as all they wanted to do was play with the wii/xbox.

All that said it is your home and your choice if you dont want them to play games in your house but good luck putting that argument to teenagers..

Edited by cateerob - 5/30/12 at 3:25pm