How Much Gameboy and Tv Time?

My son is 5 and all he wants to do is play video games or get on the computer. We finally came up with the rule that he doesn't get to play until it's dark outside, since he really doesn't have a strong sense of time. However, this does not get to happen until he's eaten dinner, put his plate in the sink, picked up his toys, and we've finished his homework (which is basically just learning games and exercises since he's only in kindergarten.) He wasn't happy with it at first, and asked all day when he could play but he has found happiness now playing with his younger brother and with the toys that are in the house instead of relying on entertainment through electronics. Hope this helps.

N. Hodgins
Helping Moms Work From Home
www.MyFamilyFirstCareer.com

I would suggest setting a reasonable amount of time...i.e. 1 hour of TV and/or computer time on the week days. Then divide that time....maybe half an hour on either right after school, then homework, dinner, and finish the evening with another half hour. Increase to 2 hours on the weekend but still divide it up so he doesn't feel deprived.

Good luck!

In our house:
No TV or video games before school unless you are completely ready for school.
No TV or video games after school until homework and chores are done.
And no TV or video games after 7 pm (they go to bed at 8).
They have learning games for their video (brainage, Math, etc) and the rule is for every 5 minutes of learning game they get 15 minutes of a game of their choice with a 1 hour max time.

30 mins a day computer/video game time
TV varies
If the want more time than that they can earn it all homework and chores must be done before any extra time is given.

For DS8

It varies quite a bit depending on what we're up to that day. On average kiddo is "plugged in" about 4 hours a day on days we're home.

It's important to note, however, that we homeschool... so kiddo isn't *gone* 8+ hours, and then plugged in the entire time he's home. Instead (on days we're home)...

He's allowed electronics time (computer, xbox, netflix, dvds) after all his chores are done in the morning until school starts - typically about 2 hours-, as well as some time during school and some time in the afternoon & evening. We don't have "set" times. We found when we did that he would struggle to "fill" that time, even if ordinarily he'd be doing or wanting to do other things. Instead, having a more flexible outline of after chores before school, and with permission / pop off when it's time to do other things just works better for us in our situation. Because while the average time when we're home is about 4 hours... when we had a limit, on days where we're not home he either wouldn't want to leave (to fill his allowed time), or he'd struggle to fill it when we got home. This way there are days with no time, days with 4 hours, and the occasional marathon.

And the 2nd thing to note is that 3-5 days a week in the winter (Nov-Apr) we get up at 5 and spend all day snowboarding and doing school on the mountain. Summer it's about the same but water sports. And on days where we are home we're physically active 4-8 hours a day.

SO FOR US: Apx 4 hours on days we're home is good balance between intellectual & physical pursuits and electronics time.

How it affects him: It's mostly positive. Kiddo is really into videogame design and filming, and both help develop that. It cracks me up as he watches a scene a gazillion times to figure out the flow or things that make a good scene/ transition into a different kind of scene. There's also the "shift gears" / relaxation aspect, as well as the "gluing his daredevil bum to a safe happy chair for an hour or two" aspect, which, in our ADHD household is a precious as gold. Conversely, on yucky days, the Kinnect helps run out the crazies when we're stuck inside due to bad weather (also gold... it's nice not to find kiddo 10 feet up in the air stovepiping the walls in the house, or doing backflips off the furniture). The interactive component on xboxLive is 50/50. On the one hand, there's great feedback/user content (kiddo can be doing photography or designing on Forge and be testing out what people like and why. On the other hand he'll get in tiffs about jerks (rare). The *educational* aspect of electronics (tv, internet, gaming) is something that is *off the charts amaaaaazing*. Far, far too much to go into detail here (from edu software, to live uplinks to archeological digs, to virtual museum tours, to gutenberg & TED... the list is hundreds of reasons long... so I have to stop).

If there's any negative (from time to time) he gets banned for awhile. Which is a useful parenting tool... so even the negative ends up a positive.

no games during the week. on the weekends we let the kids play in the morning so we can sleep in. they do need to eat breakfast and have morning chores finished before playing. yes we have a specific time that they have to stop playing. sometimes however if we have other chores to do where it could help them stay occupied, we may allow them to have some extra time. we do take game time away for family times, and for any behavioral problems at school. this also includes computer use in general. unless it's homework, it has to be done during the weekend time slot.
good luck, its a hard issue

A. My 7 yr old gets himself up early (7am) and makes himself cereal and gets in the shower, brushes his teeth (in the shower, this is a good trick to get them to remember to do it ;) and gets dressed, then he either plays XBOX or watches cartoons till he has to catch the bus at 8:34a most days, 9:04a on 'late start' day.

When he gets home he does homework, snack, goofs around some, then usually gets anywhere from an hour to and hour and half in front of a screen of his choosing (TV,XBOX,Computer,Wii,Nintendo 64, DS).

B. Our weekend schedule is very lax but is basically the same as summer time, 'electronics' before breakfast and after dinner....although we do allow in between play during the weekends the lil' guys usually don't get much screen time because we have 4 teenagers who tend to take over the electronics!

'Going over' time has yet to effect any of my kids thus far...we try to keep screen time to a moderate amount but we truly do not stress on it, never have, never will. Everything in moderation, right?

*** I only truly 'limit' screen time during the summer! Summertime they have to be doing something, preferably outside, (don't feel sorry for them, we have a pool, a playhouse, bikes, a basketball hoop, they can find something to do :) for most of the daylight hours, so we have a rule about electronics of ALL kinds only being allowed before breakfast and after dinner!

She has a TV in her room and has a computer, not hooked up to the internet in her room too. She plays in there for hours at a time and can do whatever. She hardly sits and watches TV though. She's rather be playing toys.