Xbox or PS4 for 7 year old?

I think maybe you posted this in the wrong section.... this might be more of a "chit chat fun and games" topic.... I didn't see any inquiry about fitness and exercise at all...

cause sailing and boating and encouraging your kid to get outdoors and do physical things, as opposed to video games, doesnt have ANYTHING to do with physical fitness.

How about neigher, How about letting him earn it with Great grades and great decisions.

If you get him into games, you will never get him out of it.

Homework will start to go
School work will start to go
staying up very late.. etc.

happened to me when i was in second grade. got a Nintendo and my grades took a nose dive.

i refuse to buy my goddaughters a Wii.

That's unfortunate that your parents let bad behavior turn into a habit. :ohwell:



ETA: How does one go about getting bad grades in the second grade? Seriously, wtf?

I was wondering the same thing.

It's about setting limits as a parent, that's part of the parenting gig!!

Now I would suggest a PS3 as well, just because there are more games for a 7 y/o and it'll take at least a year for playstation to identify all the little bugs in their new system.

Regardless of your selection, treat the gaming systems like a PC. Set it up in a common area (Living room - not the child's bedroom). This will make it easier to limit gaming time.

How about neigher, How about letting him earn it with Great grades and great decisions.

If you get him into games, you will never get him out of it.

Homework will start to go
School work will start to go
staying up very late.. etc.

happened to me when i was in second grade. got a Nintendo and my grades took a nose dive.

i refuse to buy my goddaughters a Wii.

That's unfortunate that your parents let bad behavior turn into a habit. :ohwell:



ETA: How does one go about getting bad grades in the second grade? Seriously, wtf?

spelling tests, math, etc etc.

i think they just didn't know. video games were new, and it took a couple of months or so for my grades to really plummet.

and i wouldn't say it was bad behavior. it was just a distraction that got out of hand. they kinda curtailed it soon enough. and i'm okay now. i have an engineering degree and working on my masters.

get him legos and gi joes

The 3DS would be most appropriate IMO, and Nintendo have a good selection of fitness, health and educational offerings as well simply fun games.

The PS4 is cool too. Get him Lego Marvel if you go for that.

FWIW, I was a competitive swimmer, 99th percentile student and played video games a helluva lot.

cause sailing and boating and encouraging your kid to get outdoors and do physical things, as opposed to video games, doesnt have ANYTHING to do with physical fitness.

Apparently you've never played Just Dance or anything for the Wii fit. There are a lot of video games now that actually require movement. The new Xbox Kinect is pretty cool, apparently it can even track your heart rate. I wouldn't be surprised if they developed some decent workout games for it.

Both of my kids are avid gamers, between my house and their mother's they have access to pretty much any system on the market right now (with the exception of the Xbox One and PS4).

They also both happen to be very healthy and athletic, participate in multiple sports and are on the honor roll. Homework and chores are a priority.

It's simple, if their grades drop, they lose the privilege of playing games. Don't blame video games for poor parenting choices, that's like blaming a spoon for making you fat.

This, same with my kids. Kids can be distracted by anything, it isn't just video games. That's why you have to act like parents once in a while.

The sailing sounds like fun. I bought my girls and myself year passes to a rail way museum and we are getting lots of fun out of that.

On the gaming topic.... We have 360, play station 3 , I pads and the girls have a ds each. They are 7 and 4. I would say they spend most of the time playing with their my little pony toys, or train set, and reading. Well the four year looks at the pictures. They do play their consoles a bit, but we also limit them. The eldest is learning that she shouldn't play all day and the four year old will get it soon. My advice though when buying any expensive item is to get what the household can use. All these things belong to everyone in our family.

Yes, I went with sailing. I was surprised that joining the sailing club and going sailing works out so much cheaper than buying a console and then buying games.

Turned into an interesting thread for me though. My boy isn't really interested in computer games or TV at the moment. I'm sure this time will come so it's nice to know he's not going to become a psychotic drug dealing drop out from playing mario karts.

I would be scared to let a 7 year old on a boat! Kudos for your bravery!

How about neigher, How about letting him earn it with Great grades and great decisions.

If you get him into games, you will never get him out of it.

Homework will start to go
School work will start to go
staying up very late.. etc.

happened to me when i was in second grade. got a Nintendo and my grades took a nose dive.

i refuse to buy my goddaughters a Wii.

That's unfortunate that your parents let bad behavior turn into a habit. :ohwell:



ETA: How does one go about getting bad grades in the second grade? Seriously, wtf?

spelling tests, math, etc etc.

i think they just didn't know. video games were new, and it took a couple of months or so for my grades to really plummet.

and i wouldn't say it was bad behavior. it was just a distraction that got out of hand. they kinda curtailed it soon enough. and i'm okay now. i have an engineering degree and working on my masters.

Yeah, I got 100% on everything in 2nd grade. Second grade is a piece of cake. That's what I'm saying. It wasn't until I got to high school that I made less than an "A." Most of second grade is just repeating what was learned in first grade. And *clearly* poor performance in 2nd grade did not affect your career...


I think this was *your* problem, and you are trying to pretend that everyone has the same issues. Don't put your baggage on others. I played Atari in second grade, and I practiced the piano every evening, cuz guess what? There's no homework in second grade, just "seat" work that you do at school.

i had homework in second grade.

and i never said that everyone would have the same issues as me. i just said that when i got a nintendo, my grades dropped.

why are you getting up all in arms about this?