My 7 year old got a Nintendo Switch for his birthday and now thats all he wants to do. Im trying to limit him to an hour a day but hes constantly asking for more and throwing fits. Should I be stricter or is an hour reasonable? Also any games you guys recommend that arent just mindless? He likes Mario but id prefer something with more actual gameplay.
Yeah man, the Switch is a trap. I set up a 2-hour daily limit on my boys' tablets and it's been a game changer. You gotta be firm about it from day one or it'll just get worse. We do it after homework and chores, never before school.
We did the same thing at that age. Pro tip: let him earn extra time instead of just taking it away. Like 30 minutes bonus for finishing homework or helping out. Makes him feel like he has some control and honestly works way better than just saying no.
The Switch is a whole thing. My oldest has one and I learned pretty quick that you gotta set boundaries from day one or it becomes a fight. Parental controls are your friend. You can literally set times when it stops working.
This is the struggle right now. My daughter just turned 7 and got one too. How are you dividing up the time? Are you doing it by day or what?
Parental controls are your friend here. I use the built-in Switch settings to lock it after a certain time and it sends me notifications. Seven is still young enough that he'll push back but he'll adapt. The key is having something else fun ready when the Switch goes away.
The struggles real. My oldest got one last year and I thought I was gonna lose my mind. Have you tried the parental controls built into the Switch itself? You can set daily playtime limits and schedules. Saved my sanity.
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Yeah we're dealing with the same thing. My middle kid got one for his birthday and I had to set some hard limits or I'd never see him. We went with 1 hour on school nights, 2 on weekends. Took some pushback but he adjusted.