Current Events > We bought our niece a switch for Christmas, and the guardians took it away

(+) Yeah! (+)

Well thats fucking annoying. She was so happy on Christmas morning that she was literally crying.

Her grandparents said she was playing too much, so they took it away. Maybe if you didnt make your house so miserable, she wouldnt feel the need to escape in the first place

How fun.

Tbh you should probably consult with the guardians before buying a kid something like a game console. Some households like to heavily limit that kind of thing.

How old is she?

lilORANG posted...

Tbh you should probably consult with the guardians before buying a kid something like a game console. Some households like to heavily limit that kind of thing.

This

Yeah, that's something you should've run by them on first, dude. Very nice gift, but things that aren't on a kid's list should be approved by the parent or guardian first as a simple courtesy on if they want it in their house to begin with. Especially a console that's basically reliant upon them for supplying games to the kid, too.

Feel bad for here though, certainly.

Shes 10. They knew we were buying it and didnt have any issue. We knew they couldnt afford it, and wanted to make sure she had a special Christmas.

i made sure to include them when were setting it up for safety reasons etc

Did they take it away permanently or temporarily? Kids often need limits on that.

Oh then that's definitely fucked up, unless she was a massive piece of shit between getting the gift and the decision to take it away as a result, unless it's only a temporary thing.

lww99 posted...

Shes 10. They knew we were buying it and didnt have any issue. We knew they couldnt afford it, and wanted to make sure she had a special Christmas.

i made sure to include them when were setting it up for safety reasons etc

Well then to hell with them. They knew what they were getting into.

Did it harm her grades or something? People who have to take something away from a child instead of teach them how much is okay properly usually aren't very popular when the child they're taking care of grows up imo. >.>

I believe its only temporary. But it only took a couple days for them to get to this level, and you can just tell its going to be a common thing.

Im going to talk to our niece about trying to limit the time she does spend playing, so maybe this wont happen as much in the future. Or doing stuff around the house to earn time playing.

itachi15243 posted...

Did it harm her grades or something? People who have to take something away from a child instead of teach them how much is okay properly usually aren't very popular when the child they're taking care of grows up imo. >.>

Its only been a week and a half since Christmas. Pretty shitty of the grandparents

itachi15243 posted...

Did it harm her grades or something? People who have to take something away from a child instead of teach them how much is okay properly usually aren't very popular when the child they're taking care of grows up imo. >.>

Not to mention the switch has built in parental controls, and even an app.
They can remotely monitor play time, restrict play time, restrict play time to certain times of day, even remotely shut off the system.

Taking it away is hands down the laziest option.

lww99 posted...

I believe its only temporary. But it only took a couple days for them to get to this level, and you can just tell its going to be a common thing.

Im going to talk to our niece about trying to limit the time she does spend playing, so maybe this wont happen as much in the future. Or doing stuff around the house to earn time playing.

I can get it as a parent, though. Every once in a while, kids get absolutely fixated on a thing where it's an obvious problem and for their good you have to take it awy from them for a little while.

Granted, what's too much depends on the parent and guardian. So long as my kids get their homework and chores done, I don't mind if they play games a couple of hours a day, especially if that's in place of tv time. But I could easily see a scenario where older guardians view an hour of gaming as being an abhorrent waste of time but see nothing wrong with watching five hours of NCIS reruns a day themselves.

lww99 posted...

I believe its only temporary. But it only took a couple days for them to get to this level, and you can just tell its going to be a common thing.

Im going to talk to our niece about trying to limit the time she does spend playing, so maybe this wont happen as much in the future. Or doing stuff around the house to earn time playing.

This seems like it can be worked out. Common things are only one hour (maybe two) on school days but only if all homework and chores are getting done. Then allow for more on the weekend.

Rocket is a douche

bsp77 posted...

This seems like it can be worked out. Common things are only one hour (maybe two) on school days but only if all homework and chores are getting done. Then allow for more on the weekend.

that kind of shit is psychotic. imagine someone told u you could only play games 1 hour a day. it's fucking dumb and the guardians need to get over themselves.

Its even harder because shes home schooled, and they dont take her education seriously.

I mean grandma thinks if the niece is helping her cook, shes learning all the math she needs. Hand me down books etc.

so it probably doesnt help that the child doesnt have any set schedule, and that probably makes it way easier to play all day.

Robot2600 posted...

that kind of shit is psychotic. imagine someone told u you could only play games 1 hour a day. it's fucking dumb and the guardians need to get over themselves.

It's called parenting. There are usually only about 5 hours between getting home from school and going to sleep anyway.

Edit: ugh, homeschooling

If I were you I'd make sure that they didn't try to return it to steal the money because some parents are shitty like that regardless of what they believe.

my dad took away my games as punishment when i was a kid.

it worked, thinking back. one time i would always forget to do chores or just not do them or refuse or whatever so my dad took away Chrono Trigger

i lasted 2 days or so before i was running around the house doing chores. got it back.

bsp77 posted...

It's called parenting. There are usually only about 5 hours between getting home from school and going to sleep anyway.

Edit: ugh, homeschooling

Even with this logic, studies have shown that kids are much better off with the more free time they get to do whatever. So she should be able to play whenever shes off school if she wants to

MaxEffingBemis posted...

Even with this logic, studies have shown that kids are much better off with the more free time they get to do whatever. So she should be able to play whenever shes off school if she wants to

Studies have shown that kids do better without constant screen time. I am pro videogames, but kids need to also be social and do stuff outside. Otherwise, they end up on CE lol

bsp77 posted...

Studies have shown that kids do better without constant screen time. I am pro videogames, but kids need to also be social and do stuff outside. Otherwise, they end up on CE lol

This is fair! Honestly my argument is more anti-homework than anything lmao

Robot2600 posted...

that kind of shit is psychotic. imagine someone told u you could only play games 1 hour a day. it's fucking dumb and the guardians need to get over themselves.

At 10 years old, yes, I could 100% see a parent/guardian setting a 1 hour limit on gaming.

An hour isnt enough time to scratch that itch, or give you the escape youre looking for.

2 is fair to me, personally.

Her grandparents have their live savings invested in a foreign currency because a youtuber told them to lol

MaxEffingBemis posted...

This is fair! Honestly my argument is more anti-homework than anything lmao

Oh, fuck yeah. I am anti-homework.

I have 4 daughters btw. My oldest is playing Persona 5 Royal on the Switch right now.

lww99 posted...

Well thats fucking annoying. She was so happy on Christmas morning that she was literally crying.

Her grandparents said she was playing too much, so they took it away. Maybe if you didnt make your house so miserable, she wouldnt feel the need to escape in the first place

How fun.

Ask for the gift back if she's not allowed to use it

This is from my fianc. These are her parents that were referring to, and the niece lives with them.

They did the same thing with me with Zelda, I talked about it too much therefore I needed to be grounded from it indefinitely.

I think theyre better now, but thats how it was growing up. Anything we showed interest in that wasnt one of their interests would become weaponized

It was actually safer to act like we didnt like certain things that much bc then theyd be less likely to take it away as punishment

Maybe you can help them go into settings and put a daily time limit or something. My parents used to only let me play video games for 30 minutes per day, even if I behaved and made good grades.

lww99 posted...

This is from my fianc. These are her parents that were referring to, and the niece lives with them.

They did the same thing with me with Zelda, I talked about it too much therefore I needed to be grounded from it indefinitely.

I think theyre better now, but thats how it was growing up. Anything we showed interest in that wasnt one of their interests would become weaponized

It was actually safer to act like we didnt like certain things that much bc then theyd be less likely to take it away as punishment

That is fucking awful

bsp77 posted...

Oh, fuck yeah. I am anti-homework.

I have 4 daughters btw. My oldest is playing Persona 5 Royal on the Switch right now.

Oh sick, thats one of my all-time favorite games too

She went on to say

The punishment was never associated with whatever we did wrong either. It wasnt like youre grounded from playing the sims because you continued to play the sims instead of doing your chores it was like you sleep in later than 6am and suddenly we arent okay with that so youre grounded from the sims until you learn self discipline

Grandparents are inconsistant and irrational like that.

lww99 posted...

This is from my fianc. These are her parents that were referring to, and the niece lives with them.

They did the same thing with me with Zelda, I talked about it too much therefore I needed to be grounded from it indefinitely.

I think theyre better now, but thats how it was growing up. Anything we showed interest in that wasnt one of their interests would become weaponized

It was actually safer to act like we didnt like certain things that much bc then theyd be less likely to take it away as punishment

So they didn't do it to your fiance out of concern for screen time, or as a punishment, but because... she was enjoying it too much?

That's fucked up.

This is a no fun zone.

these are the same people that tried to pray her epilepsy away, instead of seeing a doctor.

they shouldve been charged many times over.

lww99 posted...

these are the same people that tried to pray her epilepsy away, instead of seeing a doctor.

they shouldve been charged many times over.

Well, I hope she is straight and cis then. Man, I hate so many "parents".

lww99 posted...

these are the same people that tried to pray her epilepsy away, instead of seeing a doctor.

they shouldve been charged many times over.

In all seriousness, have you and your fiance considered becoming your niece's guardians instead? Because these people sound fucking awful.

The more tc adds the more upset I get reading through it. Terrible parenting, terrible people. I feel so bad for your niece tc. Hope you and your wife can be there for her as much as possible as she grows up

TomClark posted...

So they didn't do it to your fiance out of concern for screen time, or as a punishment, but because... she was enjoying it too much?

That's fucked up.

It's like Hanks philosophy in KOTH when he gets chosen to run the Olympic flame

K181 posted...

But I could easily see a scenario where older guardians view an hour of gaming as being an abhorrent waste of time but see nothing wrong with watching five hours of NCIS reruns a day themselves.

Yep, this is the impression I get of them.

My dad is that way, but I never lived with him growing up, so the most he's done is comment about how I'm playing games too long. Like a few years ago, he stayed with me for Christmas. He kept saying "you're still playing that game? You should do something else" but he spent the whole day watching the news.

My dad got my brother and I a Playstation 1 for Christmas back when it was new.

Mom and Dad divorced the year prior. Dad said the Playstation had to stay at his place when we left for home.

Mother didn't take kindly to that, lmao. There were words had.

Why the hell are they homeschooling her? Geez

Weve talked about adopting in the past, but they wouldnt give up custody

lww99 posted...

This is from my fianc. These are her parents that were referring to, and the niece lives with them.

They did the same thing with me with Zelda, I talked about it too much therefore I needed to be grounded from it indefinitely.

I think theyre better now, but thats how it was growing up. Anything we showed interest in that wasnt one of their interests would become weaponized

It was actually safer to act like we didnt like certain things that much bc then theyd be less likely to take it away as punishment

My wife is kind of like this towards my son playing video games. She doesn't have any problem with my daughter talking non-stop about youtubers she watches, but if my son is talking too much about whatever game he is currently playing he is playing too much video games.

I was not allowed to play video games Monday - Thursday when I was a kid starting at like age 8 so this isn't out of the ordinary. Was told I played too much so that was that.

It definitely feels like a stigma against games, especially when you examine their screen time habits.

lww99 posted...

Her grandparents said she was playing too much

yea the topic title makes this sound awful and just plain evil, but this makes it a fair next