How Much Wii Time Do You Allow in the Summer?

Live in a safe neighborhood? Throw him outside. He can play Wii when it is dark and if he still has time before bedtime. We live in the country. If we're home, and, I'm not forced to be inside working myself, we are outside. Only when "M." has to be inside, or, weather forces us to be, are my kids doing "inside things". Kids these days need to learn how we played before these games were around. And, actually, my oldest has been going and going, but, when she's home, I let her "supervise" my younger kids so that they can be outside even if M. can't be outside with them. The only reason I do not let my younger ones outside without me or her is because we have to worry about snakes, ants, etc.

my kids get 30 minutes of electronics. I don't care how they spend it. 15 minutes of computer, 15 of wii, 30 of tv..... The rest of the day we are outside. When I was little we ate breakfast and went outside and came home for lunch and supper and went back out until dark. I supervise my boys while they are outside but neither like to spend a lot of time indoors especially during the summer.

Sounds like you all are approaching this in a very healthful way. You are making sure he is getting a well rounded set of events in his summer. Part of summer is having downtime and laxing a bit on the rules. I would put a time limit, but not tell your son. sounds like he is not having serious infringement issues or zoning out or being defiant when you tell him time's up. You and your husband should decide (even on a case-by-case basis) what is appropriate and tell son that "you have 15 min left" and then turn off the game system.
My son loves to play the Wii too (ok so do my husband and I) but we do monitor and keep play time to a minimum of 45 to 1 hour during week nights, but some nights we are just too busy or engaged in something else to even turn it on where other nights there is a downpour and we can't leave the house, so playtime goes up.
I would suggest you set some guidlines that you and your hubby are comfortable with and then be flexible during the golden months of summer:)

Well, I would say as long as he is getting enough exercise without the Wii....then a couple of hours or so a day would be good....maybe on rainy days he can have a little more...at least he is playing a game that makes him move...........not just sitting..........

Just don't let him play an hour before bedtime, it gets their brain all active making it harder for him to go to sleep.

Take care and good luck.

Sounds like he's not obsessive about it and that's good. My son tends to go in spurts with the Wii. He'll play a few hours O. day then not for a few days and that's OK with me. Follow your "mommy gut"--we can tell when they're getting that byte-head attitude and it needs to get turned OFF!

My kids are allowed to play the Wii on weekends and rainy days. They are also permitted to watch one hour of TV in the morning and one hour at night after they finish showering. I make sure they are occupied with activities during the day in the summer. They roller skate, play basketball, ride bikes, go on swings or in the sprinkler at the local park. They jog at the beach a few times a week. They play tennis and swim. Once or twice a week they try to have friends over and then they do freeze dance/tag, air hockey, board games, dodge ball, kickball, volleyball or badmitton. By keeping them interested in other activites, they don't go for the Wii as often. We use it mostly on Friday nights (family only night--out to eat, movie at home and we all play each other on the Wii--even the Wii fit LOL!!) It sounds like you have him well-rounded....great job E..

Suuuuuuumer time... and the livin' is eeeeeeeeasy....

My kiddo is allowed to play after chores and breakfast and before school (which we start at 1130am in the summer and wrap up at 230). Totals between 1-2 hours depending on when he wakes up and how slowly he does his chores. Then he's not allowed to play again unless it's dark out (in our area it doesn't get dark until 10pm... so that means if it's raining he can play... which happens an awful lot round these parts as well).

Weekends are "open". Meaning I'm totally arbitrary. He can theoretically play it whenever he wants... but he has to pop off when I say so. Meaning I throw him outside fairly frequently. So it gets used as a "down time" kind of break. Bfast & chores, go for a 4 mile walk or meet up for a playdate, come home and snack and Swim for 3 hours, xbox for apx 30 minutes, swim for 3 more hours, help with x, xbox for an hour, swim, help with dinner, eat, play outside, come in xbox, etc. are our "normal" heavy video game days. It works out to about 3 hours of videogames to 9-10 hours of physical activity. On non-heavy-vid-game days the downtime is something else (filming, building, bbq, sports, movie marathon, somethin')

Wii is probably one of the few games out there where they can get some exercise while playing... if he is playing games that are keeping him acting, then a longer period of time is okay, if he is sitting playing, then limit his time to one hour in the morning, and then maybe after some outside play or educational stuff, he can relax by playing in the late afternoon until dinner is ready...
Ultimatly you should just use your own judgement, which seems fair and realistic to me :)

When I was a kid video/computer games had a daily hour limit. Now partly for the hour was there were 4 of us kids so had to be fair and to make sure everyone got a chance that day to play on the computer. If we were doing an education game it did not always count UNLESS someone else had not had their turn yet.

Now in our household we only have one child so video game time can go longer ONLY if she does not play it everyday AND if she will turn it off if we think she has played enough for the day. If she is playing it every day I try to limit it to one hour but lately it has only been 2-3 times a week she ask to play so I am fine if it goes two hours.

I think if it is becoming an issue of always wanting to play it, playing it for a long amount of time daily, starts to do less outdoor/indoor acticity, and talks back/gets upset about turning it off when you ask THEN it is time to put a strict time limit on it. Maybe if he is asking for it through out the day then try the hour limit, maybe even put a little chart/wipe board by the Wii to mark off when played an hour that day.

My kids have the nintendo dsi and they couldn't seem to get anything done because the the screen has them captivated! so Just yesterday i gave them a new rule. 2 hours of dsi time a day, a piece. I have a 4 year old boy and a 6 year old girl. I told them that they will be back to riding their bikes because I'm tired of asking them to slean up and while they are cleaning one of then has the game in their hand, or i come back and they are stil layed across the bed playing the game. so 2 hours a day a piece.

My daughter is 15 and the Wii is not her 1st choice but we play it together as a family. It is something that is family time around here with lighthearted laughing and fun.

She also plays it with friends when they are over....the band, singing and cheer.

I don't limit the time because she is responsible, she is very active with cheer, violin, socializing with friends, etc. If the time seemed to become unreasonable OR she was just sitting all day playing, then I would set limits.