Ah, but the Gameboy is the perfect tool then. The fact that the kids at school can master it will be the pressure he needs to keep trying, but with a Gameboy, he can lose without losing face.
They are also handy for long car trips, plane rides, and going over to the really boring relative’s home.
There are three possibilities with a Gameboy:
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He won’t like it and really just wants one cause all his friends have one. Is the Gameboy a big amount of money in your budget?
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He will use it in moderation. Perfect!
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He will become a little addict. The nice thing about the Gameboy is that not only is it portable enough to take in the car, its portable enough to make it easy to say “the Gameboy stays up here in this locked cabinet. Mom or Dad will take it out when you get your homework done at our discretion.” It then becomes leverage. Playstations and the other consoles are harder, because of all the darn cabling. Once you have a Playstation, unless you are ambitious, its always there for them to become Playstation zombies.
Our seven year old son really started getting into the Gameboy at six. And it isn’t an addiction problem for him, he’s a “use it in moderation” kid.