if your child has a DS at what age did you buy it

[Little_P]

Just wondering... My sil has one for her son and said SO many kids have them and held off a year before she got it at about 5.

I am just not sure about them and it's turned into a bribery tool 'if you don't do this...no DS' etc. It works really well but is that ok?

The games seem to have hitting and stuff too like really 'soft' violence which I am a little wary of.

How old was your child? Is it a bribe tool? Are there 'nice' games?

[Benji]

We got DS one last xmas, a few months before he turns 5. He gets to play it on the weekends, not during the week. There's plenty of nice games - Dora, The Backyardigans, Art Studio, there's lots of pets games, fashion games etc.

[Jax Tellers Old Lady]

We bought Ds one for his 5 bday and he loves it, he has a range of games from dinosaurs to sonic. There is a great range of games not just violent ones. He is a whizz on it and knows how to do things way better than his parents, in some ways he is our DS coach lol.

[NonnyMouse]

DD got hers when she was 10 because I don't consider them a "young kids" toy, simply because I wouldn't give a $$$ electronic toy to a kid who can't understand/respect the value of it.

[lulu 2]

We had a couple of them so the kids have always played with them ,dd2 who is 3 gets a bit confused as to how to change games and is a bit rough with the stick but they play nice games , dh has a memory card in their ones with only little kids games on it and so they don't have to touch the cards to change games too.
Its not good for them to be on the things for too long , they get quite possesive over their games ,they "just want to finish" and thats when i put it away for awhile.

[share a book]

My 7 year old has one and has had hers since the Chritmas before last

We have a range of games for it including Sonic the Hedgehog and the Bindi Irwan wildlife rescue one

You can stay away from the violent ones they are not a necessity

Oh also she takes care of hers because she's been shown how to care for it

[kittykawaii]

Sperm donor got one for my DS the first xmas after he left to pretend he's a good dad. DS only just turned 4. He broke it a couple of months later because he had a habit of sticking coins into places they didn't belong and short circuited the thing. I won't be buying him another one for a while yet and he's now 5.

[mummaof4]

my girls had them at 6 & 4. one was refunded as it was faulty & the other broke within 18months.

we *might* consider buying them again around the age of 10.. but right now video games(wii, ds etc etc) arent on their radar.. they are more into drawing/crafts if they're sitting still.
i do however think they'd be perfect for travelling long distance

i am considering buying our oldest dd an ipod for her 8th bday, and a cd player thingy that it plugs into as hub refuses to let them put head phones on their ears this young. she loves dancing and music so its a great choice for her

[lulululu]

What is a DS?

[sweetsugardumplin']

We are holding off for as long as we can, DS will be seven in a few weeks - but we don't wanna go through that door yet!