Limits on special interests?

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What, if any, limits do you put on special interests?

Lately dd5 is on almost anything electronic. All the time. To the point where she won't come to the dinner table unless we take it away, then she will still refuse to eat (or forget to) and will only talk non stop about the electronic item or app she was using on it. I want to limit her time with these things, but it's really clear also that it is alleviating stress. She is at school or "daycare" all day where she MOSTLY can't access these items, although they do have computers there and she does pine for them often and sneak onto them when she should not. How do other people handle this? I guess my main issue is that I would like to interact with her some at home, I get that she is tuckered out from school etc. But she won't give us the time of day lately!

That is a tough one. We have similar issues, but I really resist taking away things that make him happy. We honestly do not restrict the computer very much. I don't know if that is smart. Especially during the school year, I feel he really needs it to decompress.

I would start with trying to get her to understand that there are certain places where electronic equipment is not appropriate like the dinner table. Make a visual schedule for her and maybe color code the things that are "electronics free." It will take a lot of consistency, but she should get used to the routine after awhile.

We have been lucky in that our son is interested in some interactive things with us that do not involve the computer. If you are lucky enough to have anything like that, that she also likes, maybe try to build in extra time in her day for it, if you can.

My daughter also "escapes" with electronic products (ipad, video games). I try to utilize it as a reward, but in times of difficulty I allow her to escape quite a bit. I also give her the electronic time after she has completed required things such as homework, getting ready in the am. The use of the electronics is the incentive for her to accomplish the tasks. I will sometime ask to sit with her while she is on the elctronics, but mostly she wants to be left alone to escape.

Well we have snails as our dd5s interest, it has to be limited at the point where she attempts to teach them to swim, she enjoys swimming so why wouldnt they lol?! Except they tend to die a lot. We have to watch he when shes outside because she also puts small live snails inside larger empty snail shells and they get trapped. She enjoys lining them up in size order which can keep her occupied for hours as they slowly wander off and ruin the pattern!

She copes ok with being told to leave them alone but will try and sneak back out to get more then lie about having been playing with them. We cant get rid of them, dont want poison/pellets in the garden with kids around. The only advantage we have is that its a seasonal thing and we can relax a bit now its winter.

Is there any way you could allow the batteries to run down so she has to leave them?My little girl loves playing on my iphone games, and she will play until the battery runs out, otherwise she would never stop!

Its possible she will move onto something else. Hope you figure somethig out!

Maybe you could ask to play some of the games with her that she plays on the electronics? If you really want interaction with her, you might meet her where she is instead of forcing her to where you are.

My dd5 tends to bring her outside interest inside anyway Not pleasant picking them all up to return to the wild lol! We have bought her some pet giant african land snails which she loves. She also collects snail ornaments and anything to do with snails.

As suggested above you could try to share the games and insist on taking turns, she might get bored of waiting for her turn!

YEah... we both have tried taking turns/sharing. No. She either doesn't want to share or she basically only wants to tell us what to do exactly with the game: shoot this piggy just like this with this bird, pull the slingshot just like this... LIKE THIS! NO YUORE DOING IT WRONG ITS RUINED FOREVER OMG OMG OMG OMG YEEEEAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH one two three four five six seven eight NNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH

That is pretty much how it went down last time I tried to share angry birds with her.

same here, My son has ALWAYS been eectronics obsessed, and if I try to play with him he ALWAYS rips it out of my hands and takes over casue I am doing it wrong, not good enough or I could do better. Hard to interact with that when you arent allowed. And if I take it back and say its OK I like to play it this way, he gets VERY UPSET and will tell me not to play it with him.

LAtely she has also become quite obsessed with the mp3 player I gave her to help her sleep at night (it's worked really well, I gave it to her because her little sister is tough to put to bed, cries a bit and the share a room. The crying would keep her up, but now with the mp3 player she falls asleep pretty fast even if little sis is making a fuss). But she gets REALLY REALLY upset over tangles in the ear bud leeds. REALLY UPSET even though they really don't matter. I"m not allowed to untangle them either, only she can so she just freaks out th whole time.... She also gets upset over the battery even being at 75%, if it's less than 100% I hear about it...

During the school week, once homework is done, stuff picked up, pjs on, and teeth brushed, my kids are allowed to do whatever they want (usually computer) because I figure they have been working all day at school. I get my interaction time in with them during the homework/cleanup/ready-for-bed part. To be honest, this also works very well for me as I am often overstimulated by the end of work and need my own time to decompress and I am happy that this arrangement seems to meet everyone's needs.

On the weekends, they get one hour of electronics time alternated with one hour of non-electronics time (their choice of activity) and one of the days I try to do something outside of the house (go to park, on hike, whatever). My son is somewhat better with this. My daughter protests. But the "one hour off" does not start until she is fully engaged in something else, so arguing and whining about it only makes things worse for her. She usually just requires a reminder and she pulls herself away.

I do not kid anyone when I tell you that if I let them, my kids would stay on the computer for 12 hour stretches at a time. The only thing that would interrupt them is using the bathroom and eating (but only for my son, my daughter would gladly skip eating for more screen time).

I do get a lot of flack from others regarding how much screen time they get and I realize that perhaps I am wrong to allow this. But especially on the weekends, the mix seems to give us enough together time and enough alone time so that everyone feels happy.

My son would stop eating altogether. Not even sure about the bathroom!

It took us a long while before he was willing to take potty breaks while playing on the computer. I still have to remind him sometimes , if I see him trying to hold something in.

Yep.... dd5 has arrived 30 seconds too late to the bathroom too many times to count. Even peed on my kindle once, on accident, because she wouldn't put it down and had to go real bad.... The kindle was ok.