Play Outside vs Electronics? The Decision Should Not be That Difficult

Collin loves to be at his house.  Whenever we talk about leaving the house for errands, dinner, meeting with friends, etc, he asks either if he can stay or if the people can come to his house.  Thus, it makes sense that every moment there is free time either during the week but especially on the weekends, he asks if a friend can come over. 


Friends do come over, but when they do, the first thing they ask is if they can play on the electronics whether that be their phone they bring, Collin's computer (family computer) or on the PS4.  We even laugh internally when more than one friend has come over, barely walking into the house before asking what the Wifi password is.  Really?  These kids are 8 and 9 years old!  We think they should be playing outside or, if inside, playing a game, playing in the playroom or talking to each other.  Our rule is that the boys can play on electronics the last 20 to 30 minutes of the visit, depending on how long the friend is over.  It's usually the friend that cannot stand that rule and continually ask if it's time to play on electronics...or my favorite, "Collin wants to know if it's time to play on the electronics yet".


An example was this past Saturday.  Collin had a friend over for 2 1/2 hours.  During the time that they had to come up with something to do before the last 30 minutes were available for electronics, they:

• Road their bikes around the neighborhood finding the dirt trails in the back of the neighborhood or stopping to say "hi" to some friends playing outside
• Hiked and played in the bird sanctuary coming back with wet shoes and shorts....and smelly
• Swam in the pool
• Had lunch
• Shot some basketball hoops

I really felt sorry for these boys that they had to do all of this, making great memories, discovering the hiking trails, looking for animals, splashing in the pool and resting while having lunch, before they just could not stand anymore that they were not playing on electronics (sense the sarcasm?)  Collin is generally fine to not be on electronics.  It's usually the friend over that keeps bugging all of us to play on the electronics.  It's gotten to the point that Collin does not either go over or invite a few of his friends over to his house because he knows they will complain the entire time that they cannot play on the electronics.  I feel terrible that he feels like he has to exclude these friends but I do not feel bad one bit that Collin is exercising, playing outside, using his mind and creativity to play and be a kid.