So what are kids into these days?

Tropez

Apparently two weeks ago, my beautiful partner arranged for her cousin to visit with her three children, and of course I was only told about this last night. Seems reasonable. They're arriving next week and I am so glad my partner understands that I find preparation such an unnecessary bore.

Anyhow, I've been increasingly struck by the fact that I am no longer hip and with it. From asking a coworker a few months ago just who the f### Justin Bieber was to using phrases such as "hip and with it" ol' Tropez simply is no longer down with the youth, although in fairness while everyone at school was arguing over Blur and Oasis, I was quite happy listening to Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper so it could be argued I've never been down with the youth anyway. Maybe that's why kids freak me out... I digress...

So we have a 13 year old girl, an 11 year old girl and a 8 year old boy to contend with. From my own recollections of youth, I thought that the 13 year old girl would likely be content with reading some magazine with lots of photographs of whichever celebrity hunk is in vogue this month... (is it still George Clooney?)... the 11 year old girl would likely be fine with some dolls and ponies and the 8 year old boy would be content to destroy things with a rubber mallet. However, upon suggesting this to my partner, I was met with the all-too-familiar eye-rolling, sighing and that little look that indicates dastardly things will happen to my nipples unless I make more of an effort.

So here I am - I'm sure there's some mums here somewhere? What are the kids into these days? I did ask my partner but her response was the rather unhelpful "you know, kid stuff" spoken in a tone that would indicate I was some sort of mouth-breathing yokel for not already knowing the answer.

I do have an Xbox but no kids games... well, nothing that I would consider a kids game but I did overhear an unfortunate conversation recently where a mother told her young child (seriously, the kid was about 8) if he didn't stop getting into trouble at school, she'd take "that massive effect game" off him and assuming she was on about Mass Effect, in which you can blow up people's heads, have sex with aliens and shoot the most awesome alien in the back just because you've decided to be a bit of a git, maybe I'm a bit out of the loop on what is acceptable for children too.

However, back on Planet Sanity, where I assume most kids are not playing those games, I could probably spring to a few child-friendly games that might keep a couple of them happy for five minutes.

But what else is there? Seriously, what else? I think I own a ball...

I have a subscription to Netflix which has that "Netflix kids" thing, which I've never actually looked at... does therein lie my salvation?

There really has to be more than that...

ineed

I'd say Xbox would be very well received if you can get some age appropriate games, Netflix to. I'm sure the older girl will be playing around with her phone a lot (I did at her age) and the young boy might bring some favourite toys. I used to like playing board games like monopoly at his age but not everyone's into those.

FYI Wrex (if you're talking about the first game) was being a jackass he deserved everything he got , at least on my renegade play through. If your talking about Mordin then .

cakeforbrains

Haha! Brilliant.

I can't help you much with the girls (apart from to say that my understanding of 11 year old girls is that they are basically teenagers too). My boys are 9 and 11 and it's all about the computer games. I'd never let them play Mass Effect (my OH keeps all of those tucked away) but racing games are a good bet. I don't really know how Netflix works, but I know that you can rent XBox games from Lovefilm. In fact, if you haven't already got a Lovefilm account you can probably get a free trial and do it that way.

Other things... hmm. Are you planning any days out? Swimming? A water park? Have the girls got phones? If so they'll probably just have their noses in them the whole time.

cakeforbrains

Oh, and if you've got a PC/laptop you don't mind them (particularly the boy) using have a think about downloading Minecraft. Very popular and will absorb him for hours.

Tropez

ineed wrote: »

I'd say Xbox would be very well received if you can get some age appropriate games, Netflix to. I'm sure the older girl will be playing around with her phone a lot (I did at her age) and the young boy might bring some favourite toys. I used to like playing board games like monopoly at his age but not everyone's into those.

FYI Wrex (if you're talking about the first game) was being a jackass he deserved everything he got , at least on my renegade play through. If your talking about Mordin then .

I probably have Monopoly somewhere. What I do still have, which I thought was awesome when I was a kid is those Atmosfear games. I've got all the old VHS ones. Ahh, those were the days. Probably a bit much for an 8 year old kid though and not something I imagine girls would be too interested in, although there were a few at school.

Yeah, I was on about Mordin. Poor guy. I'm not even going to go into the various evil ways you can screw over Samara too over ME2 and ME3.

I liked Wrex and he stood down of his own accord because I'd done his side mission. :cool:

Bazey

Herbal Highs and One Direction.

CoffeeandStitches

Tropez wrote: »

Apparently two weeks ago, my beautiful partner arranged for her cousin to visit with her three children, and of course I was only told about this last night. Seems reasonable. They're arriving next week and I am so glad my partner understands that I find preparation such an unnecessary bore.

Anyhow, I've been increasingly struck by the fact that I am no longer hip and with it. From asking a coworker a few months ago just who the f### Justin Bieber was to using phrases such as "hip and with it" ol' Tropez simply is no longer down with the youth, although in fairness while everyone at school was arguing over Blur and Oasis, I was quite happy listening to Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper so it could be argued I've never been down with the youth anyway. Maybe that's why kids freak me out... I digress...

So we have a 13 year old girl, an 11 year old girl and a 8 year old boy to contend with. From my own recollections of youth, I thought that the 13 year old girl would likely be content with reading some magazine with lots of photographs of whichever celebrity hunk is in vogue this month... (is it still George Clooney?)... the 11 year old girl would likely be fine with some dolls and ponies and the 8 year old boy would be content to destroy things with a rubber mallet. However, upon suggesting this to my partner, I was met with the all-too-familiar eye-rolling, sighing and that little look that indicates dastardly things will happen to my nipples unless I make more of an effort.

So here I am - I'm sure there's some mums here somewhere? What are the kids into these days? I did ask my partner but her response was the rather unhelpful "you know, kid stuff" spoken in a tone that would indicate I was some sort of mouth-breathing yokel for not already knowing the answer.

I do have an Xbox but no kids games... well, nothing that I would consider a kids game but I did overhear an unfortunate conversation recently where a mother told her young child (seriously, the kid was about 8) if he didn't stop getting into trouble at school, she'd take "that massive effect game" off him and assuming she was on about Mass Effect, in which you can blow up people's heads, have sex with aliens and shoot the most awesome alien in the back just because you've decided to be a bit of a git, maybe I'm a bit out of the loop on what is acceptable for children too.

However, back on Planet Sanity, where I assume most kids are not playing those games, I could probably spring to a few child-friendly games that might keep a couple of them happy for five minutes.

But what else is there? Seriously, what else? I think I own a ball...

I have a subscription to Netflix which has that "Netflix kids" thing, which I've never actually looked at... does therein lie my salvation?

There really has to be more than that...

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'm really sorry, I have nothing to add, but do you have a blog? If not, you need to start one!

P.s. The 8yo boy I know likes action figures, wrestlers I think? DH always buys him lots from the boot fair very cheap....

ineed

Tropez wrote: »

I probably have Monopoly somewhere. What I do still have, which I thought was awesome when I was a kid is those Atmosfear games. I've got all the old VHS ones. Ahh, those were the days. Probably a bit much for an 8 year old kid though and not something I imagine girls would be too interested in, although there were a few at school.

Yeah, I was on about Mordin. Poor guy. I'm not even going to go into the various evil ways you can screw over Samara too over ME2 and ME3.

I liked Wrex and he stood down of his own accord because I'd done his side mission. :cool:

I have Atmosfear , used to have the VHS copy now have the DVD version. I still play board games on occasion. I think they might like it, Atmosfear was more jokey than scary. I loved getting insulted by the gate keeper .

So true, I never screwed over Samara in games I carried on, Only once with Wrex because I wanted to save Mordin in ME3 so I had to do some pretty nasty things my favourite scientist salarian had to live on . I did Wrex's side mission, shame it wasn't longer tbh. Same with Garrus's.

HeadAboveWater

Ditto what CoffeeandStitches says! Loved reading your post :D

13 year old girl, an 11 year old girl and a 8 year old boy?

Our 12 yo girl usually has her phone glued to her hand.

In saying that, she does enjoy racing games on the xbox (we're talking PGR or moto GP, not Super Mario!!)

Also a hit is karaoke on the xbox too come to think of it...

LoveFilm or Netflix should have most of what they'd want.

Day out to a park/farm/swimming/something would be good.

McDonald's is usually the food of choice :eek::p

Justin Bieber and One Direction usually the music of choice. For girls at least! Dunno what guys are into, sorry!!

One last thing.... good luck!! :rotfl:

EDIT:
Just thinking. My niece (7) and nephew (9) both like to do online games. The likes of the Disney or BBC site for interactive games maybe?

DKLS

If you want to entertain yourself, buy the two youngest some of this stuff.



The vivid blue version has spectacular results :rotfl:well it does on my neices, but I have been banned from buying it them again.

They are visiting this weekend and whilst I havent stocked up with panda pop, the parents didnt mention anything about Ice pops

Tropez

cakeforbrains wrote: »

Haha! Brilliant.

I can't help you much with the girls (apart from to say that my understanding of 11 year old girls is that they are basically teenagers too). My boys are 9 and 11 and it's all about the computer games. I'd never let them play Mass Effect (my OH keeps all of those tucked away) but racing games are a good bet. I don't really know how Netflix works, but I know that you can rent XBox games from Lovefilm. In fact, if you haven't already got a Lovefilm account you can probably get a free trial and do it that way.

Other things... hmm. Are you planning any days out? Swimming? A water park? Have the girls got phones? If so they'll probably just have their noses in them the whole time.

Ah, racing games. Actually, I do have a few of them. Most of them are on the PC but I have F1 201[insert final digit here because I can't remember] and one of the NFS games, I think it was the first Most Wanted, before they released another game with the exact same name because obviously originality is such a daft concept.

Come to think of it, I also have a couple of FIFA games too, so it's not all alien-sex and head explosions... sadly... I bet Liara and Tali wouldn't spring stuff on me at the last moment.

I've already used a LoveFilm free trial in the past so that's a no go, but it's not too bad, there's a couple of indie stores nearby that sell pre-owned Xbox 360 games for a fiver each (dunno how they make any money, but whatever) so I might try and arm myself with a list.

Days out... there's some fields near here. I think I saw a sheep once. I'll actually have to investigate, half the things we had when I was a kid like the pool hall, the Quasar place, the bowling alley etc. have all gone the way of Shane MacGowan's teeth.

And yes, I do have a spare laptop (with a graphics card!) that they could use for Minecraft or something. I'll have to remember to set up the web filters.

CoffeeandStitches wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I'm really sorry, I have nothing to add, but do you have a blog? If not, you need to start one!

P.s. The 8yo boy I know likes action figures, wrestlers I think? DH always buys him lots from the boot fair very cheap....

I do have a blog. I started it about a year ago. It was for a book I'm planning on writing. So far, I have two posts on there, both from last year. I'm doing really well I think.

ineed wrote: »

I have Atmosfear , used to have the VHS copy now have the DVD version. I still play board games on occasion. I think they might like it, Atmosfear was more jokey than scary. I loved getting insulted by the gate keeper .

So true, I never screwed over Samara in games I carried on, Only once with Wrex because I wanted to save Mordin in ME3 so I had to do some pretty nasty things my favourite scientist salarian had to live on . I did Wrex's side mission, shame it wasn't longer tbh. Same with Garrus's.

I have to admit, I don't remember too much about the Gatekeeper. I used to like playing the third one, with Anne de Chantraine... because... well... she was gorgeous... at least for the first twenty minutes or so, then it started to go south.

I do still have a VHS player though (oh yes! Between the Iron Maiden, Terminator poster and my VHS player, the 1980s never died in my house!) so could give that a whirl, though best ask the kid's mum as I've never met any of them so don't know if they're sensitive, nervous etc.

Yeah, those side missions were over quite quick. To be honest, while I liked ME1 at the time, when you break it down there's only about 5 hours or so of main storyline and a whole heap of sidequests set in the same selection of three or four buildings. All I can think of is that some guy is getting massively wealth selling prefab buildings to Cerberus. At least Garrus gets a beefier personal mission in ME2 because as we know, that guy might have taken an arrow to the knee in Skyrim, but Garrus took a rocket to the face... beat that. :cool: