I don't know about gaming, but do be careful about the social media side of being about to game with any person, anywhere - unfettered access to people of any age - live talking etc. I don't know if there are blocks or PINs for allowing co-gaming with cousins and only carefully chosen others. Grooming and falling into unsavory or random company can easily happen.
Not having a gaming set up in the bedroom or phone is best. Keep bedrooms clear of all tech. Kids (and adults) sleep better, and you can also monitor how and what is being used more easily if gaming happens in common areas.
Don't fall into feeling guilt. There are lot of ways to build good tech skills and motor co-ordination without Switch.
My eldest granddaughter from the age of five, like her brother and sisters were both given video "games" to play on a computer by their father who has an IT business.
They weren't really games they were educational tools disguised as such. A far better way of using computers. These educational tools are readily available.
As she got older, she learned the "tech" side.
Now in her twenties she has a highly paid job and travels the UK and the continent selling IT systems, never requiring further help from her father. Last year she beat a competitor to a contract, so they "head hunted" her!
She was never into conventional popular computer games.
I'm sure there are many young people like her out there who have used computers to their advantage, when some may be still in their bedrooms "trying to get to level five" or whatever.
We have a Nintendo switch which we play through the tv screen rather than playing it as a hand held device. We are both age 61 and have spent many long winter hours playing our favourite games. The game choice is not as vast as X box or PlayStation and our sons have had both of these. I would say that game choices for Nintendo switch are aimed at a younger age group but that’s not to say adults aren’t going to be happy with the choices either. Our most favourite game has been the most brilliant open world game called Zelda Breath of the wild, a truly spectacular adventure which has a main story but plenty to do and explore if you get fed up of fighting “baddies”. Mariokart racing is also another favourite as our sons sometimes join in and we have a family race. Lego have some great games for the witch also, we have all the Harry Potter stories and Lego city undercover which is our current gameplay. Luigi’s mansion is also another cracker as well as a game from the Professor Layton series, simple game play but some really challenging mathematical problems to solve along the way. We don’t connect with other players on the internet as it’s just for us to enjoy. We were very strict with our boys about game playing, homework and household chores came first and we put a time limit on how long they could play, it didn’t make us popular but we have two well balanced very intelligent sons and they still play on games consoles but it’s not a priority in their lives.
Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late.
I don't know specifically about Nintendo Switch but some video games are quite violent so you might want to check which games are suitable for a youngster. Of course once your daughter has the console, there'll probably be peer pressure to have whichever games are currently fashionable/popular.
Our sales director at work drives a porche and everyone else takes the mickey.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I can appreciate that many people enjoy playing video games.
When my kids were young, I bought them "the latest video game," where you played "ping pong" on the TV. They obviously soon got bored with that. Maybe that's what put them off video games.
I couldn't even be bothered to play "space invaders" on the machine in my sports club, though many did.
Twenty years ago, being a golfer, one of my kids bought me a Tiger Woods golf game.
"He" kept getting stuck in the azaleas lining the fairways at Augusta, he'd be only head and shoulders above them and the "commentator" didn't help by frequently saying, "He doesn't like it."
I decided it wasn't worth persuing and it'd be better to stick to the real thing.
A different personal view point: I have friends who are men in their 40s and spend most of their free time gaming. I am not a fan. To my mind it has something infantalising and 'stuck' about it - as they grew up with gaming and never put it down. It's their 'go to' other world. They don't read, no interest in current affairs, language, politics, study, they don't have great social skills, they are not ouside much. And they have a similar virtual porn world they love to spend time it. For certain people, gaming and porn can account for so much of their time; I find it deeply alarming. It makes me wonder - who is the master and who is the servant - the tech or the players? If these things are habituated to a deep degree, it becomes patterning very hard to shift - they become the normal world.
I'm not saying this is necessarily relevant to the OP's case, I'm just putting my genuine concerns out there. Young kids are having a harder and harder time making conversations in person, because they are not learning the early skills. To my mind, those key early years of social learning, reading faces and behaviour, getting vital human feedback - these are being filled up with tech.
Adults job is to prepare the children for the world by helping them to navigate - navigate people - for the most part. I would want to always put this first and be very sure those face to face skills are not being skimped or missed.
@fire ... sadly I think those are folk with an addictive personality for one reason or another ... in another age they'd be 'down the bookies' or 'propping up the bar'.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
My OH is one of those who loves his computer games, mostly the ones with other folks online, some of whom he knows in "real life" including some work colleagues from their sites around the world. He also works in IT. I suspect many of us on here have plants as the outlet for the addictive side of our personalities.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@fire ... sadly I think those are folk with an addictive personality for one reason or another ... in another age they'd be 'down the bookies' or 'propping up the bar'.
I dunno Dove. I think you'd be pretty amazed at the amount of hours that men aged 20-40 are giving to gaming and porn. I don't think they have the upsides of gardening. And I think there is generalised denial at the scale and depth of addiction/habituation.
You have vast industries pouring billions into getting children, from infants upwards, into tech worlds and gaming. These things are addictive, very much on purpose - like social media. They built to fire reward centres and keep people hanging on for more. Finessing addiction is a billion dollar industry, a science and a fine art - getting anyone from birth to give their dosh, time and attention and stay hooked in. It's working amazingly well.
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Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.