There has been a huge offline discussion about whether or not kids should use tech gadgets (tablets, phones, laptops, etc).
For example, Wife and I are fighting grandparents all the time about them ignoring us and their gifts to our older girl (7yo) - tablet, mobile. Our decision is that she should have her own devices and use them as it's meant to within few years, but definitely not now. Because kids easily drift away from their imagination and creativity with those and slowly turn into zombies π§πΌββοΈ
Disclaimer: Our daughter has her own tablet at home but it's screen time is limited to 2h/day π
Do you think they should grow up with gadgets (3yo+ and onward)? Why so?
Or do you agree about denying them? And why?
Cheers ππ¨βπ©βπ§βπ§
Hey there! π I totally get the struggle with kids and gadgets. In my opinion, it's all about finding that sweet spot. Technology is undoubtedly a big part of our world, and kids should be familiar with it, but moderation is key. I believe exposing them to educational and creative content can actually enhance their development.
My nephew loves playing Toca Life World, and it's fantastic how it lets him explore and create in a virtual world. It's like a digital playground that sparks his imagination. I think the key is not just denying access but being actively involved in what they're doing online. With the right guidance, technology can be a tool for learning and creativity.
Setting limits on screen time, like you do with your daughter, is a smart move. It ensures they have a healthy balance between digital and real-world experiences. After all, it's about preparing them for the future while preserving the magic of childhood. ππ§π± #TechWithLimits #ParentingJourney"
My 2.75 yo doesn't get any gadget time but also doesn't ask for gadget time.
My 5.5 yo gets roughly 1-2 hours of iPad time a week, and she spends all of it on Khan Academy Kids learning to solve math problems or in the Kindle app reading books, so this really doesn't bother me. The iPad doesn't have YouTube on it.
How did your 5 yo learn reading? And how did you got him interested in only Kindle and Khan Academy? This sounds almost too good to be true would love to learn how you did it π
How did she learn reading: uhhh she just reads π€·πΎββοΈ. She's been reading slowly for a few months and now she reads faster, pretty good speed. We read a TON to our kids so I'm sure that helps. She also writes the alphabet but it's much much slower of course.
How is she interested in only Kindle and Khan academy: It's an old iPad, nothing else is on it!!! HAH
In the book The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, the author talked about some scientific background of the ideas of limiting screen hour.
You can check it out. But I think many medical organizations have the information related to this problem.
I have constant disagreements with my mother about gifting my kids junk/crap, luckily (I guess) she doesn't get tech!
We have one family iPad, shared between our younger kids (2, 5, 9). Mostly they just use it to watch stuff though, Netflix, Disney, we've discouraged (and removed) YouTube, especially for my 5 year old who ends up going down a bad rabbit hole. I've encouraged different kinds of apps, but they just get bored of them pretty quickly.
My 9 year old has an xbox in a shared space, generally he has a limit of 3 hours, has been the case for a year. Mostly he plays online games with a couple of friends. We unschool too, so there are other (general/loose) conditions that he lives a balanced life. He has an old hand me down iPhone of ours that he uses to listen to audio books and as an alarm clock. Sometimes he asks Siri stuff, lol. :)
My 2 year old is a copy cat of my 5 year old. π€·π½ββοΈThey mostly love watching Disney stuff, on repeat, haha. Our mission as parents is to keep them off tech during the day for as long as we can. They are quite happy doing other stuff, tbh, tech is an easy babysitter/entertainer, but is much needed at times. They most definitely won't be getting their own gadgets for a while yet.
I have teens too, haha, 5 kids in total. I've generally been quite relaxed, these days I feel uncomfortable by too much tech and wish I had been stricter with my older boys. I feel I'm still pretty relaxed (my kids don't feel like they are missing out), but I definitely put in effort to get them to do non tech things.
And not that I want to put things into gender classifications, but my boys definitely seem more into tech than my girls. For us the gender difference and desires are clear as day. I foolishly thought I could be gender neutral with my girls...never gonna happen.
Now a days it become hard to get the tech gadget from any trusted platform as there are lots of waste information also available on internet. The platform that I use for tech gadgets is https://techconsumptions.com/. You can take advantage from it because I personally using it for all gadgets.
My son is still only six months old so I don't really have anything practical to say. But from my own experience as a child I do plan to not get them any gadgets before they are roughly 9 - 10 yrs old and they should definitely not grow up with them. I get the chills when I see very small children with their own tablets.
I had very limited amount of screen time up to that age (maybe an hour a day) and got my first PC around that age but with still limited amount of allowed time. I played a LOT outside and I think a lot of my creativity came from playing with other stuff instead of being in front of a screen all day.
Especially as I still catched up rather quickly as soon as any kind of limits where removed and I stopped playing outside at all. I am not opposed to gadgets nor tech (how could I, the only reason I am an indiehacker is because I passed much of my puberty in front of a computer) β but I think there is definitely value in restricting it in the first couple of years.
That being said: I do think that it might work with your first one, but the smaller ones will always want to do what their older siblings do. And I am aware as well that I am not a good example, as I am working in front of a computer so it might be hard to set an example.
This comment was deleted a year ago.