You folks with young children...at what age are you introducing them to....

what's a computer?

My kids had computers in pre-school, a couple of decades ago.

There's no set age but the main thing is limiting their time on it and sticking to it (they'll cry but whatever, hold firm).

My son will be 5 in a few months. He's never used one. He thinks a phone is for pictures and facetime calls. Most of his afternoons are spent outside at the park, playing golf with me, soccer or tee ball in the backyard. When it's raining, he's playing with his multiple train tracks. We put a TV in his room when we moved a few weeks ago. He hasn't turned it on yet.

5-6 when they were first introduced. My daughter (9) has her own Ipad, and the boy (7) is already a full fledged member of the PC masterrace.

It's really unavoidable unless we (the parents) limit our own device usage. We set piss poor examples for the most past. Myself included.

No phones though. Told her we could re-discuss the issue when she gets to middle school.

I thought kids were born with them these days.

Dont have kids but im gonna weigh in anyway.

When i do have kids I probably wont directly introduce them until 1st'ish grade at teh earliest. Working in schools now its pathetic how addicted kids are to their phones these days. Many cant even socialize properly becuase of it. One thing I dont want to happen to my kids is an addiction to technology. Kids were meant to run and play and explore not stare at a screen.

ETA: as i type this the kids sitting next to me in dunkin are all staring at a phone or tablet while mom fights to get their attention. I dont get how you can be okay with that as a parent.

yea the more i think about it im not sure its the age as much as the amount of exposure. Jjust giving them an ipad or whatever else and letting them go crazy with it for as long as they want is not gonna end well for the kid or parent, imo. However I can definitely see some positive from small doses of early exposure.

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I-pads, tablets or laptops?

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I'm going to try to wait until 3 or so to introduce a tablet.

There are lots of educational games and apps I hear about, so I don't think a little screen time is terrible. Just needs to be limited and not used as a constant babysitter so you don't have to interact with your children.

I think the recommendation is no screen time at all until they are 2 years old, but that is kind of hard to avoid these days. My 4 month old is already fascinated with the TV. He watched some lullaby cartoon I found on Hulu the other day for like 45 minutes. I know, I'm a terrible parent, but I was trying to get ready for work and he wanted to be entertained.