[toasty228]

> I watched game shows, Hogans Heroes, Night Court. She's watching Ms. Rachel, Meekah, and Sesame Street.

At 2 years old?

There are babies under a year who watch youtube brainrot shat out by obscure indian animation farms multiple hours a day, I'm not sure it has the same impact as watching Stargate when you're eight. My niece is 9 months, she never watched anything on a phone yet as soon as someone in her line of sight gets a phone out she's mesmerized, it's scary to witness

[donatj]

> At 2

Yes, I absolutely did.

I was home with my dad, gated into the living room while he did things around the house. There is only so much to do.

[kakacik]

You have no idea what potential of you was lost there, and we don't even know what your life looks like so can't judge any of that. But stating 'I spent most of my childhood in front of TV so all is fine' is... I guess you don't have strong affinity towards nature, adventure, sports, wildish traveling for example?

You do you (and your kids), but as a parent of small kids myself we do TV max maybe 30 mins weekly on average, older cartoons (age 4 and 6). There is little gained and a lot lost in screens, but you need to be aware of things being lost in the first place lol. Screens form addictions, active screens even moreso - why do this to your own children? Why not just let them roam the streets all day then, they will gather much more experience that way. Don't tell me it can be harmful to them - screens are too yet seemingly very few care.

Its much harder spending quality with them of course - this is the main reason why most parents slack off. Actively engaging with them, leading them by example, coming up with novel ways to play with them, that's not how our generation was raised up. Its not easy for me, for some reason easier for my wife, but we are trying our best. If anything in life is wroth pursuing will all vigor, this is it and not some empty white collar careers or even worse money status (this comes from senior dev in a bank and a doctor couple).

In my view, there are only few paths towards happy balanced adult individual that knows what they want in life and go for it, and this is the most sure way even though there are never any guarantees.

[lotsofpulp]

>But stating 'I spent most of my childhood in front of TV so all is fine' is... I guess you don't have strong affinity towards nature, adventure, sports, wildish traveling for example?

There is no reason to assume this.

>Screens form addictions, active screens even moreso - why do this to your own children? Why not just let them roam the streets all day then, they will gather much more experience that way. Don't tell me it can be harmful to them - screens are too yet seemingly very few care.

The article and conversation is about babies. Maybe the context an be stretched to toddlers, even age 5 or 6. Letting a baby or toddler roam the streets alone (in the USA with huge vehicles and distracted drivers all around) is far more harmful than letting them watch curated content on screens.

This isn't a village in a developing country with a whole group of kids with varying ages that look after each other. It's a developed country, with barely any other kids outside, from various "cultures", and legal liability, and risk of severe bodily harm from unsupervised outside time.

>this comes from senior dev in a bank and a doctor couple)

Perhaps you have more flexibility / less stress in your life than 95% of other couples?

[lotsofpulp]

I would expect everyone to be mesmerized by amazing technology they have not gotten used to yet.

[bombcar]

Babies are designed to pay attention to what you pay attention to, and want to do the same.

It may be more 'harmful' for babies to see parents paying attention to screens than it is for them to watch the screen themselves.

(They also become very good at telling if you're really "looking" at the phone or just pretending to look at something.)

[mothballed]

Maybe the plus side is if screens become their encoded reality from a young age, staring at a screen for work because that's the only thing you can do that pays well enough to support a family won't be nearly as depressing and just feel normal.

[SirFatty]

"Babies are designed..."

sure they are.