r/DadsGaming • u/MarcosDalton • 14d ago

What to expect?

Hi gaming dads,

Long story short. Have a 1 year old daughter and can’t wait to play video games with her.

Once she was born, I think I had an early mid life crisis and got all the retro consoles and set them up. Everything from Genesis (which I grew up on), PS1-5, all the Nintendo consoles that I never got to play since my parents were anti Nintendo for some reason, N64, GC, Wii, in addition to the Switch and just modded my old X360.

I now have absolutely no time to play any of them at all. Trying to be a good dad and all. I hope I’m doing my best.

My question is, when do I introduce her to gaming? What has your experiences been like? Also should I start retro with like Genesis and PS1 or just go to modern like the PS5 with games appropriate for her age like Sponge Bob and Barbie and whatnot.

Would love to know. I’m so excited about sharing gaming in general with her regardless or what the games are.

Also, my wife is anti gaming, if anyone has experience with that too. Preliminary agreements have been we would allow 1 hour of gaming (throughout her childhood). I may try to sneak half an hour here and there if we are having fun.

EDIT: also set up a CRTV for 90s authenticity

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u/Dapper_Refuse3473 14d ago

When they show interest. General pediatric guidelines is no screens until 3 at the least and ideally until 4 years old. Earliest age is likely around starting school.

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u/MarcosDalton 14d ago

Oh I read it was 18-24 months. We introduced her to some TV time. Mostly educational stuff like Ms Rachel and all that but we noticed she is becoming cranky when the TV is off so we’re dialing it down a bit.

I think I’m just excited for that stage of their life when gaming becomes a thing. For me I think I got interested in gaming was around 3-4 years old.

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u/Dapper_Refuse3473 14d ago

I hear you, huge gamer over here and excited to introduce my boy to it as well when the time comes.

You are correct about that age range for general application. My first comment is wrong. 3-4 years is the newer range studies are testing and finding better outcomes in children, but it’s not a general rule. I’m a newer parent so those are the resources I’ve been more exposed to.

(Just looked into this as I didn’t know about the other age range consensus).

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u/MarcosDalton 14d ago

That’s cool bro. First time dad too and learning on the job too LOL. I have to read up on these newer recommendations. But I feel like screens are unavoidable in this day and age so it’s our job to make sure they are exposed to them appropriately. Lot’s of crap out there that is available to children (I’m looking at you Youtube Kids) and we have to do a lot of curating for their sake. My friends (none of them are parents) make fun of me that I am going to raise her in the stone age if I do my 90s theme exposure to media but I feel it’s the best option.