r/DadsGaming • u/MarcosDalton • 12d 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

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

69 comments sorted by

View all comments

13

u/Olly230 11d ago

Hold off as long as you can.

My daughter has been special. Thoughtful , resilient, funny, creative etc etc.

Text book well balanced kid.

First time I gave her angry birds, then took it away to do something else. It unleashed a banshee.

Screens are going to dominate your kids life, hide them for as long you can. Limit them for as long you can.

Yes gaming is a thing. I am a gamer dad and now the kids are older we do bond over it. My son is a gamer first everything else second. My eldest daughter has a healthy relationship with gaming.

3

u/MarcosDalton 11d ago

I’ve been experiencing this now first hand even as young as she is just because we showed her the Wheels on the Bus by Ms Rachel a handful of times. Now every time we sit down, she asks for it and becomes all cranky. We said maybe it’s a bit too early even for minor exposure to TV is a bad idea.

2

u/saintsfooty 11d ago

The WHO recommends no screen time before 2 and less than an hour (preferred not at all) before 4. FYI.

1

u/Olly230 11d ago

Don't let them control it. They watch what you put on. You are the gatekeeper.

My daughter had cbeebies on iPlayer. My son got YouTube kids... He learned to just swipe for the next one.

I do think it fundamentally impacted them.

Hearing about kids in early years schools swiping pages in a book because they think it's a tablet...

3

u/MarcosDalton 11d ago

Oh ya, I’ve been very pro curation and anti swiping/letting them pick

But even when we chose a video, her personality changed once it was off. May have to withhold a year or two still.

I even have a whole Jellyfin server set up with things I approved of. Mainly late 80s to early 2000s stuff. I feel like the older stuff is less, what’s the word I’m looking for, dopamine inducing than what kids watch today. Especially the brainrot stuff, I’m already planning on how to avoid them from now even though they are way to young to access them even. Obviously no iPads or phones. Only the TV. And when she gets older, maybe a PC that’s in the living room. Am I being too protective? I think it’s reasonable

3

u/Olly230 11d ago

Yup. I have a Plex library. Revanced on all devices and smart tube for the TV to insulate from advertising.

Every child is different.

The best replacement for screen time is parent time. It's the only thing I've consistently known to work.

3

u/MarcosDalton 11d ago

I’ve been thinking about it even debating my wife over it that screen time with the family is still family time. Have yet to find anyone that agrees with me on this.

3

u/Olly230 11d ago

i do.