^{Originally published on BabyCenter.com December 2, 2015}

Sooner or later, technology leaves us all feeling old. As my wife and I browse through Christmas gift ideas, the number of new gadgets out there is making me wistful for the days of Tandy Computers and the Sega Genesis. Now we’re faced with a new question: are our kids old enough for a tablet?

My gut says no, but the more I think about it, the less I have an actual argument beyond pure geezer instinct. I myself didn’t have any sort of real computer until I was in my senior year of high school, and that fact is probably the number one reason I said “No” at first.

This is definitely a first world problem. It’s also a case where I don’t feel like I’m doing harm if I just say “No” to giving my kids a portable screen to carry around. But the more I look into the subject, the more it becomes that my objections are more emotional than logical.

On the pro side of the argument, it’s Christmas, the kids will love the gift, and decent tablets made with kids in mind are relatively affordable these days. There are lots of educational games out there and it’s pretty easy for us to keep them from getting too much screen time.

The con side of the argument mostly boils down to my brain saying, “Screw them! You didn’t grow up with all that fancy tech, so they don’t need it either! Why in my day blah blah blah fifteen miles of snow blah blah blah uphill both ways yadda yadda yadda.”

Seriously, I don’t have a real objection that my wife hasn’t shot down in under a minute. My biggest worry was that giving the kids a tablet of their own would result in too much screen time, but then my wife pointed out our shameful secret: we let them play on tablets already.

Our kids have an allotted amount of screen time every day, and most of the time they’d rather monkey around with something interactive. Right now they borrow our mobile devices on a fairly regular basis, so getting them their own device would free up ours.

The logical resources I’ve found, ranging from PBS to the loosened screen time guidelines of the American Academy of Pediatrics, say that there are actually benefits to giving kids supervised time with mobile devices. So with every rational source telling me this is no big deal, it’s just a matter of dealing with my irrationalities.

One element of this irrationality is a sort of involuntary jealousy. I’m better off financially than my parents were, which means my kids’ Christmases tend to be a lot bigger. There’s a small part of my brain that bristles at the luxuries my kids have, as though having more luxuries is going to ruin them.

The other part of my resistance comes from the fact that the most advanced piece of technology I had for most of my life was a manual typewriter, so my mind associates electronics with adult stuff. Giving my kids gadgets means they’re growing up, and at a faster pace than I would sometimes like.

_{Featured Image: Sarah Brooks}