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Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

ohyahapp.com

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Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#41

Downvote me but: kids shouldn't have phones. No disrespect to the author and congratulations on the launch and all. I just find the entire concept completely dystopian. Like, play, enjoy your life kids! There's plenty of time for entirely unnecessary "tasks"/"work" later in life.

We seem to be the only family in my children's school who think under-13s should not have a smart phone. The places they range to are so close they don't even need a dumb phone.

I'm getting quite pissed at the school seemingly assuming every kid has a smart phone that they need to access things for school with.

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#42
post #3

Slightly off-topic, but as this will require kids to have access to an unlocked phone... I remember Windows Phone had the feature of "unlocked apps", which you could run without having to unlock the phone: think calculator, browser, games. It was called Kids Corner[1]. Have any other OS (iOS/Androind) copied anything similar to that? This app will (or at least in my case) live in a place like that, where they do not…

For Android w/Playstore you can set up a child's account through Google and then use Google Family Link app to control app downloads, block specific apps, and set content restrictions for apps, movies, and games. You can set down times for the whole phone and lock it remotely which is of huge benefit for bedtimes!

That's parental control, that's not the same. I want to hand my phone to my kids and let them access only one or two apps that I have listed as allowed.

I don't want (yet, but it will come) for them to have their own device that I control as you explained.

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#43
Eesh... This feels like a punch clock for kids...

I mean my kids have a hard time with routine management, but that's not going to make anything better unless you gamify the shit out of it.

Show them a counter of how well they're doing and reward them when they're done with some animated crap that's different every time, and maybe they'll use it for more than three days.

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#44
post #10
post #3

Slightly off-topic, but as this will require kids to have access to an unlocked phone... I remember Windows Phone had the feature of "unlocked apps", which you could run without having to unlock the phone: think calculator, browser, games. It was called Kids Corner[1]. Have any other OS (iOS/Androind) copied anything similar to that? This app will (or at least in my case) live in a place like that, where they do not…

iOS lets you lock apps behind faceID. All my communication and banking apps are protected.

Yes, and I do the same. However, Kids Corner was a curated list of apps that you chose to share freely without password/FaceID.

I don't want to lock my browser, photos, maps, etc. behind FaceID. I want to hand my phone knowing they will only use one or two apps and the fun stops when they hand me over the device.

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#45
post #36
post #13

Not to criticize the idea, but do we really need to give our kids yet _more_ screen time, especially young ones? Pedagogically, what is the message for them here? You need a phone for everything?

Not all time spent interacting with a screen is "screen time". The problematic thing is kids spending endless hours just absorbing rather than playing or interacting or doing stuff . It culminates in kids (and adults) who cannot mentally handle being bored - they must have the screen to relieve the horrors of the idle mind. If achieving these same goals is easier without an app for you and your kids, then by all mean…

> The problematic thing is kids spending endless hours just absorbing rather than playing or interacting or doing stuff.

That's totally true, but it's not the only point. Here we are also teaching kids that they need apps for anything they do. They should be able to do that themselves, before using an app to assist them. Otherwise they wont develop capabilities that they wont be able to acquire so easily at a later stage in their lives. If we take this approach to the extreme, why bother learning to write and do maths, when a computer can do it for you?

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#46
post #39

The app itself is a great idea, but looking through the demo video I see lots of bad "tiger parent" memes. I don't think that I would want to force a child to do these sorts of tasks in a regimen, or be forced as a child to perform them. The demo video (which does showcase the app well), includes things like chess and piano and homework. Does the child like doing any of these? Have you vetted the homework as worth th…

>Have you vetted the homework as worth the child's time? If the homework isn't worth the child's time, what do you suggest? Don't do it and get a bad grade? Parent does it for the child? Ask AI to do it? (That would still take time and thus should probably be on the schedule.) Talk to the teacher to ask it not be done?

The best long term answer is to seek schooling that doesn't assign busy work. If you really want to take your child's education seriously then homeschooling, private schooling, and manipulating the school board all have to be on the table.

If the child is old enough, you could explain that the homework is not useful to them, and try to turn it into a teachable moment about manipulating systems for one's advantage. Then delegate the homework to AI, or lookup the answers online. I would be very cautious about doing that with a young child, there's a lot of nuance. Dishonesty towards friends and family is always bad, towards bureaucracies is okay.

The crucial adult skill is to not tolerate useless work. If you become complacent with doing work that doesn't help anyone, then you considerably increase your risk of losing employment, or being ineffective when working solo. AI is going to force this lesson on the next generations.

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#47
post #36
post #13

Not to criticize the idea, but do we really need to give our kids yet _more_ screen time, especially young ones? Pedagogically, what is the message for them here? You need a phone for everything?

Not all time spent interacting with a screen is "screen time". The problematic thing is kids spending endless hours just absorbing rather than playing or interacting or doing stuff . It culminates in kids (and adults) who cannot mentally handle being bored - they must have the screen to relieve the horrors of the idle mind. If achieving these same goals is easier without an app for you and your kids, then by all mean…

Correlating reality on 2-D screens is damaging to kids allocentric and egocentric divergences. Kids before 10 shouldn't control screens. Kids until 14 should be limited in portable screens. We know this now.

https://www.childrenandscreens.org/learn-explore/research/?t...

Re: Show HN: Oh Yah – Routine management app I built for my sons

#49
I’m trying some sort of a routine and patterns of habits with my kids, and so far are full of misses. I made a checklist based weekly routine on a spreadsheet with task such as racking the dishwasher, and pushing the right buttons on it, the same goes for clothes — learn to separate clothes based on color, and other characteristics etc.

This a simple printed paper stuck near the kitchen for them to just run their fingers on the checklist to see if they have to do for the day of the week. There is no specific time or a deadline but I’m training them to look at in the morning, after school, and before bed. For instance, the before bed routine makes sure we run the dishwasher while we sleep to have fresh washed dishes the next morning.

Besides the usual rewards of extra game-time, chocolates, etc. we have also introduced a “Daughter of the Month” with special privileges.

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