Retro-Tech Parenting • Hacker News Board

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#191

Post by canpan » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 3:33 AM UTC

lubujackson wrote: post #64

TimTheTinker wrote: post #18

Some of the things my wife and I have provided for our kids: - lots of bookcases with probably >1500 books (including lots of kids/picture books) - what we've collected over the years - a family laptop (2012 MacBook Pro) with no internet connection, pre-loaded with Pages, Sheets, Affinity Photo/Designer, a few small games, and some coding tools (Python, Ruby, VSCode, Scratch, etc.). - Lego Spike and Spike Prime robot…

The CD player is the big hit for my 10ish y.o. kids. Physical ownership and control of music is a huge boost for little kids and really suppirts musical exploration.

Not only kids. I am an adult, and I also enjoy physical ownership. Physical music (especially LP) sales have been rising yoy since 2020.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#192

Post by nutifafa » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 3:36 AM UTC

I certainly agree here, tech in the wrong hands is danger waiting to be unleashed. As a parent guiding what your child have access to is crucial to their wellbeing.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#193

Post by jmmv » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 4:08 AM UTC

> I’m starting to fall in love with CDs again.

I visited a long-time friend recently and was surprised that they were using modern LP player for music. But the surprise itself actually turned into curiosity. I got the urge to buy one too, if only to go back to the more-dedicated experience of choosing a disk from a catalog and playing it with explicit intention.

Maybe LPs are too much, but trying physical CDs again sounds like a cool idea. Especially because they can easily be rewritten and maybe I could get kids to create their own "mix tapes".

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#194

Post by estetlinus » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 4:43 AM UTC

I remember my dad trying to make me fall in love with The Beatles. He loved The Beatles. I sat there quietly on the sofa while he got to relive his adolescence. The experience felt less like discovering something together and more like being a prop in someone else’s nostalgia.

I can’t help getting the same feeling from this blog post. “Look at this amazing CD player!” Cool, Dad. I’m genuinely happy for you. Meanwhile, Katie just got an iPhone 17 in her Easter egg. I'm a dad myself, and I dread the moment my daughters find out about TikTok...

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#195

Post by scrappyjoe » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 5:02 AM UTC

patrickdavey wrote: post #130

scrappyjoe wrote: post #28

I set up a little neighbourhood pbx this year on an oracle cloud always free instance. Took a couple of days. Any family can buy a WiFi-enabled office phone and I’ll set up an extension for them. It’s working great! My six year old had a 15 minute chat with classmate while we were making dinner today; they have arranged a play date for next Monday. A couple of weeks ago a 5 year old invented prank calls. Every now an…

Can you point to an article on how to do this? This sounds _amazing_

Here’s my ansible playbook if you want to give it a go.

https://github.com/riazarbi/homephone

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#196

Post by spaqin » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 5:03 AM UTC

infra_snowman wrote: post #149

I don't think kids need 1990s technology. I think they need technology that serves them rather than technology that wants something from them.

Well, that's a description of 90s tech. In lack of the new technology that serves the user, old must make do.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#197

Post by tayo42 » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 6:01 AM UTC

OkayPhysicist wrote: post #125

floren wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"I'll be done with marching band practice at 6:30" "Ok, I'll come get you then"

Works great until your kid's the one that can't join their friends on, say, grabbing dinner after band practice, because they have no way of telling you "hey, change of plans". If your kid can only participate in things that are planned well in advance, your kid is going to be missing out on ~80% of gatherings. Because everyone else is in the habit of making spontaneous plans, made possible by interconnectivity.

You can just borrow a phone

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#198

Post by JuniperMesos » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 6:05 AM UTC

ares623 wrote: post #133

Glad I'm not alone. I do it mostly for me, but there is also the ulterior motive/hope that my young kids will enjoy media that isn't constantly trying to get them addicted; or at least know that _alternatives_ exist. So far I've: - gotten into film photography. It's so much more enjoyable and I cherish the few crappy photos I take. I have thousands of "perfect" photos on my phone but there's only few dozen that reall…

Serious question, why are you paying for netflix? What would happen if you just stopped doing that?

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#199

Post by ZaoLahma » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 6:31 AM UTC

myky22 wrote: post #32

Glad to see this. As an Child and Adolescent Psychiatric, expert in screen time and soon to be father. I found myself thinking more and more about this. I thought about resurrecting my old game boy advance to introduce my little boy to the tech world. The long loading times, no auto-save, no in game purchases... I think It Will help him develop a healthier relationship with the machine in his more vulnerable youth.

> I thought about resurrecting my old game boy advance to introduce my little boy to the tech world.

Hello myopia my old friend. We will wear glasses to the end. Because my vision's slowly slipping. Played Gameboy while I should be sleeping. And the vision that I once could claim. Doesn't remain. Now there's just the blur, of distance.

Re: Retro-Tech Parenting

#200

Post by perilunar » Fri, Jun 05, 2026, 6:40 AM UTC

Re VoIP phones: don't most home routers come with a phone port that you can just plug a regular old phone handset into? My ISP provides a home phone number with the router and it just works as it aways has. I guess technically it's VoIP now but originally i think they shared the audio line with a splitter?