I don’t think we should look at these people as the paragon of parenting. It’s easy to imagine that every decision they made is some blessed path, but that’s just a halo effect.
It’s easy to engage in some magical thinking about Jobs or Gates as if they know something distantly ominous about screens that told them to ban their kids from them, that they kept secret from the public in order to sell the screens. I don’t think so.
I think it’s pretty obvious that “too much screen time is bad” for kids, but it’s not that simple either.
As a parent, I struggle to find the right balance for my kids, but I also don’t think it’s some weird sinister plot to ruin humanity, and I’m just a sheep for letting my kids veg out on YouTube and Minecraft on the weekends.
Jobs and Gates also are(/were) extremely wealthy, which has to be a factor here. If you can afford to pay someone for in-home childcare 30+ hours a week, it's a lot easier to avoid the temptation of parking your kid in front of a screen for a few hours to give you time to eat breakfast and do laundry and take a quick breather.
It’s easy to engage in some magical thinking about Jobs or Gates as if they know something distantly ominous about screens that told them to ban their kids from them, that they kept secret from the public in order to sell the screens. I don’t think so.
I think it’s pretty obvious that “too much screen time is bad” for kids, but it’s not that simple either.
As a parent, I struggle to find the right balance for my kids, but I also don’t think it’s some weird sinister plot to ruin humanity, and I’m just a sheep for letting my kids veg out on YouTube and Minecraft on the weekends.