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A parent isn't necessarily a good parent, and non-parents won't necessarily bad parents. The creators can also work with parents and parenting specialists, and

A parent isn't necessarily a good parent, and non-parents won't necessarily bad parents. The creators can also work with parents and parenting specialists, and read parenting books, something which "real" parents often never do. I would like to see your arguments about the unsettling things, instead of attacking the founders themselves. I too believe there might be some bad ideas about this app, though it seems useful for someone like me who'd like to improve his habits.

awb 5y ago
> I would like to see your arguments about the unsettling things, instead of attacking the founders themselves. I’m not attacking the founders. Just providing feedback that the app itself as well as their backstory doesn’t sit well with me (for reasons mentioned above). You shouldn’t be in the startup business if you think direct feedback is an attack. FYI, I’m a parent with 3 kids in their target demographic. Here’s a quick hit list of issues: * Replacing cooperation with gamification * Moving an important piece of parent/child communication to a generic digital interface * Trying to build a long-term habit (chores) with a short-term goal (making a pet not go to sleep). What happens when the kids friends say that digital pets are lame and FPS or RTS games are cool? How do you motivate the kid to do chores now? My kids are into games for a few months at most on average, best case scenario is off and on for a couple years at most. They grow up and they’re interests change. * Kids learning / activities are highly personal and a lot of successful ones start with a similar backstory: “I built X for my own kids and they loved it so much I built a business out of it.” There’s no way as a parent of 13 years I’m listening to 3 college kids about what they think is best for my kid. Any interview with a Parenting blog/magazine is almost DOA, unless they really want to play up the Silicon Valley trope of being able to out-think any problem, even one you’ve never experienced directly. Not sure how far that’ll fly though. But if I have two apps and one is built by young, parentless techies and another by some untechie parents, I’m naturally going to give the parents the edge when it comes to introducing something to my young kids. Anyway, all the critiques are starting to get massively downvoted, so I’ll leave it there, but I could continue on although I’m not sure it would do much good. As others said, maybe the goal is to make an app enough parents want and I’m just a parent that would never want this app.
- GreenWatermelon 5y ago
  I appreciate you taking the time to write those issues. Indeed they were what I was looking for. I upvoted because I think those are good critiques, and some gave me a new perspective on the matter.

awb 5y ago

> I would like to see your arguments about the unsettling things, instead of attacking the founders themselves. I’m not attacking the founders. Just providing feedback that the app itself as well as their backstory doesn’t sit well with me (for reasons mentioned above). You shouldn’t be in the startup business if you think direct feedback is an attack. FYI, I’m a parent with 3 kids in their target demographic. Here’s a quick hit list of issues: * Replacing cooperation with gamification * Moving an important piece of parent/child communication to a generic digital interface * Trying to build a long-term habit (chores) with a short-term goal (making a pet not go to sleep). What happens when the kids friends say that digital pets are lame and FPS or RTS games are cool? How do you motivate the kid to do chores now? My kids are into games for a few months at most on average, best case scenario is off and on for a couple years at most. They grow up and they’re interests change. * Kids learning / activities are highly personal and a lot of successful ones start with a similar backstory: “I built X for my own kids and they loved it so much I built a business out of it.” There’s no way as a parent of 13 years I’m listening to 3 college kids about what they think is best for my kid. Any interview with a Parenting blog/magazine is almost DOA, unless they really want to play up the Silicon Valley trope of being able to out-think any problem, even one you’ve never experienced directly. Not sure how far that’ll fly though. But if I have two apps and one is built by young, parentless techies and another by some untechie parents, I’m naturally going to give the parents the edge when it comes to introducing something to my young kids. Anyway, all the critiques are starting to get massively downvoted, so I’ll leave it there, but I could continue on although I’m not sure it would do much good. As others said, maybe the goal is to make an app enough parents want and I’m just a parent that would never want this app.

GreenWatermelon 5y ago
I appreciate you taking the time to write those issues. Indeed they were what I was looking for. I upvoted because I think those are good critiques, and some gave me a new perspective on the matter.