None of my kids got any screen time (including TV) until 2 or 3 years old. This was a good decision, but perhaps it should've lasted until about 5. Technology w

None of my kids got any screen time (including TV) until 2 or 3 years old. This was a good decision, but perhaps it should've lasted until about 5. Technology was a huge problem, and I think contributed incredibly negatively to their mental and physical well-being. The truly bad decision was giving my first child personal devices at about age 7 -- because he was very interested in them and I thought it would be a good hobby. This meant old laptops and phones we had lying around. If I had a second try, I would try to postpone personal devices until they are 16, or at least 12 -- the longer the better. I had plenty of fights with my second kid about my monitoring of those devices and letting them have phones in their rooms over the night -- and my second mistake was eventually giving in due to those fights. I now know that I would give exactly 0 inches on monitoring the devices and absolutely not let them have phones in their rooms over the night as long as they live in our house. Note that educating your kids to stay away from devices kind of demands that you also don't use them while you're with your kids. They learn by example unfortunately. There might be my third mistake. If I had any ideals about parenting, they are so long gone that I don't remember ever having them. People tell me that I listen to my children and negotiate with them more than parents usually do -- that might be a good idea. I think my overall tip is that you will make mistakes and you should not dwell endlessly on those mistakes. Move on, learn something, but don't ruminate. Children will make you a worse person that you thought you were, but they also make you a better person that you thought you could be. (Also: if your kid is loud, protect your ears -- physical pain makes good parenting so much more difficult)