Dirt vs. Ipad

I'm sure you've seen the joke about how kids these days know how to operate an iPad at age 2 and we spent our days eating dirt when we were that age.Some background: we have 2 kids, 4yo and 1yo and have decided to avoid screens for as long as possible, as in no cartoons, no iPad games, no educational videos, etc. We haven't gone out of our way to hide computers/phones/tablets from them. They see us work on computers, take pictures with our phones and so on. However, we have refrained from watching TV when the kids are awake or around since there's no time for that during the day anyway. This has worked well for us.Anyway, my husband's co-worker was regaling him with stories of how his 5yo is a master of iPad, which caused DH to wonder if we are depriving our kids of some essential experience they'll need to succeed later in life. Currently they're both spending a lot of time outside, playing with water, mud, sand and whatever else can be found outside, and loving it. They have not expressed any desire for screen time, except for the eldest occasionally asking to work on the computer like daddy, which amounts to him gleefully inputting stuff into an Excel spreadsheet.So my thinking is that since technology is such a huge part of everyday life, our kids will have plenty of opportunities to get accustomed to using all these gadgets as they grow. However, they will soon grow out of playing with mud and it would be such a disservice to them to substitute that for screen time.Your thoughts? via /r/Parenting https://ift.tt/2LECR6s