macbook for kids, what age?

[akaalan225]

Hello all: We're latter-day parents to a very smart 10 year old girl about to turn 11, who's lobbying hard for her own laptop, and since she's grown up in
an Apple home, wants a mac. (I can't blame her...) I have no issues with her being careful with it, she's good with her cherished belongings, and we'd likely purchase this from her own savings. My feeling is a macbook will take care of her computer needs now thru high school, maybe further. Right now what she wants it for mostly is to play SPORE, which has seriously slowed and bogged down my desktop, where we compete for computer time. In anyone's humble opinion, am I nuts to consider this for her at this age? I could see big benefits with taking it on vacations (she's an only child and spends much time alone when not with us) for her entertainment, not to mention my having easier access to email. Thanks for any input!

 

[cwa107]

NOTE: I moved this thread out of Suggestions/Comments/Feedback and into the Apple Notebooks forum.

As far as your daughter, you know her better than I - if you think she's ready for that kind of responsibility, I'd go for it.

 

[pigoo3]

We're latter-day parents

Sorry but I'm not really sure how religious affiliation has any bearing on the question at hand.

to a very smart 10 year old girl about to turn 11 who's lobbying hard for her own laptop

Don't children of almost any age lobby hard for almost anything they want, and parents don't approve right away!

I have no issues with her being careful with it, she's good with her cherished belongings, and we'd likely purchase this from her own savings.

On the surface this sounds like a good plan...but has your daughter ever broken any of her toys (either on purpose or accidentally)? Because this can also happen with a laptop computer. I can't tell you how many stories I have heard from "responsible" adults that have damaged their laptop computers!

My feeling is a macbook will take care of her computer needs now thru high school, maybe further.

I would not consider this a realistic assumption. If your daughter is 10 years-old now...and assuming she will be 17-18 when she graduates from high school...that means that this laptop computer will need to last 7-8 years. I'm sorry...but I just don't see this happening. Not only because computers "age" at an extremely accelerated rate (technological aging)...but add to that the "need" of a young person to have the "latest & greatest" of everything (RIGHT NOW!!!)...and I can almost guarantee you that your daughter will go thru at least 2-3 laptop computers before she graduates from high school!

In anyone's humble opinion, am I nuts to consider this for her at this age? I could see big benefits with taking it on vacations (she's an only child and spends much time alone when not with us) for her entertainment, not to mention my having easier access to email. Thanks for any input!

I would not say that you are "nuts"...but I think that there are a lot of risks in purchasing a laptop for a 10 year-old. Here are seemingly "innocent" situations that occur all the time that lead to a broken laptop:

- I spilled a beverage/liquid on my laptop (now it won't work)
- my laptop fell off my bed (now it won't work)
- a pillow or newspaper was laying on top of my laptop, and I stepped on it accidentally (now it won't work)
- etc., etc., etc.

These again...are examples from presumably responsible adults...versus a 10 year-old.

I think that a nice desktop computer would be a much better option. These are generally speaking not portable...and thus the risk of damage from being dropped or beverages spilled on them is much much lower. Maybe waiting until your daughter is around 14 & starting high school might be a better time for a laptop.

But as "cwa107" already mentioned...you know your daughter better than we do. We can only make suggestions based on generalities. If laptop computers were MUCH more durable...then a laptop for your daughter might be a better idea. But laptops are more fragile than some folks may think. Sometimes they will survive situations that you would think for sure they would break...then in other instances they break under the most "silly" of circumstances.

Hope this helps,

- Nick

 

[bargsbeer]

I'm 30 years old, When I was a kid my Parents bought me a Macintosh Plus it came with a Image Writer I printer and 20MB HD, and I used well into early High school I took very good care of it.
It was my baby I loved it and cherished it until the day it died. Then again I knew if I didn't take care I would gotten my @ss whipped by my parents.

 

[bargsbeer]

What do you think is the ideal age? My son is 12 and he wants one for his birthday next year.

As young as possible. Computers are the future get them started early.

 

[akaalan225]

laptop for an 11 year old

Thanks for all this input, folks......some are perspectives I hadn't considered.

To Pigoo3.....the "latter day parents" is by no means a reference to a religion, merely that we came into parenting later in life than most do, with both advantages and drawbacks, and we wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I appreciate you "picking apart" my question.

I think this needs more consideration on our parts. I've never owned a laptop but understand they're a more fragile piece of hardware. I wish the iPad had a better app for SPORE than what's offered, that would be a reasonable compromise.

 

[dazcaz]

My 9 year old son has a G4 PPC tower in his bedroom. He did have a G5 but it was unreliable, so we got the G4 (for free) to replace it.
He loves hic Mac and is very proud to be a Mac user as opposed to Windows.
So a youngster having a mac is a good idea.

As for a laptop.... Serious money. I have just bought myself a 13" MBP, and my son adores it, but he's not allowed anywhere near it if he has recently been eating (sticky fingers etc) is eating or drinking. He's a bright, sensible kid, but if he killed my 900 quid laptop I'd be very annoyed!!!!!

The white Macbook is cheaper and even more so from Apple refurb, but they are still serious money. As we all know, Macbooks and MBPs are superb machines and worth the money, but giving one to a very young child really is a risk, no matter how sensible the child is.

Maybe search e-Bay etc for a cheap 2nd hand Mac. Old G4 mac laptops go for sensible prices, try this first before splashing out the serious money on the latest shiny shiny.

Consider a Mac Mini. OK, it's not a laptop, but it's rock solid, and safe. If drink gets spilled on the keyboard, replace the keyboard, the main computer will still work... Not so with a laptop

Kids break stuff, even stuff they love. A cheap machine is replaced more easily than an expensive one.

 

[pigoo3]

To Pigoo3.....the "latter day parents" is by no means a reference to a religion, merely that we came into parenting later in life than most do, with both advantages and drawbacks, and we wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I appreciate you "picking apart" my question.

I apologize that I wrongly categorized your "latter day" statement. But like I said...the "latter day" parents information inclusion really has no bearing on your questions. Whether you are an older parent or a younger parent...the question remains the same "macbook for kids, what age?"

Also...if you noticed...I provided you with a very lengthy & detailed reply to your situation...so don't focus entirely on my comments about the "latter day" information inclusion.

Myself & others don't get paid for the info we provide...and I can assure you it took me a good 20+ minutes to write my detailed & informative reply above.

Good luck with your decision,

- Nick

 

[thomas998]

Really depends on how well your daughter follows rules and how you set her up to start with.

My daughters got laptops at the tender age of 8 (windows machine) and 5 (macbook)... They have certain ground rules set up with them. The most important was that they could no longer take anything liquid into their bedrooms where they had the laptops. No water at the side of the bed, they had to learn to get up and go to the kitchen.

Thus far their computers are in perfect condition... frankly they take better care of them than I do of my own. But they also know that if they screw it up they don't get a second chance.

The one thing you will have to deal with is how to limit access to sites you don't want them to get to.... and don't think they wont understand how to get to places just because you don't set them up with an account... the 5 year has shown my how to create a fake email account so that she can log into a site that requires one, so be warned that a 10 year old should be even better at getting around internet access blocks.

Now if you think the laptop is going to last through high school, well I think you are probably fooling yourself there. Look at it as an expensive toy for her and don't try to justify it as some educational tool for high school... good chance it will be outdated or we will all be using tablet computers by then anyways.