I guess it helps that I too started computers early. My first being a Commodore 64 and basically every system in between then and now. So, I'm more inclined to let my kids use technology than my parents (who were very welcoming of tech) were. I still force them to go outside and eat dirt, like I had to as a kid (J/k on the dirt bit).

Ha! I ate dirt in the 70s as a toddler! and spiders!

Eating dirt actually helps build the gut-biome. and it helps kids stay healthy through fortifying the immune system (this is why all the 'hand-sanitizers' are actually worse for human health)

But I was lucky - I grew up within 500 feet of Lake Tahoe, and would just walk out the door, go up Ward Creeek to the backside of Alpine Meadows, setup booby traps for hikers (trip wires... it was the 1980s..)

But I coerced my dad to buy a machine for his "business" and then I took over the machine and played tons of games - but would also be 'kicked out of the house until dinner' at times and just explore the forest, swim in the lake, or steal boats.

Again, this was like 1986 and I stole a bunch of boats because my dad was a big general contractor who built and cared for a crap-load of lake front properties with boat-houses, and I knew where my dads clients were all the time, so I could steal their boats for joy rides... and for some of the houses I had the keys.

It was a common thing in Tahoe in the 1980s to break into vacation homes and throw "keggers"