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It’s so amusing seeing the difference in households through threads like this. In my household, cereal isn’t shared between siblings! Unless, you count stealing of course! ;)</p>
<p>We have had a family computer in the family room right in sight of the kitchen which is also the “guest” computer, the house computer. My kids have all bought their own laptops at various times, though I would buy one computer when each started college if needed, or later years if their own laptop sufficed (my one son had just bought himself a laptop about a year before college). Two of mine have gotten Ipads as gifts. I pay for the wifi connection here at the house, and we also pay for a family plan of phones so my kids have the luxury of free cell phone usage. They buy their own cell phones except for the high schooler or in a few cases as gifts which college kid got last year when he desperately needed a new phone–the upgrade was a couple hundred bucks and that was his main Christmas gift. The others can upgrade and replace as they please. We do have insurance on the phones as well. My one son actually has the plan in his name which gives us a hefty discount in the usage cost and some other benefits as well. I should charge some of my kids, but at this point in time the family plan amount is affordable to us, and so we give them this benefit. </p>
<p>Any other electroinics? Not a thing other than possible gifts, but because we do have one son in the business, he can get wares at a good price for himself and the rest of the family. It’s tough coming up with gifts for adult kids, as all they need these days is a smart phone and maybe a laptop. Everything else is just extra baggage it seems. </p>
<p>My S15 received a Android phone for Christmas. We paid $50 max for phone and case. The 4 of us share a laptop. We will get him a computer for graduation that will meet Engineering requirements. We do buy small electronics for Christmas gifts but they do not exceed $100. When they were younger we did buy a Wii but it was a shared gift for all 3 kids for Christmas. If they break it, they have to replace it. </p>
<p>Santa Claus puts them under the tree</p>
<p>I bought my sons a PS2 and an XBox360 as shared Christmas gifts. When S1 left for college, they agreed to let him take the Xbox with him for the first semester. At Christmas, he brought it home and it was S2’s turn. </p>
<p>Times have changed in some ways. When my kids were younger, everything you read said to make sure your computer is in a public place in the house so you can keep an eye on the kids computer use etc. Experts advised against letting kids have a computer in their room. I remember turning off our internet at night in case a kid tried to sneak downstairs to surf after we were in bed. </p>
<p>Nowadays with even young kids having smartphones, it is virtually impossible to monitor their computer use. </p>
<p>Electronics were always gifts at birthday or holiday time. DS put in some money for an iPod upgrade one time. DD has a regular cell phone because I don’t want to pay for data use. That to me is a bigger deal than the initial cost. </p>
<p>Through High School my daughter and I shared the family desktop (with all the homework she had - she basically had it all afternoon and evening) and she used a dumb phone just for emergencies (no texting etc.) My husband had his own laptop which he also used for work.</p>
<p>The summer before college we got her a Mac laptop and an iphone to use at school (we just paid to upgrade the iphone after 2 years - the laptop is doing fine). Also, we paid the deductible when her iphone was damaged.</p>
<p>Santa has always brought her her video games (brought her a 3DS for Christmas two years ago).</p>
<p>So for us the answer is - parents pay for kid’s electronics.</p>
<p>We gave each girl a laptop for their 16th. We pay for the phones. Any loss or damage gets paid for out of their pockets. </p>
<p>I think we have 11 computers of one kind or another in our household of three. I personally have a laptop, a desktop (well I I used to use that to work at home) a Kindle Fire and Google Fiber gave us a Nexus tablet. My son has a tablet and a laptop that we bought (he’s dysgraphic so needs to use a keyboard for everything) and he built his desktop gaming computer out of components he bought himself. And I think H has at least two laptops. There are probably a coulple of others kicking around. I don’t think we consider electronics giftware; they’re more like electricity or water, I guess.</p>
<p>Our kids bought their own Nintendo game systems (handheld) and games, or got them as gifts. We bought a Wii with the Wii fit for our family to share. It has not gotten all that much use, but it is available for when the kids come home or if H or I are so inclined. 
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<p>Neither kid was interested in owning any other game system, tho S has purchased several and re-sold them (new), as well as other electronics an accessories.</p>
<p>S used the family desktop until he was about 10, I think, then we upgraded and he got the old one. Can’t remember when he got his first laptop, but I think it was 8th or 9th grade. We bought it, he had no income. At one point it broke down in the middle of a robotics programming crisis and it was time for a new one anyway, so we ran to Costco and got one. Then I needed a new one for work, got a great deal on “1 sale a day,” and when it came we decided to switch - my graphics were better for his games, and his large screen was better for my work.</p>
<p>He’s getting a dream laptop for college, as a combo graduation/18th birthday present - he’s actually chipping in for it too, so is grandma (and mom/dad). It was hard for him to give up the idea of a super-gaming desktop, but he’ll probably build that himself after a year or so. He’s really only wanted electronics for presents, so all of his DSs, smartphones, etc. have been gifts. Some of his friends have given him old gaming consoles when they upgraded, but he’s never been all that much into them.</p>
<p>When he lost or broke his phone (I forget which) he had to make do with a dumb phone (family leftover) until the next Christmas. He lost the nice calculator I’d gotten him, so he had to buy a replacement himself. Now that he’s working more, he’ll be shouldering more of the burden for everything, including electronics (and clothes, shoes, books, etc.). We consider some electronics necessities (for a programmer and digital artist, they are), but like everything else in our family, we just figure out what we can need and the best way to get it, which often involves pooling resources or swapping things around.</p>
<p>My parents only pay for family electronics- if they think that due to homework and stuff we need another laptop they’ll buy one, but it’s not MY laptop or my sister’s or my brother’s- it’s a laptop we can use if we need it.
I have a “dumb phone” because it’s free. (Now that Verizon upgrades cost money I am not getting an upgrade- I just reached my phone’s fourth birthday, I celebrated by trying to unstick the send key.) If I want a smartphone, I need to be out of the house and paying for it on my own. Probably college.
I have my own laptop (Samsung Chromebook, $249, so yeah), but my dad made a deal that he’d only let me get it if he paid for half so that he could make rules regarding using it- he didn’t think that it would be fair if I paid for something myself and then he told me how I could use it. So now I have a hundred-dollar laptop which I’m not allowed to bring upstairs (to my room).
I got my Kindle years ago- my dad’s old one- and then my parents contributed partially to the cost for my various Nooks. My most recent one I just got as a graduation present from my grandparents.
My parents bought me my iPod Touch as a “combination birthday, Chanukah, and afikoman* present.” The rationale was basically that if you think you want it badly enough and you want someone else to pay for it, you’d better REALLY want it that badly.
Here on after I think that unless my parents want to spring a present on me I’ll be buying my own electronics.</p>
<p>My DS (rising hs sophomore) and DD2 (rising hs senior) attend schools that require a laptop or ipad. After years of replacing laptops every 18 months or so (with our eldest, now 26) we bought her a MacBook during her sophomore year at college. She still has it- so when it came time to buy the school-required laptops we went with MacBook pros (I think that’s what they were called) and DD2 now has an ipad that she takes to school.</p>
<p>Both DS and DD2 have iphones ( as does DD1, but she’s on her own, lol). The phones are a luxury, but the laptops and ipad have been needed for school. I use a 5 year old PC desktop that is still going strong. </p>
<p>We are a very techy family (dad works for IBM, mom owns her own web design business,) so I think we’re a little different. Dad gets a good discount on a lot of technology through IBM.</p>
<p>My parents always paid for phones, including upgrades. I will be paying for my next one (July 8th) now that I have a “real” job. My sister and I also kick in $50 a month on the cell phone bill to pay for our specific lines (keeps it easy and it’s cheaper than any plan you can get buy yourself.) Mom pays the access fees. Dad gets his cell phone provided–yup, you guessed it–through work.</p>
<p>Mom and dad bought me an inexpensive laptop as a high school grad gift. I paid for my upgrade (the old one quit on me) junior year of college (they paid up front and I paid them back.)</p>
<p>I got both my first-gen Kindle Fire and my Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 as Christmas gifts–and those were pretty much all I got for that given year (which I’m fine with as they’re quite a gift and pricey.)</p>
<p>Usually when I want/need something, I talk with my parents about how we want to make it work. Sometimes they pay, sometimes I pay. If I have a birthday or Christmas coming up and I can wait, that’s usually what happens. Especially if it’s a need. (ie my current phone has a cracked screen and is having lots of problems as it’s 2 years old, so normally mom and dad would help with that, but they just can’t afford the $200 smartphone cost ATM, so I will pay that one.)</p>
<p>“Sorry, this is just different than how I grew up so this is a bit foreign to me. When did you get the first computer? Were you early adopters or late adopters or what? How about internet?”</p>
<p>Vladenschutte, this is the parents’ forum. All of us who are parents of college age students grew up without computers and/or the internet, and when we started, 99% of us started with one family computer and then as needs changed, began to move to individual computers. I think you’re too young to remember a life without the internet, but there was one. </p>
<p>We got our first home computer around 1996/1997 when our kids were around kindergarten age, because of the promise of educational CD’s. It was probably about $3,000, was big and clunky, and there’s probably more computing power in my iPhone. I still have leftover AOL addresses from that era that I occasionally use (for iTunes and some mailing lists), and don’t really care if it’s “dated” because the only people who care about those things seem to be techie types.</p>
<p>My kids got cell phones at age 13, and then iPhones sometime in high school (driven by me, not them). I think they got their own computers around 9th grade, driven by homework needs, and then they got Macs when they went off to school. Frankly right now I think of smartphones and computers as pretty much necessities, so I pay for them. </p>
<p>Right now, for 4 people in the household, there are 3 computers (mine, D, S), 2 iPads (mine, H) and 4 iPhones (one for each of us). My H doesn’t have a lot of computing needs that aren’t satisfied with the iPad, and he can always borrow my computer. The iPads are sort of community property, as it’s understood anyone can use them when the primary user isn’t using them, and they more often than not sit in the family room. </p>
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<p>Also, even in this day and age, there are still plenty of families for whom even a couple of hundred dollars or less is a stretch financially after basic needs like food, rent, and utility expenses are accounted for. As such, there are still plenty of households without a computer. </p>
<p>Got to see and hear about this from donating dozens of older, but still functional computers to disadvantaged households over the last decade and half. </p>
<p>Exactly, cobrat. The school my D goes to is a STEM school, but one with a large number of disadvantaged students. The school has helped some of the families with internet access and computer loans (normally the kids can’t take school computers home). For some of these families a $200 computer might as well be a 2 million dollar computer. I think that’s a tough concept for some people of means to grasp. Going to the local library to use the internet isn’t always easy or convenient. </p>
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<p>Especially with reduced budgets restricting hours and computer availability. </p>
<p>In some libraries in my area, each patron is allowed a maximum of 1 hour or even 30 minutes PER DAY. And that’s assuming there are functional computers to be had considering the reduced funding means there’s sometimes a backlog of broken computers needing repairs due to lack of IT resources.</p>
<p>The people I know who are without computers at home are not really held back by the computer itself. I have two or three that I could give to a family who needed it. The big problem is the ongoing monthly charge for internet access. They simply can’t make that kind of committment. They don’t have cable TV, they have a landline, and there just isn’t anyway for them to get internet at home. And the longer they are without it, the more daunting it becomes. </p>
<p>One child with two parents - all with Android smartphones and one old household PC desktop and we still maintain a landline for phone and fax. Parents pay. School provides child’s Macbook Air. Parents use desktops at work. Wondering how to afford home wifi. No cable, streaming media.</p>