My kids have been playing since I got my first pin in 2011. They were 2 & 3 at the time and of course, both button mashers. Now they are 6 & 7, no longer button mash and are getting pretty good. Just like any other new player, they just need to learn how to play. They are most definitely games and my kids are the main reason I collect pins & arcades. These pictures are at various ages over the last couple years.

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My daughter started around the age of 3, as soon as she was able to reach both flippers..
she even started with safecracker as that cabinet is smaller

I never was afraid of her doing any damage. When they're small they just flip the pinball and that's it, later I've learned her not to double flip all the time. Didn't have a problem with her starting 4 games (she knows the press the startbutton once).
Now there's this one time wrote with sharpie on my new decalled AFM, but that's another story

Sheesh, some of you guys need to chill. They are games meant to be played by everyone. I have been having my sons soccer teams, baseball teams and hockey teams over playing since he was 5 and none of my games have ever had any damage as a result. He is 14 now and up until they were 12 they preferred crawling under them when playing nerf as they made great forts.

The only rules I have (same for adults) is no food/drinks on the games and no toys on top. Never had a problem. They can play my Tron LE the same as my Johnny mnemonic.

I hate chimping on the flippers and as others do, I usually spend some time demonstrating the proper way. I also explain the rules (shoot for the blinking things) and try to aim.

Yes, I also hid the sharpies when the kids came over. Because I was a kid once and I used a black permanent marker to beautify my moms new white kitchen cupboards when they decided to sleep in late one morning. S o I guess bad things can happen but they were meant to enjoy.

Keep on flippin!

It's only 37sec long.

When I was living at an apartment in Louisville, a neighbor saw me unloading a JY. The next day he saw me and talked about how cool it was to see those again. I invited him to come see my 4 pin collection. He was incredibly annoying and started talking about Nazi memorbilia and how he would wander the earth as a spirit when he dies (you can't make that stuff up). I told him he was welcome to bring his kids over to play sometime if he wanted (5 and 7). He said, "I'm waiting until they are a little older before I introduce them to that sort of thing....if you know what I mean". I never talked to him again.

Somewhat related but a funny story to me. No, introduce them right away. Teach them to not go crazy on the buttons if you can. My nieces wear mine out and I take my games to shows and that's how most treat them.

Seriously this is what this hobby has come to?...(urge to rant rising)

I've been in this hobby for 30 years; and I'm 36 now (even you guys can do that math). My step father had 3 machines when I was 6; only one worked, I played that dipsy doodle for hours on end for years.

While a visionary in the collecting of pinball, my step father is not mechanically or electrically inclined at all. So he would hire pinball repair guys to come to the house and fix machines as the collection grew. I was the kid assigned to hang out with the repair guy and report the problems with game play.

Those hours hanging out with the repair guys formed the basis for all of my repair skills today. And while I don't ever have to call someone to come fix a machine; I do have the benefit of all of you (and the internet) which we didn't have the wide spread benefit of back then.

But every part of my machine that is repaired I show my kids what I'm doing, and how it works. Forming the basis of a lifetime of I what hope is in innate sense of "hey I bet I can figure that out" whatever "that" might be.

I have 3 kids; and they've been allowed to play every machine I have since birth. These are commercial grade machines; meant to be put on location and banged on by the general public. If that thought frightens you then go apply another coat of wax to that vintage car in the garage; I'll be out enjoying my 65 mustang on the road!

Yea, threads like this make me cringe. The games were designed to be abused by drunk adults in bars. What damage can a kid do do by pressing a flipper button? A button that was specifically designed to be pressed MILLIONS of times.

Even better, if they can't reach the flipper buttons, get them a stool!

My 3 mo old LOVES to lay on the glass and watch the lights. He drools all over it. Can't wait til he is old enough to play! He can mash those buttons all he wants, he isn't gonna hurt it.

Kids come over, they whale on the flippers, put 4 games on at a time, leave in the middle of games, thats what kids do. These machines were made to take a beating on route. One night of kids going to town on your machines doesnt mean theyre going to wear down in that small amount of time.

Took me a while to get used to, but I am over it at this point. Anything to make them happy and want to play with old technology. I just follow them around and either plunge the remaining balls, or switch the machine off and on again.

TRY and tell them to put one game on and finish it before starting another...I dare you, hahaha.

In one ear out the other. I would say 6-7 would be minimum for them to fully grasp whats going on unless they are actually focused and interested. Otherwise, they just want to see the lights and the features in action.

But think about the flippers!!!

Love my dipsy doodle. Tough game. It's all about points while the ball is alive. No bonus. Nice story.

The kids really can't hurt the flippers much by hitting them over and over. These are comercial grade pieces of equipment. They were built to handle much worse conditions. If something jars loose it would have happened sooner or later. That is the nature of pinball.

We actually had a friends two little ones over Saturday and they did exactly what you were describing, starting four player games, smashing the buttons over and over, and bashing our piano keys as well. Lol Two four years olds and two two year olds. The two guests were tickled to play the games. The four year old actually learned a little flipper control all on his own. He played several games on Metallica just had a blast. The little one especially liked the piano. Why squash that enthusiasm? They had an awesome time and told their parents all about it. The only downside that I see is more potential buyers(competition) when they get older, lol.

That being said, if you don't want them being played leave them off or throw a cover over them.

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I think when he said if they're old enough to reach, he meant both buttons at the same time, not a height requirement. I have one of those ottoman fabric/wood cubes with the small pillow top to it that sits under my PinBot and when she wants to play I just slide it out. Perfect height, hands reach the sides quite nicely. She'll do a few games until frustration sets in and I just keep trying to coach her to hit the flipper when needed otherwise it tends to whack it back down into the center anyway with a crappy ricochet. She learns, I kept on her about starting four player games, and that came to a stop after a couple of weeks and hasn't happened since. I just kept switching it off and restarting it or just leaving it off, it made my point.

The most wear I notice isn't her fault, it's just the age of the game and how finicky the setup on it may be. The Gold Ball I have is a love hate situation as it's a speedy low scoring EM wannabe that loves to go down the center or right a lot. But, it is fun, a good coach on learning aiming shots, and it requires no maintenance. PinBot I love, but at times I get mad at it because it seems that flipping run up to and through the vortex is so pissy that you could fart in the tables general direction and it won't be happy enough to cleanly repeat the same shot to the top sometimes banging apparent thin air to a 5K shot or it'll run fast to the top, or creep there...total mystery. I have to tweak it ever so often which I don't like having to do, but I do it. Maybe if I were smarter at fixing/rigging these things I could bulletproof that better, but I have no idea.

Lord Atticus will rule the pinball world and I will gladly be one of his loyal followers!

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Rob Bell
Robsgameroom.com

I can vividly remember playing pinball at the local arcade sometime around the age of 4-6 (1987-89ish). If it wasn't for pinball being a really cool alternative to the booming (at the time) Nintendo Entertainment System, I probably wouldn't have the appreciation I do today for pinball.

My son is 6, but when he was 4, I started him on SMB Mushroom World at the local arcade game. Skee ball gives him redemption tickets, so SMB Mushroom World (being both small AND a redemption pin) was the perfect introduction to get him into something at around the same time I did. Now he's all about choosing what pin he wants to play next and you can see an enthusiasm and energy much more in depth than I had at the same age. I just through playing was cool. He's actively seeking out games that strike chords with him (Mousin Around, Space Shuttle, Cyclone, WOZ, TAF, Star Wars, Spiderman).

Get your kids into pinball early before they turn into my nieces and nephew who are glued to their stupid iDevices all day, even at the damn dinner table.

I'll be honest in that I didn't feel like reading 2 pages of post to see if this was said already so if it has been already, forgive me.

I don't understand the concern at all. The wear on the game for having a kid play for 1 hour double flipping all the time is still going to be less than what a game would see on route in one day. It's a non-issue and isn't hurting anything unless something was already wrong with your game. If a board blows it was going to anyways. Worst case, you need to replace a couple of coil sleeves a little sooner than if the kids weren't playing the games. That's $1 a flipper and 15 mins time. Not worth the heartache.

My daughter started when she was old enough to stand on a stool and reach a button (2 years old). At that point she constant flipped one side while I played the other side. At about 3 she could reach both sides and now plays on her own most of the time. She still gets a kick out of playing with Dad so sometimes I still get the privilege to play one side while she does the other.

At 4 years old she had learned to turn a game on and off on her own and now (4 now) just goes in and out of the gameroom when she gets the itch.

That was my daughter, but we also open up our house once a year to my wifes class for an end of year party. In the past it was a bunch of first graders now it's 4th grade as she moved grades 2 years ago. Most of these kids double flip and have no clue what to do but the laughter and smiles makes it worth it anyways.

Some things are just more important in life and bring joy to a child is worth more than a couple bucks to clean/repair a game.

You're kid in you're home is nothing compared to the public.

I let my 3 year old play. She flaps the flippers sure, but she's slowly learning more and more.

Let 'em play, that's what these games are made for.

The two are not mutually exclusive.

I don't have a problem with reaching both buttons as a minimum... usually 2 years old is good enough

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NO. WAY.

I'm 15, one of the youngest members on the forum, and I've been playing pinball well for more than 2 years. Just because you're younger doesn't mean you can't appreciate something not many other people do. Even though I also enjoy video games (like many other people my age), pinball is as equal a hobby. And I'm glad to see other kids getting into pinball.

Opened my air conditioned garage this Halloween and had a great time. Had a bunch of little ones playing, and loving it, and I didn't even know most of them them. Great night and Ill probably do it again this year.

My neighbor's son asks me to open it up from time to time for him and his buddies. He's like 4 and they love to play. Connor is actually pretty good, the other kids are mashers, but it's all good. They have fun.

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Kids can be pretty smart and most of them know how to listen. Take two minutes to explain the basics.
How to start the game
How to plunge
How to flip one flipper at a time
How to only flip when you need to

These four bits of info will make all the difference.

Kids are kids, let them play, let them double flip and smear their hands over the glass....

If you can afford a pinball machine, spend the few $$$ on a flipper rebuild kit in 5 years time and some glass cleaner. This pales in comparison to the look in kids eyes when they hit the ball, full of excitement and gratitude for letting them have a go.

For the record, we just hosted a 2 yr old birthday party, and had 9 kids giving all my machines a flogging - all double flipping constantly, the only thing i needed to do was clean the glass afterwards

Yep. If they need a stool, they game isn't for them. Pinball isn't a little kids toy. I don't need every game running on 4 player while some out of control kid runs from machine to machine button mashing start and every other bottom he sees at his eye level.

Commercial grade machine designed for exactly this.

We had our kids bday parties starting at age 5 thinking pinball and arcade games would be fun for all the kids, let me tell you the kids loved it soooo much. Now 7 years later and still having their party.

Don't get me wrong.....the flipper mash, and pumping the start button, and leaving the games with a game partially done, so every game I had was running drove me NUTS. But I do think pins are to share.....then again you can "save" it and just play it yourself, never let anyone touch it..."it's mine leave it alone" and you will die a lonely old man....ya crabby old fart

Yeah that's what I am talking about, drove me nuts, but never hurt anything.....though it was only a 1 hour party back then

Start them young

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My son has been playing and watching since I can remember. He is nearly 3. If he burns up a coil or screws up a shooter rod, oh well. He loves them. The worst that usually happens is I have to wipe down the glass afterward from smearing fingerprints.

Getting my started young. She's only 1 and may only watch for a few minutes but she pushes the start button and pulls on the plunger. I noticed last time her and I played she was reaching for the flipper buttons. This is her pin as of now. Daddy modded it with a real silverball. The flippers need a rebuild tho lol.

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Both of my machines are pretty hammered anyway. What are they going to do to them that hasn't been done already?
It's just fun to watch them!

Wrong! It is for them! My (now) 3 year old started playing when he was 2. He's good!

Or if you don't know the "value" of these investment vehicles...

No problem.

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Children shouldn't be allowed to touch pinball machines or live past conception.

I'd agree to a point with this if the kids refuse to listen. Mine needs to stand on a square ottoman I have, but she doesn't mash, doesn't rub all over the glass, even keeps her drink if she has one off the table completely. It was fairly quick to break her in to behave because if she lit up more than 1P at a time when I'd warn her, I'd flip it off and tell her go away and play with something else. She'd flip out and wail, then go do something else and learned quickly it was my way or the highway. Now she plays well for her age I think, tries her best at it, and doesn't flipper mash as she really does try and hit the thing at the right moment and the right one too.

Msch, remember you were conceived at some point too. >:]

My 1yr old kept seeing my lock screen on my phone and saying pinball. She now keeps pushing my hands away from the flipper buttons saying no daddy. I used to play with her sitting on the table.

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If a child can reach both flipper buttons simultaneously, they can learn to play pinball.
A little teaching beyond that goes a long way.
Granted, super wide bodies can cause some problems like Paragon and Embryon, but those are exceptions.
Children brought up on pinball, stay with pinball, regardless of technology.