Bill Gates’ story? It’s like the ultimate American dream. The guy was a math whiz, dropped out of Harvard at 19, and teamed up with his buddy Paul Allen to start Microsoft in 1975. Now, he’s one of the richest people in the world, sitting at number 7 on the list. So, did you think his kids are privileged? Like, are their lives always full of rainbows and sunshine owning to all that money? Not exactly. Take his oldest daughter, Jennifer Gates. Instead of following in her dad’s tech footsteps, she’s out there doing her own thing, she’s a doctor and an equestrian.  So, how do you think life is for the Gates kids? Is it all smooth sailing and easy street? Probably not! Even with all that wealth, it’s not like everything’s just handed to them.

Bill Gates was a strict father, he did not allow his children to venture much into technology. After his daughter Jennifer had finished her education at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York she was not allowed to use a smartphone until she was 14 years old. However, Jenn has said that they were not given mobile phones till they got to be teenagers. Bill even told The Mirror, “We don’t have cell phones at the table when we are having a meal, we didn’t give our kids cell phones until they were 14 and they complained other kids got them earlier”

As is often the case with fathers once their children grow up. With Rory being 25 and Phoebe only 22, more features are changing, as can be seen. Phoebe the younger of the two is now turning the role around and educating her father on how to work the newest gadgets. Her views are a far cry from Gates who offered a more conservative view. Of course, he limited their access to technology, but they were born with smartphones and social media accounts, and this makes their view of technology much more permissive than their father’s old-fashioned stance. Recently, Bill, who had made email a huge part of our daily lives, now texts his youngest daughter, Phoebe, just to let her know he’s sent her an email. And Phoebe’s reply was ouch!

Phoebe casually told him, “No one uses email for personal communications anymore. Just text me.” Imagine that! The man who co-founded Microsoft and made tools like Outlook is being schooled by his own daughter on what’s outdated. But here’s the twist, Gates isn’t annoyed by it. In fact, he says this whole situation has actually brought him and Phoebe closer. “We’ve ended up talking more on the phone,” he shared, a small victory for a dad trying to keep up with Gen Z’s ever-changing tech habits. Funny enough, this is the same Bill Gates who once had a strict no-phones-until-14 rule, a policy his kids used to see as absurd and, frankly, a little unfair and insulting!

Bill Gates’ no-nonsense tech rules at home

Contrary to other wealthy parents, Bill Gates has been very careful where his children are concerned about the use of technology. Speaking to the Mirror in an interview, he said his kids would whine that they received phones later in the day compared to other kids, but that did not influence his decision. Fortunately, Gates also noted that although he doesn’t control his children’s passwords to their Facebook accounts, he takes safety in the social networks very seriously. With this cautious strategy in regulation, one could not rule with some other leaders in technology like Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, famously didn’t let his kids use the iPad at home, even though he was the genius behind its creation. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home,” Jobs told The New York Times in 2011—a philosophy Bill Gates seemed to echo. Going back to 2007, Gates made sure to set a philosophy of protecting children from the invasive of screens when he realized that his daughter was addicted to a particular video game. That’s always been the mentality of Gates; the man has an uncanny ability to always grasp whatever period he is in. Who knows? Maybe he’ll find a way to reinvent email to match the fast-paced, text-loving style of Gen Z!