Children on Ipads in restaurants

Maybe the other parent is in the pool interacting with the kids? Is this not normal for a family on holiday at some point during the day?

I do absolutely agree about the sound of course. If he has left his earbuds behind I would not even think of entering a restaurant unless we can find some headphones.

@Somersetlady You're on holiday with a 6 yr old & a 9 yr old & you have spent 2 hours reading & posting replies on a thread you made judging others for screen use & not interacting with their dc 😆😆

Interesting the perception on this thread that parents who don’t have screens out at restaurants must be uber high brow and talk to their kids about Shakespeare at the table. Shockingly we’re actually pretty normal, never listen to radio 4, eat a frozen pizza occasionally and generally the chat with our kids is about funny things that happened that day or any other random subject, sometimes verging on highbrow but usually something mundane and ordinary just like your average family.

Not if they have the sound on, which many of them do. It drives me nuts

Exactly. I'm fed up with it being held up as some kind of unachievable goal. See also: eating decent food.

I'm usually more concerned about the people who allow their kids to play cartoons or games with the volume up. I was recently subjected to Baby Shark on repeat fir an entire meal. It's so rude!

We have no family support whatsoever - if someone other than me or DH was looking after our kids, we were paying them. And yes, we did not do childfree dinners or get time off from them on holiday. And no - at no point have we ever resorted to screens in a restaurant. We rarely went out to eat at anything other than "quick bite" cafes until they were old enough to sit nicely and play with crayons/books/small toys, chat or just wait quietly. Funnily enough, my children have no problems sitting nicely at a long meal now, and have been able to do so since about the start of primary school.

And yes, I happily judge parents who put screens in front of kids in restaurants. There's no need, and it becomes self fulfilling - if they are never expected to sit through a meal because they are glued to the iPad, they are never going to manage it.

Parenting takes work, and increasingly people just can't be arsed and technology makes it easy for them to opt out. If there's an "easy" option, they'll take it.

Couldn’t care less. I’m not even sure tablets were around when mine were little, certainly not like now where everyone has them. Pretty sure we had mobiles but not like today’s, huge, brick like and don’t think they even had Internet functionality. So, we used to take colouring/sticker/puzzle books and new quiet table top toys if going out to dinner. I don’t think that’s any different to iPads/phones today.

We went on holidays once every 3 years (I could never get time off work and then coordinating time off between DH and myself was an utter nightmare). We also were rarely together as worked opposite shifts/days to avoid childcare costs so that time was our only real all together family time. DH and I spent all day interacting with the kids on holidays but dinner was ‘our’ time. Pre dinner drinks, leisurely 3 courses, lots of wine😁. You bet we went stocked up with stuff to entertain the kids and if you saw us, yes, minimally interacted with them as it was our time together. If iPads/phones were like they are now we would have had every kid on one (with headphones of course) for every night of dinner when we were on holidays, absolutely, without a doubt.

My three year old can wait for a meal then eat it nicely, talking to us, without a screen. I've taken him to restaurants regularly since he was a baby so he knows how to behave. His one year old sister will hopefully learn my example too.

In the absence of special needs, I really don't think this is radical or an unrealistic expectation,

Perhaps the parents on holiday letting their dc use screens at meal times are the same ones who are swimming, sightseeing, interacting with them during the rest of the day?

@Mariposistaaa are you going to be "disgusted" and "shamelessly" judging me and my DS enjoying our Saturday lunches out then? What I have to say to that is very rude indeed, so I will refrain. (You can't tell "from the outside" that he is autistic, nor that I am reading a weighty academic tome on the Roman Empire while I eat my lunch 😉)

The only meal I personally thinks it's acceptable to have phones out at is breakfast - basically I read the newspaper ... rest of the day, phones are away and no tv (don't have one where the table is) my children grew up fine with these rules.

I'll be the exception that proves your rule - I'm anti-screens at the table and we have no family support nearby. If we want a meal out just the two of us we hire a babysitter, maybe twice a year. She's just had her own baby though so that's scuppered!

It actually disgusts me and I will shamelessly judge. No excuses, there are plenty of other ways to entertain your children and train them to actually be bored and wait for a short time.

Two things: Regarding adults being "on screens" while eating: I have always loved "taking myself out for lunch" and reading a book. For many decades. It's one of my main little guilty pleasures in life to be honest (very busy professional, generally no time either for lunch or to read books in everyday life). I now do it on my phone Kindle app rather than using a paper book, meaning I have a much wider choice of books to suit my mood when I sit down to eat. And yes, shock horror, I read while I am eating. Through the whole meal. As I did in the old days when I had a paperback in my bag.

Secondly, I mentioned earlier how his phone allows me and autistic DS to go out and have a lovely lunch together, which we do once a week if we possibly can. A PP then mentioned "and yes, before someone starts the "my child is autistic" speech, autism was around for a long time before screens". Well yes, it was. And my DS's life would have been completely different had he been born just a few years earlier. It still sends chills down my spine to think of how his life would be without the very recently invented tech we have now. He cannot speak verbally at all, but communicates perfectly well by typing on a text-to-speech app on...what is that?..,.oh yes, a phone, which hangs around his neck at all times, allowing him to participate in normal life. Should I eschew his only means of communication, which allows him to live as close to a "normal life" as possible, because "autism was around" long before smartphones and text-to-speech apps? No? So equally, I will be grateful for YouTube and the endless variety of videos of train rolling stock and sliding doors which keep him happy while we contentedly enjoy our Saturday lunch. (And no, he does not ignore the servers, he orders his food and asks for the bill like anyone else).

Jacob Rees Mogg, welcome to the thread sir!

When we go out to eat, the first thing I do is get my Latin Primer out, and get them to conjugate a few Verbs. If you can’t tell your Habeo from your Habes, no dessert for you.

Saying that we don’t really eat out, we just get good fresh produce from the local market, and then we all join in a cook together, with a nice glass of local wine.

My children don’t even know what the Internet is, we have an amazing set of Encyclopaedias in the library, where they can look up whatever they want .. as long as it happened before 1950

There are certainly no screens, we only listen to Radio 4, whilst we play a hand of Bridge in the evening.

We're out for a meal at least once a week, maybe more, My son is 2. Most times we're out for lunch it's because we've had a busy morning at the park, zoo, country walk etc so he's usually missed his morning nap and I'm playing a dangerous game of chicken with a toddler whos over tired and hungry at the same time. I'd say about 60% of the time, I can keep him happy with books and toys I've brought for him while we wait for his food to come, but then there are also times when he's completely knackered and my phone (usually toddler educational apps or Peppa pig on silent) is the only thing that will keep him calm until food arrives. Once the food is there i can remove the phone, but if you walked into the pub all you'd see is a mother totally ignoring her child while he stared at a phone screen. You wouldn't know we'd spent the morning having a great time running about outside and you wouldn't have a clue the phone was a last resort and for the benefit of other diners, not me.

Wind your judgy neck in and parent your own kids not everyone elses. Bully for you if your children are perfectly behaved cherubs who've never seen a cartoon.. I was raised the same way and I absolutely hated my parents for it.