To think we've made a mistake with DS big present?

DM gave one to DS as a gift years ago. She had a lot of small kids games and apps on her Google account from when DN was small and wanted to let DS use them. It was a faff to install Google Play on Fire OS and not everything worked anyway.

When he got a few years older we upgraded to an Android tablet, things became much easier and the Google parental controls we gained by DS having his own account meant we could track and control pretty much everything he did on there.

It’s really not confusing. Just make it vanish with some Lego. Try a kiddizoom with a a 6 year old who wishes Roma was her brother and she calls herself Diana it’s not come from my house 😬

I got my daughter a kindle fire a few years ago. When they were selling them off for £30. DD didn't like it. I ended up using it for books. I have some kid's books downloaded on it for when we go away. It's okay for reading on but must be a bit of a disappointment if it's to replace an iPad.

I didn't even realise you'd quoted me, didn't get the usual notification

She has a tablet because I've given her one. There's plenty of mothers like me out there, happily raising our children and giving them access to technology 😊

She has lots of apps on it, educational ones and ones to watch bluey

It has YouTube on it, yes. It's a kids version, but wasn't sure off the top of my head. I do know what she's watching and can control it via a handy amazon parents app

If you don't want your kids to have a tablet, don't give them one

But mine is happy to play with it during long wintery school holidays like the one we're in now. And I'm happy with the short intervals of peace it gives me. 👍

There is definitely a movement where we are for young children not to have these devices-

They are detrimental to the developing brain.

Heck, even phones 📱 are addictive-

“Mummy’s Binky” I saw them referred to recently.

True!
😨

You aren’t in a minority.

Heck I didn’t realise OP’s child was that young!
I did think talks of Father Christmas a bit bizarre as assumed a much older child.

No way would I buy anything like that for a child so very young😳

Books , books and more books at that age- not tech.

Also ( I’m not tech savvy hence using Apple products as the tech support is superb) get an adblocker

If needed, pay for one.

Ads are ghastly and worth paying for them to be eradicated where possible.

A 6 year old with their own tablet ! Ridiculous present at that age

I can’t believe people give children as young as five a tablet

Don’t worry about Father Christmas-
Lots of kids know it’s a myth ( like Easter Bunny and tooth Fairy), but play along.

Just say it’s broken and the Elves need to bring a better, more intuitive IPad!

I find the Fire to be better than the cheap android we have. The kids use it more. You can add youtube videos, but not through the YouTube app. Instead you have to add each video individually. However, the range of games on kindle kids is good, with zero adverts or in-app purchases on the kids profiles. So, I think better for games, worse for video. It's very tied down. I found setting up parental controls on a standard android much harder.

We got rid of our daughter's Amazon fire when she wanted kids YouTube, proved impossible to get on it. She's got a Lenovo pad with family link and it's great. She's got all the apps Disney plus etc and kids YouTube and the family link app is great

@Stealthmodemama The OP isn’t asking your advice or opinion on the use of tablets. They were simply asking for a solution to their problem. Why bother commenting if you have nothing useful to add? How the OP chooses to parent her children is none of your business.

@lynzmb we found the Amazon Fire Max ‘clunky’ to work too. Can you not say that Santa needs to needs do a little repair then replace the tablet for something more suitable?

There is a show on ITV - about the use of phones and how the 'instant gratification' adjusts the brain to be like an 'addicts' . think a gamblers headspace - constant 'more more more' .

I know its not what you have asked - but - 6 is quite young for that kind of thing

It really is impressive how poor the parental controls are when it's marketed as a child's tablet. It's so unintuitive with the profile switching, content control, the fact you can't use some stuff that has a subscription unless you switch to the adult profile and install it and sign up there, the fact it's just so fecking slow.

I did manage to get the maths app DD1's school use on there but I think that's because they pay for the subscription there and I just had to use the login details they gave out.

Aha. So glad I am not alone. The OS is a fucking heap of shit and I hate how hard they are to use!

Totally agree, but different parents do things differently.

If it isn't working out op I'd give up and go for something Samsung as they tend to be the best and simplest to use.

Mine is 5 and uses the apps on hers though - I'm sure she has YouTube. She's got netflix and Disney plus and the iplayer too

God that's so depressing to read. Why does a 5 year old need a tablet? And why have you said you're"sure she has YouTube" as if you're not 100% certain so probably have no idea what she's doing on it

This happened me a couple of years ago. I returned it. Told my son it was faulty and that Santa had sent a note to say he was very sorry - and he was going to arrange with lovely people at Amazon to swop it for an even better tablet (iPad). They weren’t bothered - just asked when it would arrive and have never mentioned it since.

We had fire tablets and theyve been no problem, kid trod on a screen just before 2 year warranty was up, a new tablet appeared. I think both of ours were replaced for free. Kids got on with them, a bit annoyed that most school software isn’t on it - mathletics etc.

I found my daughter’s Amazon tablet really hard to use and not intuitive. I didn’t like it at all. It was just a basic one but I found it confusing with the apps and the parents profile

God yes. I'm fairly computer/tech literate (to the extent that I can very competently follow instructions anyway!) but my God. The two profiles, flipping between them, being unsure which profile holds the setting for xyz. What. A. Faff. I'd never buy one again, even if they were reduced to a fiver.

I'd go with the broken approach and say Santa will replace it as it's broken so soon or something so you're going to send it back to him.