"Ipad Kid" ??

Do your kids eat at home with their iPads on?

Get over it. If you can't seethe silently and then let it all out later.

Sit and talk to the parents/family or friends. Be excited to be eating in a new location. Facinated by other people and people watching. Thats what I remember. And getting to have food we never have at home. Was so exciting.

What if the people sat around are also exhausted parents and don’t want to listen to YouTube kids on full blast for an hour??

Eh, so your quite happy to intrude on others with your dc noise?
Obviously you don't care about that as you can clearly shout with your writing as well, dearie me, our kids are a doomed

I have no issue with children playing games at the table, colouring etc. It’s lovely to see families chatting and having fun, that noise doesn’t bother me at all. Noise from phones and iPads on the other hand are unbearable.

No, I honestly don’t think they’ve tried everything. As a healthcare professional in this field, I really do understand that autism is not a ‘one size fits all’. Too many parents happy to take the easy option and blame it on autism. What were these autistic children doing before iPads and phones?

Although I’m inclined to agree, I also think those children don’t have a hope in hell of being able to regulate themselves when they aren’t given the chance to learn how

It is not just children it is adults having calls on speakerphone or watching videos etc without headphones. It is so, so selfish. Sometimes on planes you have competing videos playing full blast. Honestly I wish service providers would just ban it. And I don’t believe for a moment that all these people who can’t wear headphones are autistic. Ironically this is just increasing the sensory overload for society as a whole.

My Dear Niece and Nephew are the same. They spent the first 4 years if life with an ipad or phone at every single meal.

I have 2 small children of my own and we have never had phones or ipads at the table. Actually they don't own one or have access to one. And when we go out to eat or the car we never use devices. We Bluetooth some nursery rhymes and songs but that is it no videos or games.

We sit and talk about the food. At the very most when waiting for food either we bring some paper and pencils or one of us takes them for a little walk about.

I meant playing Uno or dobble with us chatting and teaching him how to play at a normal voice level. No phones involved. But still got eye rolling from the couple next to us.

Autism isn‘t a new condition, neither is ADHD, people with autism and ADHD weren’t prisonsers in their own homes before ipads and game boys were invented.

We had to move mid meal last week as a family came in who had two children loudly playing videos on tablets, staff asked them to either turn the volume off or use headphones and they refused. Our son is hearing impaired, so due to the noise he then couldn’t hear our conversation. We noted that the next group of people seated near them also moved after a short while.

We’re not a big screen family, our son has a phone, but it doesn’t have games etc, no youtube or safari so its just a means of contacting people, neither of ours have a tablet either. We have a laptop that our son uses for homework. Our son has ADHD and FASD, our daughter just CP (for the moment). Not only do they not have regular access to screens, they also don’t see us glued to phones, the only times ours come out are paying for the metro, actually calling someone or me using it to manage my diabetes. We also rarely use them at home when they’re awake. If we’re going out to eat we’ll take a book to read with our three year old, maybe some colouring or 1-2 very small toys, our oldest is nine so he is responsible for picking something sensible if he wants something to do.

Playing a game on a phone doesn’t need the volume on.

headphones???

If a child, or adult for that matter, needs a bit of screentime to self-regulate, that's one thing, but it shouldn't be loud enough to disturb other people. Volume controls exist for a reason.

(Not the same as parenting by screentime)

DH and I have agreed to keep our toddler away from screens for now but we also have trouble in the shops as DC is stimulated by everything. We know once a tablet is introduced it will change things.

I find younger Gen Ys and Gen Zs one of the most polite, thoughtful, creative and ambitious people in the workplace though and these are kids that had increased screen time over previous generations while growing up.

I think I’m unable to conclude whether I agree or not. I feel tech is taking over everyone’s life. I see many adults pouring over screens. I can’t walk past a bus stop or a coffee shop for example without seeming half a dozen people glued to their screens. Maybe it’s a problem for everyone not just small children and their parents/guardians - it seems more widespread.

your child needs to wear some type of headphones then! His not liking the feel of them, doesn’t trump the needs of an entire restaurant!
No headphones no ipad, don’t be such a passive parent

Parenting lesson on how to breed an entitled brat. He is in a public place disturbing others around him. Of course he should be wearing headphones.

If you want to avoid 'sticky toddlers' and the noise that goes with them, going to restaurants with spaghetti hoops on the menu three times a week is not a good shout.

9

I don’t really care what other people do to get through a meal out with their kids. My 7yo has an iPad thankfully we don’t need to use it in restaurants as she can wait for her meal/chat to us or is happy with a colouring sheet, but it saves my sanity on long car drives to give me a break from I-spy…

However, I was at the park with my DD yesterday and a grown woman sat on the bench watching Hollyoaks on her phone at full volume without headphones whilst her 2 boys aged about 4 and 7 were throwing sand at other kids….did make me think she could at least have put some headphones in if she was going to watch that at the park… and maybe keep an eye on her kids?!

In the "good old days" my teen would have been in an institution, I'd have been discouraged from having him to live with me at all. There is very little precedent for how families raised their kids like this, and nowadays people are increasingly hostile.

Hope that helps!

Of course it occurs to them! Don’t you think they might have tried everything but in that one scenario at dinner where it may be a family celebration of something they’re gonna use the iPad so that other diners are not disturbed?
Also Autism is not a one size fits all label. I’m surprised you don’t know this

The sound is not usually off though, that's the problem.

Rot your child's brain and stunt their development by allowing them to use screens rather than develop social skills if you must. But don't disturb other people while you're doing it.

Exactly. Feel for this kid 😬

NOBODY in there is enjoying their meal because your precious darling is ruining it for everyone.