"Ipad Kid" ??

I couldn’t care less what other parents are doing with their kids as long as it doesn’t affect me.

Loud iPad music/videos in a restaurant is bad etiquette and kids YouTube is so annoying. If they have headphones or it’s muted then I wouldn’t bat an eyelid. I am partially deaf and background noises are difficult enough as it is. I’m very sensitive to sound as I can hear high pitched things fine, but I’m not great with other frequencies, meaning the kids video on the table next to me sounds HD, meanwhile I can’t hear a thing the person in front of me is saying.

I wouldn’t expect anyone to rock up to a meal and place something on the table that played music, whether it’s from an iPad or not. I have kids and we used to resort to screens sometimes but never with the sound on.

I dislike screens being played at loud volume in public but this also applies to adults. Too often people play videos on their phone full blast with no headphones!

However if you’re using headphones then who cares?
I really don’t see any difference to bringing out a load of toys and colouring books to distract and entertain a toddler or child because they don’t have the attention span to sit for a meal 🤷‍♀️

My child is five & has never used an iPad.
But that’s my choice. Use one if you wish.

The reactions on this thread astound me. No child ‘needs’ a screen at dinner. They need to learn how to sit at a table and eat dinner. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility is it? They sit at tables without screens at school? How depressing that something so mundane is considered too hard for people to teach their children.

There are evenings where DC has finished school, gone to after school club because their parents work FT. Then, they go to their extra curricular activity - one night it’s dance, another it’s singing and another it’s running around in a forest.
you don’t know that when you see them watching an iPad that this is ‘them’. I used so be so judgemental but it’s not always as it seems.
perhaps seek to understand…

I have a 2 and 6 year old, eldest has adhd. I have never, ever used screens while out at a restaurant. They don't get them at the dining table at home (but then I think this might be some of the problem, lots of families don't eat at the dining table). I do take colouring or some little toys while we wait for food to arrive, but then they go away while we eat and we... God forbid... TALK! shocking. So I completely agree with OP.

I was gobsmacked the other day in Tesco. A baby lying in a basinet with a phone on a little stand attached to the pram's handle. What the actual... madness.

Why not? This is what parenting sometimes is

I don't care how long other parents choose to put their child in front of a screen so long as they use headphones or put it on silent.

I saw the weirdest thing in a supermarket recently.......one family with 3 dc and 2 shopping trolleys. 1 trolley had a child in the basket and one sat in the toddler seat. Second trolley had a dc in toddler seat and food in the basket. All 3dc were glued to their tablets, absolutely no interaction from parents towards them. They were like zombies.

Once I'd unhoiked my massive judgey pants I couldn't help but wonder what future those kids have in store for them.

What so it's ok that your child has some bloody annoying iPad video on full blast and everyone else has to listen to it? I less they have headphones on, then Pig ignorant and entitled springs to mind.

The volume needs to be off.

I don’t see it as a good thing, for children or families, and don’t do it. BUT I try not to judge what other parents do to survive as having young children is fecking hard! And I certainly would not feel I had the right to tell someone else to turn it off. People do all kinds of things in public I wish that they would not but generally it’s none of my business.

We took DGS (15mths) out for lunch, with his parents, last weekend. He’s not allowed screens at all. He doesn’t watch the TV, phone or iPad because DDIL has read a lot on child development so now knows that it’s not great for children under 2. He sat in his high chair and played with some farm animals that we’d just bought him. He babbled and chatted away, he waved at the other people in the cafe and watched the birds and dogs outside. His speech and language development is very good. He absolutely loves books so DDIL & DS2 always have a selection in his bag just incase, but we didn’t need them on that day.

I hate hearing the noise of Peppa Pig or whatever else when I’m trying to eat my dinner. I get that every child is different, some have special needs and some can’t wear headphones, but turn the volume down, please. We don’t all need to hear it.

I say you are wrong , you can ask politely for the sound to be lower but you can also refrain from judging others that way . Your 19 year old has more common sense than you

Ok but that’s hours a day? A short stint so that a family could enjoy a meal is not going to create that problem surely? My toddler uses a screen, not for hours a day but she uses one and has never displayed any of these sort of issues.

On one hand the op talks about the noise disturbance which is fair enough. On the other she talks about lazy parenting and parents who ‘couldn’t care less’ which suggests she’s made a snap judgement based on a tiny snapshot into their lives.

Yanbu about the noise level but yabu about everything else

The laziness? You have absolutely no idea what that family were doing beforehand

I let my children bring their tablets to meals, we've normally had a busy day out if we're eating out and we all want to relax whilst we're eating. It keeps them quiet and entertained.

I see it in my line of work. There are genuinely kids who just spent 10+hours per day on their tablets. I see children because of the developmental delay and it’s shocking how many parents happily admit to unrestricted screen time and how many don’t understand that their child reciting ‘a, b, c’ from dancing letters on a screen isn’t actually conversation.

@LittleLabradormy kid can’t wear headphones, that is not a solution unfortunately. It’s not a choice. The volume however can be low.

@TreeCakeI agree technology can definitely be misused and leaving because they want to return to their fix isn’t a healthy situation. However I’ve been that parent who leaves an activity because my child can not cope in that situation, it’s happened in theatres, in play centres. My child loves more than anything running. Running across fields in one direction (which is annoying because the dog walk is not a loop) but a stranger might think when they see my child with tech that that is all they do- so far from the truth!

But your kid could wear headphones. It’s not unkind to want to be in a restaurant without being subjected to cocomelon or whatever on full blast.

my ND niece would massively struggle with the overwhelming sounds of other kids iPads all around her. Be kind works in lots of ways. Having iPads on quiet is one of them.

I also can’t relate to the argument about kids who use tablets being developmentally delayed and unable to speak or engage in any other activities.

Yeah that might be the case for kids who have been glued to one for hours a day since birth. But my toddler is amazing at holding a conversation, she is meeting all of her milestones and has a range of activities and interests that she enjoys. She’ll have the iPad for half hour intervals so that I can eat a meal or get some jobs done but she doesn’t kick off when it’s taken away. There’s a lot of hyperbole about all these addicted, developmentally stunted kids who can’t function without a screen in front of them imo.

In the US it’s could care less, whether universally or regionally I’m not sure. I think is totally bizarre and makes no sense, but it is sometimes used in that format.

I’d heard that was the case but I just read a book with it in a couple of times and it really clanged.

I never did it, but I know plenty of parents who did.

The noise goes right through me though.

Unfortunately people don't want kids on iPad's but they don't want kids making any type of noise or existing in public either so you're always going to piss someone off being anywhere outside with children.

I agree with use is earphones though. I don't know why everyone else has to be subjected to cocomelon.