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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Children should be seen and not heard

178 replies

ItsUpToYou · 05/05/2025 21:14

Does anyone else think we’re slowly (very slowly) heading back to this attitude towards children? From the families who plonk iPads in front of their kids at every unstructured moment to keep them quiet, to the constant complaints on MN about children (who aren’t plonked on their iPads) playing too loudly in their gardens or wherever else, it seems like the overall consensus is that children either need to be perfectly placid at all times or completely silent.

Everything is so structured and regimented for children nowadays in a way that it wasn’t when I was growing up in the 90s. The way DM described her childhood in the 60s and 70s sounds ever freer than mine was.

AIBU to feel a bit sorry for the current generation of children (and feel super pressured as a parent to make sure my children appear “perfectly placid” at all times for fear of judgement!)

OP posts:
BlossomBlanket · 05/05/2025 21:24

I don't know where you live but kids don't even have basic respect for property or adults anymore where I am. Bring back 90s kids who had basic manners

Shitmonger · 05/05/2025 21:22

Hmm, not really. The children that are on iPads at meals are typically also the ones screaming their heads off in the gardens later on.

It’s more about neglectful parenting and not teaching children basic manners and consideration for others.

ohyesido · 05/05/2025 21:18

Other people’s kids are horrible though. I think there’s a sharp increase in children being allowed to make the lives of others a misery.

play in the garden but please don’t shriek and scream at quite such a loud staccato level?