I've just seen a lovely thing that is not as common anymore

[ilovemynails]

We have been on holiday to Tenerife. At the airport coming home there was a British family.
Mum, Dad and 3 children who looked between 10 and 14 and each one was reading a proper book.
No phones or tablets in sight.

I agree with you @ilovemynails , that is lovely, and unusual

people on here are just so mean spirited sometimes

I really want to see the bingo card!

If the parents read physical books as a habit it makes sense that the children do too, at least sometimes. Maybe the family buy a book for each person to take along on a family trip? It'd be nice and convenient to just continue reading regardless of whether there's a plug socket, wifi/data available, or any restrictions such as during takeoff and landing. Whatever the reason, I'd be grateful that that's five people I DON'T have to worry about blasting their devices with no headphones/earbuds in the departure area and on the plane.

A rare sighting indeed!
Nice to see a family where the parents are not relying on digital babysitters to keep their children amused.
Kids and their devices can be easily lost, dropped, or stolen, more so than a book and with a lot higher consequences!
Who knows how they were brought up, could be just a 'not on holiday' rule or maybe they've never allowed their children to be on their devices 24/7 and they've been strict about that from the start.
Books are great when travelling, not too many people hesitate to look up from their book to enjoy the sights, whereas with a device in hand, everyone's glued to any activity on the screen, and they miss a lot.

Hopefully they got back on a plane with those good proper propellers and not any of those new fangled jet thingys.

And watched an inflight movie on one of those screens that pop out of the ceiling that you can barely see from 2 yards away.

My goodness there are some nasty people on here today.

On another thread you will be criticising parents giving their children tablets.

There are utter knobs all over MN your thread isn't the exception.
It's the usual double standards on MN.

I can get through two books in a day on holiday, I definitely need my Kindle for that! I think that is nice to see, OP. Could never be us though! I’m a voracious reader, work in publishing, all that. DH hasn’t picked up a book since he left school I think! And DC, one loves books, one can take or leave them.

My 9 year old had to be limited to just four diary of a wimpy kid books for our recent holiday- he wanted to pack more- so I don't think this is so strange.

Although in an airport he'd probably want to chat and watch planes rather than read.

I didn’t like it. And was explaining why. I know how a Kindle works. I had one.

I have to say I'm on the side of why does it matter if they are reading on a device or from a paperback.

I'd also like to know how do you knew they were British?

And yet, back in my day, kids were told off for sitting reading books during “family time”.

We were in a restaurant the other day and my mum made a similar comment about how lovely it was to see a teenager sitting reading a book rather than being glued to their phone. I reminded her how many times she ripped me a new one for even thinking about reading a book at the table. She has no problem with my own teen sitting reading a book when we visit but will always comment if she is on her phone, “ignoring everyone” (as if reading a book is a group activity)

I stopped buying Kindle books earlier this year to reduce my reliance on Amazon and have been buying them from World of Books/bookshops or getting them from the library. However, I do have a couple on my Kindle for holidays precisely because it is much easier to transport one kindle than several paperbacks, as pp's have said.

Yes my mum was so mean about reading while eating. During dinner I get it but who cares during breakfast. I used to read the side of the cereal packet in desperation!

You read 3 books a day? Don’t you do anything else? I’m a keen reader but I can’t see how found all that reading allows you to do all the other holiday stuff?

Thats quite a skill you have there 🤓😂

Parents need to get used to it after the announcement about banning social media. What will all the divorced dads do in Costa now that they can’t sit scrolling looking at the football scores whilst their kids are on their phones?

Ditto! 😀

So the experience of seeing people not on a device was so lovely that you came online to tell people so they could read about it on a device.

It's not a good thing, honestly! Apart from in study or some work situations, where being a very fast reader who still retains material stood to me. Otherwise it's historically been a terrible pain in the ass, especially before DH bought me my first Kindle. Every time I left the house, for a normal day's work, I would be haunted by the worry that I didn't have enough reading material with me for the tube.

And I can't get on with audiobooks at all, however much I'd like to. Read at normal speed, they're far too slow for me, and I get impatient. If I speed them up to my normal reading level, the narrator sounds like Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I'm just a very, very fast reader. Think of someone who gobbles food, but in reading form. I used to hate when we had to share books in primary school if your deskmate hadn't brought theirs in, because I would be pages ahead and trying to hold the intervening pages up.

And yes, my ideal holiday is either a walking holiday or a city with astonishing art (me) and food (DH) and opera (both). So it's not that we're just sitting around a pool.

Two books wouldn't even last me for a weekend city break, let alone a week/fortnight's holiday.

I always take my Kindle when I travel. It's much lighter than physical books, I can read it with one hand, it's lit so I can read in the dark in a hotel room while DP is asleep at night and in the car if we're driving at night, and it means I have access to thousands and thousands of books so I can choose exactly the kind of thing I'm in the mood to read at that particular time.

Prior to owning a Kindle I used to pack so many books that it would send my luggage allowance over the weight limit, and even then I would inevitably think 'Hmm, I've got eight to choose from but none of them are the type of think I actually fancy now...' and would end up buying more at the airport and/or seeking out a bookshop wherever we were staying.

To be fair I still seek out a bookshop wherever we're staying, but out of interest rather than desperate necessity.

OP, I see kids reading all the time, and my local Waterstones (which is absolutely massive) always has kids getting really excited about books. Younger kids with their parents, and groups of teens with their friends.

Also, although people like to moan about phones and tablets, lots and lots of teenagers in particular are more enthused about reading when they can get recommendations, talk about their favourites, post their own fanfics etc with other people - BookTok and book reviewers' YouTube channels have done wonders for getting teenagers excited about reading.

Why do people think social media is the only thing kids use phones for?

I downloaded the Kindle app on my phone. It took so much space up that I've had to recently delete it. Give me a paper book any day!

I had a kid at work last week, reading an actual proper book. I can’t remember the last time I saw that.