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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to think that a 3,5 year old shouldn't have his own IPad?

153 replies

NJE · 05/03/2011 23:35

I'm a nanny. I just started my new job last Monday, I look after a boy who is 3,5 years old and has his own IPad and is allowed to play with it every day when he wants to. AIBU for thinking that a 3,5 year old shouldn't have his own IPad or play with it at all?! P.S: He can't dress himself though but uses his IPad without any problems at all :D

OP posts:
Morloth · 07/03/2011 21:45

Snort at 'Poor DCs', I know I personally feel very sorry for my children with their happy family, comfy house, good nutrition, excellent education, active lifestyles etc.

Who knew that all of that was cancelled out by the presence and use of technology?!

nora12 · 07/03/2011 21:46

I think it's sad really. A friend of my DD's (age 5) has a nintendo and it's all he wants to play with. Toys are for babies according to him.

JessRabbit · 07/03/2011 21:48

when the little 5 year olds wander around demanding the iPad 2 because boring old iPad 1 doesn't have FaceTime, Is possibly the time to worry.

exoticfruits · 07/03/2011 22:14

I feel very sorry for DCs who get one in a party bag!!! I predict drugs by 15yrs-whatever can they possibly want by that age? They have had it all by 5yr or 11yrs at the latest.

scottishmummy · 07/03/2011 22:19

oh rubbish.youre predictions are worse than mystic meg

LOL ipad as path to ruination and illicit drugs

societal ruin at behest of middle classes
what do you suggest give all kids a lump of coal and pencil?like good ole days

angel1976 · 07/03/2011 22:23

I'm sorry but lots of you sound pretty nuts.

It's only an iPad. Like Duplo. Like crayons. Like Playdoh.

It gets wheeled out once in a while and the DCs love it.

We are lucky to have one. If we don't have one, we wouldn't have rushed out to buy one. I don't think my DCs are going to turn into drug addicts because they play with an iPad when they were little. Hmm I bet the most vehement anti iPad protestors on this thread haven't even had a chance to try one out before...

Take a chill pill! Wine Grin

Morloth · 07/03/2011 22:23

You are assuming that because an iPad is the latest cool toy it will always be so.

I was given a Commodore 64 as a kid, no drugs at 15.

We like technology here and don't view it with suspicion and fear. I enjoy our modern lifestyle.

Love my car that virtually drive itself, think Android phones are the shit, think a rainy afternoon spent dicking around on the xbox together is time well spent, enjoy flinging birds at pigs on a small screen.

Just because you think an iPad for a 3 year old is bad, doesn't make it so.

LadyBiscuit · 07/03/2011 22:25

I never had access to any technology as a kid but I was smoking dope by the time I was 14. Perhaps if my parents had bought me a Commodore, that never would have happened :o

JessRabbit · 07/03/2011 22:25

Actually the kids that had a spectrum zx at the age of 13/14 had a huge advantage over the non Spectrum users by the time they were in employment.

exoticfruits · 07/03/2011 22:25

I don't expect they will unless they move in the sort of circle that puts them in partybags and then they really are 'poor little rich kids'-who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing. I have nothing against them for occasional use -but surely no one thinks they should be in party bags?!

scottishmummy · 07/03/2011 22:30

you are trotting out hackneyed clichés.poor rich kids starved of love and affection,dark eyes staring at ipad, as addiction and ruination at 15 awaits them

technology is not necessarily intrusive or bad,it is as responsible as the adults supervising its use

like tv,internet and mobile phone

mumsgotatum · 07/03/2011 22:30

I find that quite strange

exoticfruits · 07/03/2011 22:36

I predict that it will if they get them in partybags-I know examples.(quite a few)

scottishmummy · 07/03/2011 22:38

well you would say that,wouldnt you.anyway any tips for lotto numbers? seeineg you do predictions and all

Morloth · 07/03/2011 22:51

Ah well I hate party bags regardless of what is in them, stupid things.

But it is relative isn't it? There are people in the world to whom $800 is nothing.

I think there are much worse things that happen to children than being over indulged. I do think an iPad in a gift bag is indulgent but that's because I am not the sort of rich that allows for that.

exoticfruits · 08/03/2011 08:11

My prediction scottishmummy is don't buy a ticket-you won't win tomorrow.

JessRabbit · 08/03/2011 08:22

All new " inventions" are viewed with suspicion. Books made children go blind, writing gave girls ideas above their station, science wasn't for women, tv gives you square eyes, the VCR meant that no one ever left the house...

Embrace technology, yesterday's tv geeks are today's software billionaires.

scottishmummy · 08/03/2011 08:31

my granny called computers box of tricks.been sat in front of my box of tricks for an hour or so now. various electrical products have been blamed for trickeries and bad behaviour in children from the hoover,to tv,to dont stand next to toaster

Loving your prediction exoticfruits,wise and cost effective.cheers!

cory · 08/03/2011 09:23

What I would feel the need to establish with the family is how much freedom you have to e.g. take the 3yo out when he'd rather be on his iPad. Though there is nothing wrong with screens per se, some children can get so obsessed by them that they literally don't want to do anything else. As a parent, you can make them by being firm. Just find out gently how firm this family want you to be.

mumonahottinroof · 08/03/2011 09:38

A bit of iPad fine

Playing with it all the time not fine

The danger comes when they can write and get onto google and youtube like my 6yo, then before you know it they're just goggling telly but on a smaller screen all day.

Discuss with your employer

LilyBolero · 08/03/2011 09:41

"Actually the kids that had a spectrum zx at the age of 13/14 had a huge advantage over the non Spectrum users by the time they were in employment."

oh that's total rubbish - absolutely wrong. Looking at dh, they had no computer at all, and what does he do? Designs chips for computers. He is totally natural on computers - because they are NOT HARD TO USE. Kids don't need to have their own ipad at age 3 to learn how to use them!

I don't have a problem with the kids using our PC, (they have learned how to use Linux on it, and are doing some programming), but if it was THEIR kit then it would be much harder to police, and I don't want to be a perpetual policeman. And since we radically reduced their 'screen time', they play SO much better, creatively and happier, and are much more balanced children.

RustyBear · 08/03/2011 09:52

I'm wondering whether these studies that say 'screen time is bad for children' make any distinction between passive screen time - eg watching TV/videos- and active screen time, playing educational/puzzle type games or reading on a screen? Or a further distinction between violent games and non-violent ones? Or do they just lump it all together and say 'Screen is Bad'?

StillSquiffy · 08/03/2011 09:53

Of course if my mum hadn't given me an Atari when I was a kid, I would never have had that coke and heroin habit in my later years....

ROFL at the judgypants here - I never knew ipads were in fruitshoot territory. Not that I am bothered - I have fun listening to my 4YO giving a passable rendition of 'Fur Elise' on the ipad (SMULE Magic Piano Wink).

GwendolineMaryLacey · 08/03/2011 12:05

How is it harder to police just because it's theirs? That's a cop out. You still call the shots whether it's your iPad or one that came wrapped up with their name on it.

And if we're going for anecdotal evidence as fact, my brother and I had Ataris and Spectrums from a very young age and a C64 when we were 8 and 11 respectively. The difference between our computing ability and that of our spouses who didn't have computers is vast.

There, that's as conclusive as a chip-designing husband.

Kidscontent · 01/01/2012 21:33

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