All 3 of the DCs new Tablet PCs have now been smashed.......

[TeenTwinsToddlerandTiaras]

I mean ffs can't they make them bloody bounce. One bigtiny fall on wooden floor and they are buggered.

DD's lasted about 3 days until the toddler threw it. DS2's lasted about a week longer until it was sat on and DS1 is now in tears as his has just smashed on the floor when I grabbed it out of his hand cos he was'nt listening to me as usual.

I bought them so they would'nt keep arguing over the laptop. SHIT!

Between you, you and your careless children come across as pretty dim.

Maybe you should all go back to using an abacus for amusement.

My 7 year old got a nexus for Christmas, after he has had free access to my ipad for two years without any issues. Our 11 year old has never had any breakages or issues with his laptop, his ipod or his mobile phone.

I can't believe anyone would buy a child a tablet after they had already broken a blackberry and a lap top - Mumsnet is full of irony, many posters complain about losing their child benefit, some can hardly afford to buy groceries and yet others think this sort of expenditure on children (who don't respect such things) as perfectly reasonable.

I am so glad we made our DS wait until he was 11 and a half before he even had a mobile phone, and he absolutely knows that if he breaks it, even if accidently, he will buy his own next time.

Lucky kids, getting a trip to the cinema, KFC lunch, after breaking all these gadgets and not doing their homework (this must be a wind up thread surely )

My six year old has had an iPhone (simless, my old one from when I got an upgrade a while back) and a cheap tablet for over a year and seems to have managed to keep both intact.

Ragwort: What has other people's misfortune got to do with what the OP spends her money on? What you spend on make-up would probably feed a starving African family. Are you going to go 'naked' for a month and donate the money to charity? No? Then stop lecturing others on what they should send their money on.

'Then stop lecturing others on what they should send their money on.'

Yes, but when in the middle of January and a very tight recession with families having to use food banks- going on about how cute it is that your children have smashed all their electrical goods, and then you take them to the cinema and KFC- is a little bit Marie Antoinette.
I mean- I only have enough for food and electric this week but I could go without if you want to start a charity fund to replace the tablets?

I am surprised tbh.

We have had an iPad for a few years and it is still in perfect condition despite never being in a case.
DD (10) got an iPad Mini for Christmas - still perfect as I would expect after less than a month and always in a case
Had a Kindle Fire (won) for a month - again - perfect, again no case
DD has had an iPod Touch for 3 or 4 years at least - again no issues at all; rarely in a case
I have an iPhone - a bit scuffed on edges after being in bag and dropped a few times, no case - but screen perfect
Also have an iPod Class and another iTouch (both DH's) - again perfect, no cases.

"Gorilla glass isnt stronger than normal glass.

Gorilla glass is harder than normal glass, so it scratches much less easily, however this extra hardness makes the glass more likely to shatter."

Wrong. Gorilla glass is less fragile more scratch resistant and harder than normal glass. It is MUCH less likely to break.

The stuff that Apple use in the iPhone, however, is incredibly fragile (how many iPhone owners do you know who haven't smashed their screens at some point?). This is due to it being harder but not tougher. This is NOT Gorilla glass.

I'm sorry, but I think this absolutely proves the point that these expensive gadgets are not suitable presents for children.

I wouldn't dream of giving my DDs anything like that because they would detroy it - children are naturally careless. Not that I would anyway.

My DDs got a ceramic doll's teaset last Christmas which over the course of the year they have accidentally broken piece by piece - but the set only cost £20 and they got a lot of play out of it.

What happened to normal toys?

Well said Pedro

I too am a bit about all the 5 year old with iPads. What on earth will you get to impress them when they're 16? A private jet? A small island?

I set up email accounts so they call each other names through that rather than face to face bugger off to their rooms and leave me alone.

And the above - so your family all sit in their rooms and communicate with each other by email?

Which is precisely why I think these gadgets do not offer anything constructive/healthy to children's lives.

I dont buy the "they're so fragile everyone breaks them" line at all.

My kids are 19/17(nearly)/ 13 and there are DH and I in the household ( he isn't a gadget freak like me though)we've had mobile phones ( fairly basic) for thrm, smartphones/ iPhones for me, laptops and this 1st gen iPad (oh and a very old itouch).

None have been broken, ever. Even my 3G iPhone that I ad for 18 months and dd1 for 18months us nw back in my possession ( may pass it to dd2) is intact all bt a row of dead pixels due to age.

The worst to befall gadgets was dd2 riding a bike into a canal in holland with her phone and iPod in her bag ( total immersion of child lol). They are still working too!

Maybe we are too careful and that's why I get mad when gadgetry gets abandoned from a software support point of view....

Not the whole kids v technology again surely???

IME children with technology also have toys and are still happy and likely to do other non technology activities - cycling, playing out, playing with friends, reading sport, etc.

That imo is not the issue here. The issue as as I can see is that the OP's children are not looking after their things - it's not a one off. Three new items have been broken as well as other items in the not so distant past. IME this is not usual.

Pleased to see it is not just me trio. I worry about how solitary this kind pf technology is, there is plenty of time to get into all that. Kindles too for children; personally I think it really reduces the pleasure of maybe a trip to the library and the experience of a book in itself. I am old and grumpy. My eldest DD who is 11 has a mobile as she goes to school on a train and is diabetic... she has a shuffle and that's it in our family........... Dh and I have ropey laptops (as we have three small boys who love to wreck and I don't want to spend my life worrying about shit like that) I think I am just not that into it and wary of reducing my children's experience to too much screen time/virtual stuff when there is lots of fun to be had otherwise.

Trio- I don't understand your argument either. Ds has had numerous electrical presents over the years including tv, Xbox, iPhone, laptop yet this last Christmas just got trainers and another pair of trainers for his 17th birthday. It's not compulsory to upgrade every year.

Mardy: Elsewhere there is a thread from an OP who had a generous and unexpected bonus at work and was asking for holiday-of-a-lifetime suggestions. Care to tell that OP how insensitive she is being?

But Hulababy, there are lots of children who do little else than screen based stiff wither tv or technology.

Dd is 9. She got set of famous five books and iPod for her birthday. She reads real books, has a stack of library books she is working her way through and reads on my kindle and her iPod.

ipdipdog - yes, apparently so. However NONE of the many children I know with technology like this are like that. All of them are more than happy doing a whole range of activities.

I agree with janey

We are a very techy house. Not going to say exactly what we have but lots of gadgets.
Things have been dropped (mostly by me) but all 3 DC know to be careful and everything has a case.
We have never had anything broken despite having our first iPhone almost 8 years.
I know I'm tempting fate now
Have to agree with the one is an accident, three is careless comment, I am afraid.

I know lots of children with gadgets. I know no children who do nothing but screen time.

'What will you buy them qhen they are 16'

I'll get them whatever they are interested in and whatever I can afford. Do you think there wont be new gadgets around in 10 years from now?

Btw my dc all had some sort of computer for xmas. They also had books, puzzles, board games and stacks of craft stuff.

Just because you give a child a gadget doesnt mean they only play with that one thing.

Some people really need to get a grip on this issue. Why do people care so much what other peoples children have?