Please interact with your kids, not your i-whatsit!

[oldgrandmama]

It's depressing - seeing mums with babies and toddlers in buggies, or toddlers toddling beside them, but what is mum doing? Studying her i-thingie or whatever is the latest gizmo in her hand.

Being ancient and of the opinion that mobile phones were originally just for making and receiving calls and texts, I honestly don't know what the hell she's looking at. Games? The Footsie? Emails? Online book? Surfing the web? Porn? All I know is that there's a little person that she's not interacting with in any way. No doubt this post will bring down the full wrath of Mumsnet on my head but honestly, small kids NEED interaction with their mothers or carers, not to be ignored because it's apparently more important to study some gizmo. Is it really SO important to never take your eyes of the damn thing that you pay your little one no attention whatsoever.

OK - bring on the condemnation. I have broad shoulders!

Yes. Get rid of these new fangled gadgets and go back to the old ways.

Stick the baby in a pram outside and bring them in to feed and change every four hourly intervals.

But if we ignored our ithingies there'd be no mumsnet.
Most of those people you see are checking 'threads I'm on'

You could be talking about me this morning. Was on my iPhone with 10month old DD in pram and DS on his scooter.

What you wouldn't have known is that I was using it to check the Maps to try and get us to the library to do an activity.

So maybe don't judge a parent on the 10 seconds it takes to walk past

Please tell me this thread is a wind up?
Walks are just about the only time during the day with no interaction with DS. It saves my sanity and he usually ends up falling asleep.
Feel free to judge me when I'm (shamelessly) mumsnetting just now and LO is in the buggy.

Me too mrsbugsywugsy she is eating crayons.

I don't think parents interact any less that previous generations, in fact I think they probably get a lot more active interaction now (vs the 'seen and not heard' days). It's just the things that parents do for downtime when they aren't 'interacting' that differs. Once it would have been jawing away to the mum next to her, now it's jawing away on mumsnet.

Op you are SO SO right, give the i-phone to the CHILD, poor kid, let them play Angry Birds. Jesus I don't know what this world is coming to.

Ohh get to fuck. I spent probably 15 - 17 hours a day interacting with my little toads darlings. Pissing around on my iThingy is the few moments of self-indulgence I get, and if those moments are the only bit of my day you see, then fine. I care not a jot for your opinion and pearl-clutching.

Children DO NOT and SHOULD NOT have 24/7 interaction with anyone.

Giving yourself 100% to your child is not a great idea at all and can be very detrimental to your mental health ime.

DO NOT need

If you've not followed mittens link yet from page 1 OP, do so now, and you"ll see all the reasons why a mom might be using her phone. Then loosen the judgey pants.

It's a great link - thanks mittens

My DC keep leaving me, one is at an all day activity this week and the other is a teenager, he has been downstairs and grunted but then wandered back upstairs, no doubt to play with his i-thingy (I hope).

Someone needs to speak to my DC, they keep leaving me

I don't think the OP is interested in a reasoned discussion.

Did you mean FTSE?

Fuck off.

Op, poor thing you are getting some flack. This is a big thing with my Mum as well. She always notices it when "down town" mum's on their phones constantly. It's like we just can't "be" anymore. Yes it's fine if it is just five mins but I think the op suspects it is constant. If that is the case then the children aren't getting the necessary interaction.

Always amazes me how some people can push a pram and text/surf I can barely steer my double in a straight line.

Remember when peaches Geldof's pushchair went down a big crater and child nearly fell out? Weren't people on here shocked that she didn't put the phone down? I think it's the same issue isn't it?

I need my I-Thingy for pretty much everything. I need it to speak to my dad, who cares for my mum (who has dementia) several times a say to preserve his sanity. I need it for work. I use it like an A-Z. I use it to browse AIBU I use it to speak to dds dad and to co-ordinate arrangements with friends/make doctors appointments, check if the swimming pool is open. Etc etc.

I try to minimise the time I spend on it if my dd is talking to me.

Do I feel guilty about using it from time to time when I am with dd? Do I bugger.

My dc take my i-thingy and I get time to chat to friends. Sorted.

Yes, 90% of mothers of small children spend over two hours a day watching porn on their phones in town centres. Discusting.

I get a malware warning from that link too

I only wince if I think using the iphone/pad is endangering the child- so crossing the road whilst talking on the mobile which I have seen loads of times, most recently as a mum swept across the road outside our school with three tinies plus a pram shouting swear words at someone down the phone (yes, I did judge as well as hold my breath until they crossed). I also stopped a child sticking their fingers in a socket in a cafe when their mum was on their phone- again lots of concerned people around except the mum herself.

People sitting in a park on an i-phone/pad whilst children playing wouldn't make me look twice.

I spent 10/15 minutes on MN on my phone earlier with a cup of tea, while DD was playing with her books and toys. Not long earlier we had spent a good 45/60 cuddling, playing, rough and tumbling and completely 1-1 time with no toys, on my bed.

If you looked in the playroom window at the time she was playing on her own you would have judged me. You would have had no idea what we had done before that split second insight you had into our day.

YABU

a child cannot stick their fingers in a socket.
they're far too big.
even if they could (which they can't), they wouldn't be able to open the shutters and make the socket live.
UK sockets are designed to be safe.

(and i would be that mum - sockets are safe and i am perfectly happy with my child playing with an empty socket)

Sorry. Did you say something?