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!

Good to know about socket safety, however in that instance, the mum wouldn't have been reassured as she didn't look!

well she didnt need to look.

UK sockets are safe until you put those bloody socket covers in them.

Then they are dangerous.

I feel absoultley no need to justify the use of my iphone/ipad to a person on the internet.
Just rest assured that they are not neglected or suffering from a lack of parental interaction due to me using them.

And tbh unless you follow these neglectful parents about all day, you cannot possible know if this is true, can you?

Things like parks, soft play etc are the ideal times for dcs to learn how to play without helicopter parent following them about and telling them how to play.

thank you Tantrums :)

we had a retail association meeting a few weeks ago, where DD was switching sockets on and off. a couple of the women starting clucking "she's playing with the sockets [scared]"
i said (knowing the answer) "are there covers on them?"
they clucked "no!"
i replied "then she's perfectly safe switching the switch"
(she loves switching sockets on and off)

Totally agree. Fathers, however, should do whatever the fuck they want.

Loved the link!! Also I'm often too be found on my i thingies checking out MN Special Needs boards, best source of advice around . I invite you to look after my son (SN) for a day and see if you don't check an I thingy at some point.

Didn't want to use the old, what about SN defence, but really what do you know of the detail of people's lives and how they really interact with their children whilst you aren't there?!

Well, fathers don't interact with their children anyway do they? Aren't they supposed to be at work, bringing in the money for the iPhone?

Fathers can do exactly as they please in the OPs world, it's just mothers that have to be interactive and attentive 24 hours a day.

Yes, I knew I'd get pretty well slaughtered by the Mumsnet lot. Amazing how fast, within a minute or so, reaction came ... I sort of rest my case!

For those who remarked how might I tell, from passing some mum in the stree glued to her gizmo, I have many times been on long bus and train journies, where the mum (or carer) has been tapping away on whatever the damn thing is for the entire journey, and no interaction with their kids at all. It's not good, ladies.

It's OK if he's playing on his ithingy at the same time though isn't it?

oh op didn't come back??

When I was little there were no lovely handheld gadgety things. So my mum would ignore me with her nose in a book instead.

Children really shouldn't need constant attention. I can spot the ones that do get constant attention at school, they are the ones unable to work independently who follow the teacher round the room and don't know how to tie their own shoelaces.

I have just dropped my 6 year old DS at a party and walked to the park with my 7 year old DD! I am MNing on my I THINGY while she plays! Shock horror!

On the other hand I can spot the children who will need speech therapy,beacause of never having been spoken to face to face.Huge sweary defenciveness here?

Crikey what rude replies! I don't think the OP was saying that children needed constant attention, just that being only half-present with them cos you're staring at a gadget is a bit dispiriting for a person who is dependent on you for conversation/stimulation. All about balance, as with most things.

My child needs speech therapy despite me giving face-to-face interaction, conversation and play for 15 hours a day apart from the one day he is at nursery. And yes, I do check my iphone as I am self-employed and my mortgage payments depend on me being able to maitain contracts.

What a shame this didn't languish in unanswered threads for a while

Oh the oh so clever "I rest my case" argument

and MY i-wotsit gets used mainly when I travel away for work so that I can interact face to face with my children. Oh the irony.

Do you have... An Agenda OP?

YY, I use my iThingy to face-time with the grandkids.

I'm dreadful

madmomma the reason people have given rude replies is because the OP is rather rude (and patronising) and perhaps people didn't like that? Also somewhat hypocritical, as surely she/he has to type into some sort of gadget in order to participate in Mumsnet...

oh GOD FORBID a child should have to entertain themselves on a bus journey by looking out the window or at the million and one other interesting things that are going on on a bus! OP you are judgemental and sexist. And clearly not interested in listening to the views of others. I do hope you are a troll.

You know, I distinctly remember as a young child (say ages 3-7 ish) wishing that everyone would fuck off and stop trying to interact with me, so I could just be - I liked to read, look out the window, not have to play games or deal with other annoying children.

Still feel much the same nowadays tbh!

Patronising much?

Well yeah, if you never ever interact with your child then of course that's not a good thing.

But you also don't need to be interacting with them from the moment they get up to the moment they fall asleep.

There is such a thing as balance. If I had someone in my face every minute of every day, I'd go loopy. Kids don't need constant poking and prodding. Sometimes they just need to look at the world around them.

How long did you have these people under surveilance in order to ascertain that there is no interaction between parent and child? A week? A month?

Did they not mind you moving in with them?