To feel sad having seen a little girl given a dummy and a great big set of headphones thenparents sat an ate in a pub

[Bearbehind]

We were in a pub at the weekend and sat beside a couple with a 2/3 year old girl in a pushchair.

Her parents tried to get her to go to sleep by covering the buggy with a blanket and rocking it but she was wide awake. She wasn't crying or cranky, she was just babbling away to herself and didn't really want to stay in the pushchair so they put her on a seat, put a massive pair of 'beats' type headphones on her, stuck a dummy in and plugged her into an iPad.

I fully appreciate its none of my business but it just made me sad that this was such an automatic reaction with a little girl who just wanted to interact rather than a last resort.

It's so easy to criticise.

oh oh oh can i join in?

i am a shit mum because... today ds had one quarter of a cheese sandwich and a massive cookie and a handful of white buttons for lunch ALL while being strapped into the buggy pushed around Lidl, and now he is watching TV while jumping on the sofa AND i have a glass of mulled cider (finishing off the xmas supplies) and am on the laptop (supposed to be shopping for frigging cot screws because we seem to have lost ours in the recent house move, but snuck on to MN for a bit of a break).

Sadly he wont eat 'oven' food (too dry) otherwise he would have that for dinner (as DH working till midnight) so i have had to make a bloody fish pie. i would prefer a fish finger sanger tho

Seriously I would have been tempted to say "get a life" to tutting woman. Or might actually have said it tbh. Years of tutters have made me a bit assertive.

My DD is addicted to chocolate. She searches house for it constantly and would eat nothing else. It's quite scary.

Don't see the problem at all.

New Years Eve, Dh and I went out early for a meal. We were sat next to a family, mum, dad and their dd2. She had an ipad and earphones and very quietly ate her food and watched the ipad. At the end of the meal, when her film had finished she got a bit restless and wanted to go home.

I told the mother how well she had behaved and what a good idea the ipod had been. She had been watching frozen. Not for a minute did I think it was sad. She had enjoyed a meal out with her parents, had been quiet and let them enjoy their meal, did not disturb others in the small restaurant, the family had been able to enjoy a nice evening.

Well to top my crap parent status rather than eat at the table I let the madthings sit in the living room and eat.their.fishfinger sandwiches (white bread.with ketchup) whilst watching a film, Harry potter infact and the little two are only 6.and 4 so some would say too young for HP, but they love it. Topped off with kinder egg (little two) and twix (big three) for pudding. Go me!

If you knew the amount of hours that my 4 year old son has spent on disney infinity this Xmas, I would probably be reported to social services.

I'm a bad mum because DS was running round the house in his best and undies while his uniform was being washed (with the heating on full) because I couldn't be arsed wasting a good set of clean clothes for an hour.

Oh and this morning I laughed when he helped the cats steal the dreamies

5madthings can I move in with you please?

today i was a bad parent because i allowed DS to play angry birds on his hudl while we were sat in the waiting room of the OT, and another parent was giving me dirty looks because her 4/5yo wanted to play on her tablet too.

I ignored.

fucks sake, if my SN child can't even play while waiting for his fucking occupational therapy session without people judging, when the fuck can he?

5madthings Wed 07-Jan-15 18:43:47

I have noticed your posts on all things child related for a long time.

At the risk of sounding sycophantic you are one of the more humane and wonderful posters on all things children and I bet you are an amazing mother bringing up well rounded lovely children unlike some of the lemon suckers on here.

Dd watched you tube today. If it keeps her quiet on her multiple daily journeys I'm happy.to.be a shit parent

Imbat I thought tablets were designed for hospital waiting rooms? They are a godsend in that situation. Last time I was in a waiting room with ds he was watching sooty on the iPad and a child of about 8 with Down's syndrome came to see what he was doing - him and ds then sat and watched together giggling away

...hospital appointments too - ds had to be measured for a Lycra suit yesterday, trying to get him to lie on his back for about 50 detailed measurements wasn't a great deal of fun, but fortunately one of the physios held an iPad over ds's head with spiderman cartoons, which just about made it doable!

the amount of appts we have to sit around for, i'd get seriously stressed if we didnt have the tablet or my phone, because he's incapable of sitting still without it!

Im making an assumption that maybe the mum was just beginning her journey of waiting room hanging around!

DS got up at 5.30 this morning. I allowed him to play on the playstation for a whole hour, on a school morning(!) because I couldn't face getting up yet having been awake till 3am with migraine

He had nutella and toast for breakfast and I realised on the school run that he was wearing odd socks.

He hasn't touched his tablet today though

Ah see red button, me and DS always get up at 5:30, I make him porridge, bath him, get him all dressed, do his morning physio, put my face on then leave for the massive school run.

But he has been on his tablet all the way to school and back in the car, and in bed while he was drifting off to sleep.

Does that make us evens or am I still more shit because of the tablet?

Actually... I took him to McDonalds after school because I'd deep cleaned the house because his key workers are visiting in the morning and I couldn't be arsed making a mess cooking, so that's probably me winning as the worst mum now