Hotel restaurant and iPads etc

[mckenzie]

We are on holiday and staying in a hotel with breakfast included.
Settle nicely at a table this morning, in the shade, over lookimgbthe gardens, watching the birds on the ledge. A family then take the table next to us.

The older child (I'm guessing age 5) is given an iPad and starts playing a game with noice so we can hear ping and pong and clapping and other computer type noises.
The younger child (I'm guessing 18 months) has a phone propped up in front of her and is watching a video of some sort so we can hear high pitched animated voices and weird music.

AIBU to expect the family to think of others and provide said children with headphones?

It's ok Leighb23 I thought that too, ;)

Err because we've already gone through why some of us mums need to have them! The point was ignored Francis!

Yes to that francis. Unless certain posters have appointed themselves as mn prefects that nobody's allowed to disagree with.

saying your dcs won't wear head phones is like saying they won't wear seatbelts in the car, you don't give them a choice
and as for the ones who say headphones don't fit/are uncomfortable - there are adjustable ones on the market and ones with soft padding - there is no excuse

The 'alternative' is not a child screaming or running around

The alternative is called parenting

Spot on

saying your dcs won't wear head phones is like saying they won't wear seatbelts in the car, you don't give them a choice

This is a very good point.

No it isn't. Some children don't keep seatbelts on and have to have specialist harnesses that they cannot undo or slide out of.

My DC wouldn't wear seat belts and would undo them and climb about when we were driving. It's actually very hard to force a child to do something they absolutely don't want to do. A level of compliance is required for a child to do as they are asked.

But nobody would just say "OK then, DC won't wear seatbelts - never mind, we will just carry on in the car regardless!" They'd find some other solution.

But i suppose the parents think they have or that as it isn't dangerous it is okay for a short while.

But nobody would just say "OK then, DC won't wear seatbelts - never mind, we will just carry on in the car regardless!" They'd find some other solution

Yeah but the stakes are somewhat higher . There is no law saying that you have to wear headphones or risk of serious injury if you don't. You surely have to draw the line somewhere and pick battles as a parent.

I have a child who won't wear a seatbelt.

As a pp said, there are other solutions. There are several harnesses available, in different styles for different needs. Not ideal (they aren't recommended, in case of interfering with the seatbelt working properly) but that's a small compromise compared with an unrestrained passenger. Doesn't stop the kicking, though, or grabbing and hitting.

There isn't an alternative to headphones, is there? Well, there is - a speaker. The thing which is being objected to.

Incidentally, my child won't wear headphones because she was forced to wear ear defenders at her preschool. She hated them, but was unable to speak out against them, and the staff there noted that if they made her wear them, she was allegedly calmer (umm, no, what she was was withdrawn and isolated, terrified, and not able to speak out because she knew she wouldn't be listened to).

9 years later, she is able to tolerate headphones for about a minute. Because yes, I have tried, and worked endlessly to try to make her needs at least partially socially acceptable. She has worked so hard, and yet the payoff is pitiful, and not really of any use. Sums up a lot of her life, tbh, and yet she still doesn't give up and keeps trying.