Do you let your DC do this?

[jcmayj]

If at the dinner table or out for a meal with family, do you let your DC watch things/play on their tablets whilst you eat?

I don't but I don't think anything negative about doing so if everyone is enjoying themselves. However, the phone/tablet should either be very very quiet or have headphones otherwise everyone is being disturbed.

SN aside I do think you should try and show your kids manners and engage them in conversation and the food etc. But my situation is different to many as I was a single parent and my son was a very enthusiastic and a very early talker. He's 4 now and can still just talk for ages! I think he talks so much because he doesn't want to listen to my ramblings 😂

No. We don't have any tablets.

Ideally no and usually we don't, however we will whip out a phone if there's a meltdown coming but no volume. She's usually pretty good though and would rather stare at the kitchen to see where the food is

Btw I'm not being judgemental and understand in some cases it's needed if SN, ASD etc

We didn't have tablets when I was a kid, it wasn't a thing back then but didn't know if lots of people just found it normal now to let their DC do it during meal time

I wasn’t being facetious. I let him make his own decisions.

No one of any age should play music, videos or games loudly on a device in a public area such as a restaurant or train. Beyond this, I'd likely not notice, although I think that dependence on screens is slightly sad. Also love the way that people photograph their food before eating it these days.

I used to love it as a kid going to restaurants and getting those free colouring sheets and crayons! I don't see it as often now but I enjoyed that as a child whilst waiting for food

At home on the dinner table absolutely not, however if we are out to eat and the adults are staying after the meal for a drink or two we will have a phone on standby if DC gets overtired or bored and interrupts people. To be fair we have only done it twice as he usually sits and talks to cousins or one of the older kids take him to the play area etc.

@AhFeck I would probably let my DC use phone/tablet after meal finished and adults wanted to stay and talk but with low sound/headphones.

Never during the meal though

Never meals at home, but I would probably happily let DC use screens in a restaurant. We barely go to restaurants so problem rarely arises.

How did parents survive before screens? Yes, we took our children out, even if they had additional needs (as mine do). We talked to them, read to them, played games with them at the table. There is absolutely no excuse for screens at the table. When children are small, you don't get to have adult conversation, long chatty adult lunches, ffs. If in doubt, just pretend you are bringing up children 20 years ago.

fullprice

No need, I just say eat your dinner.

You can't eat & talk at the same time.

BTW I wouldn't ask, I would tell

If you are out for a meal with small children, tablets/phones with the volume down is no more TERRIBLE and THE END OF CIVILISATION than a colouring book or a puzzle toy, FFS. Little kids find the sort of leisurely celebratory meal where adults are conversing to be very dull. If you don't provide them with something entertaining, they are liable to run around and scream and yell - and if you prevent that by hitting or threatening them, then you're far more of a shit parent than the one who hands over the iPhone.

I don’t judge other parents for their choices on how to raise their children, maybe ibu!

tot whats the difference between an iPod or a book?

Sometimes. We travel a lot and sometimes the evening mealtime will be the only time we’ve sat down for an extended period all day.

When children are small, you don't get to have adult conversation, long chatty adult lunches, ffs.

Well if you want to be a martyr that’s fine but seems stupid when letting a small child watch paw patrol with the sound off/headphones means you can.

Sorry not rtft yet but I really can’t stand this judgement around technology for a number of reasons: all the people saying it’s ok if they have sn- how do you know whether they have or not if they have an invisible disability? Do you judge people who do have one because in your mind they don’t have sn? Secondly technology is this generations norm and it’s crazy to try and hark back all the time to not having it- trey often use it for communication, reading, games etc. And there isn’t necessarily anything inherently wrong with that. It’s fine if you as a family don’t want to use it but you can’t just apply that rule to everyone else. and thirdly i’d rather have some quiet kids sat next to me watching things with headphones than a lairy bunch of people drinking/ screaming kids running round restaurant! 😂

@jcmayj sorry that wasn't clear. No screens while eating at all. Only after the meal if DC is restless or tired and it's impacting the adults enjoying themselves. Most restaurants do have a play area or colouring for kids to do though which is what we usually do.

Very rarely, has only happened when one of them has been a bit under the weather but we're stuck eating out (eg on a journey on something) but a normal meal out, nope.

I wish restaurant and train managers should be much stricter with telling people to turn the bloody sound off too.

If it's been a particularly long meal out with extended family and they had behaved well for the first few hours i would let them watch something with ear phones so they didn't misbehave out of boredom

At home they can get down from table and play if bored, but when out it’s so much harder as can’t run off easily so use whatever we need to. As a result don’t go out lots

If you don't provide them with something entertaining, they are liable to run around and scream and yell - and if you prevent that by hitting or threatening them, then you're far more of a shit parent than the one who hands over the iPhone

So it's either an iPhone or they run around screaming, ReanimatedSGB? Sorry, but I think this is bollocks. You, the parents, are their entertainment. You are the ones who show them how to be sociable. I agree that leaving small children do colour in (etc) is no different from letting them watch something on a screen - but in the Olden Days, we didn't just sit there while they 'coloured in'. We got involved in the colouring in. It may not be terribly interesting by adult standards, but so what? They're not young for long, even if every day feels like several years.

Just think: WWYD if screens hadn't been invented? And act accordingly.

In fact, I'm a bit incensed that you think the option is either 'nice benign iPhone', or 'hitting and threatening them', Reanimated. I am hardly a perfect parent (who is?) but I never had to threaten or hit mine in the days before iPhones.

No. We take books, toys etc. Hate seeing children stuck gazing at a screen.

Just think: WWYD if screens hadn't been invented?

Just think: what would you do if vaccines weren't invented?

Just think: what would you do if cars hadn't been invented?

Just think: what would you do if fridges hadn't been invented?

The point is times change. If something isn't harmful why remain with a more difficult way of doing things?