To buy my 2 1/2 year old twins a tablet for holidays?

[Thedoctorswife1]

We have resisted tablets until now - no judgement at all to those who use them - they have some but not a huge amount of screen time in the form of TV.
We have two flights coming up in the next few months and I am considering getting them a kindle fire and headphones - they are on sale at the moment on Amazon. AIBU to do so? I’d want to use just on the plane and when out and about in restaurants as they can get very restless when sat down for extended periods of time. Asking them to share is not an option due to the seating on the plane.

@Frabbits
I'm not judging anyone for using them, and there are plenty of good reasons why they are probably best avoided.
I am speaking from experience that an hour or two of peace can be addictive for the parents, so that's the slippery slope!

Perhaps ask for game recommendations for the device you are planning to buy.

We bought a fire for a long haul flight and downloaded a load of free shite with very limited content which turned out to be an absolute waste of time.

Buy two and buy headphones.

That’s why we bought them - to make life easier for us. We also have DT’s and regularly did long haul flights to visit family. iPads and screens have us some peace and quiet on the journey. Chance to eat without having to entertain at the same time. They are invaluable .

No. If you start them on screens now then it's downhill from here. At what age will you tell them that they're no longer allowed to look at a screen at the dinner table? 5? 10? 13?

Take pens, paper, colouring, books and sticker books for meals.

If the plane journey is a long one, will it have a TV on the seats anyway? If so they will enjoy that luxury.

What is the difference between the screen on the plane and the screen on the tablet?

I would expect my child to not need a screen at a table when they are old enough to sit at a table for an hour and be entertained with conversation.

Anything you do to keep twins well managed/calm is ok!
From a twin mum

Yes I think the slippery slope is the fact that a young child can be left entranced by a device for 2 hours with little adult interaction required. Lovely for tired parents but it would definitely be a slippery slope for me.

And I think the more demanding of your attention your child is the more exhausted you are, and the more likely you are to start to rely on the device to give yourself a break.

I think the downside is that the earlier you start, the less likely you're going to persist with helping them gain the skills needed to entertain themselves when they're older.
I know using a tablet for the odd journey won't lead to addiction but if you're going to buy them you're definitely going to get your money's worth. I'd just use your phone or own if needed.

My 2.5 year old only has it for long journeys. It's an ancient iPad my parents had. Never use it otherwise but it saves our sanity!

I'll be honest, it makes me really sad to see kids staring at tablets in restaurants. The flight thing I can understand I guess, but meal times should be family social time surely.

Mine didn't have tablets at that age, and this was a while ago, we used to drive to France 14 hours and had cds and a dvd player.

We got kindle fires when we first flew long haul when they were 3.5. They were shit. Kids headphones are so limited they struggled to hear over the plane noise and I found the fires so frustrating. And you have to download all your content (CBeebies etc) in the Uk and it takes forever and then expires after 30 days so we couldn't reload it for journey home.

We have them for ours. Use them mostly on holidays, save them for the plane and then a combo of colouring books and kindles for dinner. In some restaurants we'll do screens, depending on the restaurant and the kids. If they're in crap form and tired and we have to go out we'll do screens, if the restaurant turns out to be unsuitable or if it's a nice restaurant. But it's fairly rare we'll need to use them. Most of the time we get away with colouring books. And even though it feels like they cost the same as a tablet the kids magazines are great aswell.

We did the same at a similar age, she's now 5 and knows that she only gets it on holiday, never in between. Occasional grump when we get back, but no issues so far

No. There are so many other things they could do to improve their final motor skills, concentration, etc. screens are a huge new experiment on humans and why start at such a young age? As others said, before screens we used to fly long haul and do long car journeys with small kids and it's perfectly doable. In restaurants they need you to talk to them and to learn how people behave there. Small games and colouring is fine there.

It's a no from me too, the flight is manageable with colouring, books and toys (managed just fine before smartphones were invented) and never at the table, it's just not appropriate- tables are for talking to your children not parking them in front of a screen

The screen on the plane stays on the plane. The children know it's on the plane (and it's a treat). They won't ask for it (or expect it) once they are off the plane. But with tablets on the plane you can bet they'll start to ask for the tablets when they get off the plane and it will get tiresome.

We have a kindle fire and a very old tablet for flights and hospital stays. It hasn’t been a slippery slope at all, even though we were very restrictive with screens and had zero TV before they were two. They have never asked for the tablet at any other time ever (and they never have access to our phones).
We got the adult model and a plain black case so they perceive it as ours, not theirs. They borrow it for the flight and that’s it.

Just buy them. I would.
It's hardly a "slippery slope" as some people are suggesting if you're only using them on a plane journey - I presume they aren't going on planes every week! No shame in making your life easier for a couple of hours once or twice a year at most!

Mine were never interested in colouring books and small games were a disaster on flights - pieces got lost - needed endless help. Screens enabled a peaceful flight for everyone. We didn’t use them at meals.

Of course, no limits here on screen time for long flights. Why make life harder than it needs to be. On our recent flight (with Emirates) they gave us special toddler size headphones for the inflight entertainment and he just watched that instead, also had a lot of fun taking them on and off, killed a bit of time on our 9 hour flight.

I definitely would! We bought our 2.5 year old one last year and it's a god send. We take colouring books and stickers too to mix it up. We don't use it at home and I bet he's used it twice this year. However it's so handy to have.

We're doing a 9hr flight next month and wouldn't be able to manage without it. We're also taking two new monster trucks, a sticker book and maybe some toy figurines. We'll probably start with them and give him his tablet a few hours in.

Just to add we have a Samsung tablet with a big red plastic toddler case on it, it lives in his big toy box with all his other toys and he goes through this box a million times a day but has never ever shown any interest in the tablet. I'm chuckling at some of the alarmist comments here.

We used to take portable dvd players on holiday in the 90s. And we had tape Walkman things before yoto/ iPods for music. They were the same, just bigger.
People have taken devices for years.

in the car my 3 year old has no screens. But he’s strapped in and can look out the window or fall asleep or radio as it’s normal to go in the car often. He doesn’t go on a plane on a daily basis, so it’s all
novelty and wants to go see the toilet or climb around. Hence anything to keep them still.
If you have a toddler, you know they only do anything for about 10-15 mins max anyway. So 4 hr flight needs more than just some crayons. Even the iPad he’s bored after 15 mins so it’s brought in and out over journey as needed.

Have you seen how many biscuits a toddler can eat on a plane…

AIBU
The world won't crumble if you do; however it's a life skill - learning to be bored.

Their developing brains and eyes will thank you. But yes you're right it can be frustrating and annoying when kids are whining on long trips. You or partner could engage with them which may be tiring and not feel like a holiday.
Sounds judgy and probably is.