Give your child a screen and the rest of us peace

[OlympicsFanGirl]

Second long train journey this weekend and yet again a whole carriage having to put up with loud, noisy, whining kids.

It's grating and it's constant and there are hours to go.

Parents just don't seem bothered.

Rest of the carriage now sharing looks, rolling eyes and sighing.

Just give them tablets and headphones and the rest of us some peace and quiet.

You stated you took out your hearing aids and put in earphones. I am deaf in one ear and I have 80 percent in my right. How did you manage to engage with your daughter with so much going on.

@Charlottescobweb

My DD is well able to engage with me.

Thank you for your interest. 😳

Yep and then they come on MN and justify their badly brought up kids antics as "kids being kids". Well in public keep your kids under control. Appreciate not always possible and some more difficult than others. But parents need to parent!

The thing with screens is you have to ask are they actually being used with genuine concern for the child's welfare and development or are they being employed as a sort of socially acceptable equivalent to sedative injections, a quick and easy short-term solution to behaviour management that requires as little effort as possible on the parents' part.

My journey is over.

Next time we willl fly.

From my experience, flying is even worse for screaming and seat-kicking...

You must be relieved!

Are you sure about the plane next time? Kicking the seat in front is worse on a plane. And they can't send the little terrors off on a trip to the buffet car or to go explore the end of the train. If you're near'em you're stuck with'em.

One of the huge unexpected benefits of having children of my own was when someone else's child was behaving horribly I found I could totally blank it with a serene "so glad that's not my problem". The effect lasted about 10 years post-kids before going back to my usual curmudgeonliness.

No.

UK is terrible for kids.
Give them screens - can't win you are a lazy parent
Don't give them screens - your kid is noisy/annoying (normal bored behaviour) teach them to be quiet (not always possible with young children especially when they are going through the tantrum stage or just having a bad day/ill).

Some kids have special needs/anxiety/adhd so figit a lot more than other kids and can't sit still.. They shouldn't be kicking chairs but might not be able to stay in their seats.
Solution - apparently children need to behave exactly like adults even though their brains aren't fully developed yet, rather than society being more tolerant of children's behaviour.
Parents are screwed.

I totally do get the stance to give screens if you don't want to parent.

For someone around the children of a lazy parent it's nicer if they're on a screen being ignored, than running riot being ignored.

Obviously a parent choosing to be screen free is great - even noice is fine - it's when parents ignore their kids being a pest and don't stop them. Give me a parent who is trying to stop the child, and maybe the child has a noisy tantrum for a bit or cries for a while as they were told - than the ones who seem to just ignore the precious child charging about kicking seats and hitting windows. Children can be a pain but if people can see a parent trying, saying no, getting them to sit down even if there's some tears etc it feels better than a parent who allows children to be a nuisance

And that’s how it should be, LemonPeonies. The people who stick their kids in front of screens and ignore them will be moaning when those kids are teens and they can’t get a word out of them.
Screens have their uses, of course they do. I for one would rather see a child sitting quietly on a screen on a journey than screaming and shouting through boredom. That said, it does make me wonder how we young mums in the 60s and 70s managed because there was nothing like that then. I think the answer was chatting, playing ‘I spy’, colouring in, being the first to spot things on the journey- first one to spot a blue car, for instance. It’s so much easier now!

It is pretty much by some posters, parent how I parent otherwise you’re lazy/ a bad parent because you use a screen even though I’ve only seen a snapshot of your entire day so going to judge you on it.

But then parents paying cards and pissing about with stickers in restaurants are as annoying as a bit of background screen noise.

Really?! Parents engaging with their children upsets you? How sad, and how sad for any children you might have.

I recall my older family members mentioning threats of being smacked if they didn’t hush up or behave and similar from DH’s side.

@fitzwilliamdarcy and @AmaryllisNightAndDay

Edinburgh/London flights are usually fine and if not it's only an hour rather than the 6 hours we had to spend on the train.

Plus cabin crew would have intervened on some of the behaviours experienced today.

All the other parents were managing fine. Just these two families.

😁

Get your own screen/book and headphones. Bliss.

I have my own ear defenders that I wear when screechy children become too much.

Exactly, of course their attention span is short but I try to utilise as much as I can. Resorting to him staring at a screen will do nothing for his imagination, of which he has a great one so I don't want to dampen it.

Don't they just!

OMG never thought of that 😂

Then people wonder why they see jobless yobs walking around or young people only playing playstation.

DD does exactly this. I don't understand parents who let their kids disrupt everyone else's journey!

I think the majority of people would focus more on their own journey. I was on a flight from Jamaica to England and there was a young boy who was running around and causing havoc for his parents. We gave him a nickname run tings Carter. We made a joke out of it. Too many busy bodies living in outrage.