To think we've made a mistake with DS big present?

[lynzmb]

We got DS6 an Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet for Christmas to replace an ancient iPad. I'm pretty tech savvy but I have really struggled to get certain apps on the kids profile - YouTube Kids seems extremely difficult to add, research talks about side loading etc which just seems like an almighty faff. I'm worried we keep running into problems like this, DS will lose interest and it was v expensive.

I'm wondering if we return it and look at another android tablet instead. Seen a few people suggesting Samsung with Family Link app for parental controls.

I'm feeling stupid already for not realising the limitations around Amazon tablets so please be kind! Or is there a simple solution I'm missing?

I wouldn't have YouTube at that age. The fires are rubbish. Mine only had tablets that young for long distance travel and for when we went on holiday with no tv- to give us a break.

We love the fire tablets for our two. They can access iPlayer and netflix and I don't want them to be able to properly access YouTube kids at this age. I think it's rot, watching kids open toys or play games online. They only use them for long journeys though and some weekend mornings if they get up earlier than I can manage to get out of bed 😂
Do you think it can actually be returned op or do you plan to sell it on?

Yeah I'm with@ByHardyAquaFox and@GeneralChaos1 .
Can't think of one positive of a device, setting yourself up for the inevitable tantrums when you take it away.. I mean, it's engineered to be addictive.
Adults struggle to put down their phone, kids have got no chance..

But yeah, we sound like the archaic ones.
I kept trying to understand why she would have to explain Santa to him, I mean surely he's 10, 11 or 12 and knows Santa isn't real.
But then realised he was 6. I'm clearly out of touch as to when kids get devices.🙈🙈🙈

Shucks this is convicting me!
Mummy's binky... So true though, you can't leave the house without it, you probably don't even leave a room without it. Look for it everywhere at night before you go to sleep..
Sheezz, I net to get off my phone.
Sometimes I wish I could chuck it so I don't have the temptation.

6? Definitely too young. This is the trouble with parents wanting their kids to have every single thing because they can. You know a tablet is just like a phone don't you? They can get onto anything they like once they learn how to get round it, and you won't want them on TikTok - ever.

We've had amazon fire tablets and we like them because there's no YouTube! The parents dashboard is simple once you give it a go. Things like having to do educational apps before fun apps are unlocked was a feature we've used in the past but not now.

We've used it on the younger kids setting where everything was big squares and kids used it easily from 5+ which is when we allowed tablets from, to download all sorts of apps on their own, which never caused any issues for us and we are strict content wise. Silly and pointless games yes, but they were little, but nothing inappropriate.

We've progressed to the older kids setting where it looks more like a tablet with option to browse an app store but it sends us parent permission request.
In my opinion YouTube has no character arcs, limited imagination, is normally fast loud and shouty... Netflix has been a main source of entertainment and BBC kids player too.

I think it's great that it can't play YouTube kids and also a limited Internet browser,which has barely been used because it's so locked down by us.

As kids have gotten older we have allowed them to watch popular YouTube video among there classes on our living room smart TV just so they are in they know as such bit that's been it. We have also allowed videos on the smart TV for things like bracelet making or crafts. So we are not complete anti YouTube. We just don't like mindless scrolling/video after video, and these amazon tablets are perfect for this.

Why not give life a go without YouTube and see how you get on?

Or you could have santa send a letter which says he was given the wrong tablet and he needs to swap, there was a cheeky elf in training on that night who swapped gifts about, here is 10 chocolate coins for the mistake!
Maybe leave the letter out with 10 chocolate coins to add to the authenticity and magic of it all! x

For once, I too am happy to derail a thread and agree with others that six is way way way too young for a tablet. Tablets are addictive, damaging to the developing brain, bad for the eyes, and do nothing for concentration skills. Then there's the actual content your child is consuming, including potentially endless adverts.
There are hundreds of other ways to entertain a child that are not harmful.

It's actually pretty disgusting that they are still allowed to market these products towards kids, leading parents to think they are in any way appropriate.

The tech companies do not have our children's interests at heart, their products cannot be trusted. Children this age are being primed for hanging out on line for the rest of their lives.

Where did you buy it? Will they really take it back when there’s nothing actually wrong with it?

You bought a tablet for a 6yr old? At that price?
Wow.

I got a printing game for Christmas when I was 6, it had about 20 blank sheets of A4 papers and loads of different rubber stamps and different coloured inks, I use to make pretend factories, I used both sides of every page

probably not a coincidence that I run my own business now

We’ve just replaced our kids’ iPads with Amazon tablets and the difference is pretty huge but that said, ours are only 3 and 5 so they don’t do all that much on them anyway. We will go back to Apple when they are older.

We have an Amazon kids and I regret it. The kids profile is awful. We have removed that part completely, side loaded Google play to get YouTube kids and locked down the adult profile, so it essentially works as an android tablet. But the few benefits of the Fire, like the parental controls, are now gone.

The worst part of the kids profile was the thousands of gaming apps made available to my child when I just wanted to select a few. I couldn't block them all. I asked Amazon customer services and they said there was no demand for it, which is rubbish.

We left it too late to return. I would recommend returning it.

Or, they can be an educational tool that parents can monitor. My MIL gave DD one and she's only 3. We let her watch cbeebies on it (meaning we can watch something else) or put a film on it she likes etc. But when we say so, and we turn it off when we say so. She uses it for educational games, things that are helping her learn numbers, letters, a bit of dexterity etc.

She's not got YouTube or anything that may play adverts. We don't let it auto play anything once what we've put on it finishes.

She's a kid who loves to be outside. She loves books, Lego, magnetic blocks, dolls, cars, her toy kitchen. She helps in the kitchen, has a cracking imagination.

A few hours of a screen a week isn't going to ruin a kid. It just needs to be in moderation, like most things.

Don't judge parents for how they are choosing to raise their children based on one post about a tablet. You know nothing about the rest of their life.

Honestly I’d leave Santa out of it at this point. Just say it’s broken but you can get a different one. I’d avoid opening up a whole debate about Santa taking things back.

We had an Amazon fire and it was hands down the shittest piece of tech we have ever bought. Clunky, difficult to use, slow and to top of off, you can’t download or stream 99% of content or apps when in a foreign country because of differences in local licensing laws. So if you go on holiday you have to plan and download everything in advance but they don’t tell you.

Utter waste of money and tbh I can’t believe you didn’t realise this before you bought, there are enough terrible reviews on the damn thing. There simply is no short cut. Buy and iPad.

Anything else you’ll regret.

My kids were fine with them when younger. We limited the time on them, they played the games they could get but they did get slow over time and we never really mastered them.

My derailment is why is 'santa' bringing such an expensive present? Surely Santa brings stockings and little gifts, unless you take the approach of saying you send him the presents to deliver, in which case a switch would be much easier - 'oh silly mummy sent Santa the wrong one to send you'.

Also as others have noted, a lot of shops don't take returns simply due to a change of mind. My 10 year old wanted a Chromebook which we got from Argos and this was the first thing we got told when I collected that it was non refundable and unless faulty I could not return it.

I’m not sure whether comments on whether a 6yo should have a tablet are helpful. OP is entitled to make whatever decisions she thinks are right for her family. If you want to have a discussion about screens for kids start a thread about it instead of hijacking an OP asking a specific question.

It's ridiculous OP because a 6 year olds main present should be bike, scooter, trampoline etc, not an electronic device to sit watching trash on from such a young age.

This is what we did - an older model
ipad for Christmas. We thought about another tablet but didn’t want the faff as we know how to set up and use iPad with all the controls. Daughter was delighted she wanted Procreate. We have a small Amazon fire I got to replace a kindle - I never use it really it awful.

How can you say you bought one which was shit and in the next breath say ‘tbh I can’t believe you didn’t realise this before you bought’. Double standards much?

Wow - giving a 6yo their own tablet and then tying yourself up in knots about how to return it while maintaining the Santa myth is totally bizarre and all kinds of wrong.

Why not just get an iPad?

Stick with iPad if he is used to IPad. I have tried cheaper alternatives, but not found anything as good.

Yes we just got our daughter her first tablet at Christmas a week after her 10th birthday and we worried it was too young but she needs to do research online for school and her friends video chat and she wanted to use procreate to draw.