To wish I'd never bought my children Ipads?

[Goodnurseorgremlin]

I have six year old twins. They have never had ipads/tablets until this Christmas where I relented and bought them an ipad each.

Worst thing I ever did. I'm quite strict. with them They are only allowed an hour on a morning on weekends and same after school weekdays. It's still driving me insane. Pre ipad they would have been watching TV or playing at this time on a morning. Now they are glued to their ipads watching absolute brain dead kiddie trash on YouTube. I've had to send them to the kitchen for my sanity.

Can anyone relate? Is it too late to tell them santa needs the bloody things back?

YouTube banned in our house, even for the 12 yr old. It spirals quickly in there and without exception, when they watched YouTube before long they saw highly inappropriate videos, starting at cute kittens very quickly led to cute ass girls doing silly things. You cannot control what the next click your kid innocently makes. So fully block YouTube or you’ll live to regret it.

We should be judgemental about this I am afraid. No 6 year old needs an iPad, let alone unsupervised access. You are the parent, so parent.

Hear this over and over again, yet parents are still giving their young kids iPads and such like. Why? Do you think your kid will be different?

It’s not judgement to say you shouldn’t let them have unrestricted access to YouTube, it’s good advice. My 7 year old gets half an hour a couple of times a week and even then I review what she watches (currently kid friendly videos about Tokyo as we are planning a family holiday there) and she only watches it on a tv. My 3 year old doesn’t get to watch YouTube.

tablet is only for some games and homework

Just set parental controls and remove all apps that are causing the issue.
take control of their screen content!

What is ‘cute ads’ girls doing silly things 😐 you know there are parents restrictions for things like that right?

Just take them away. It will only get worse/harder as they get more used to having them and there is nothing they csn gain from an ipad they couldn't get elsewhere. They absolutely do not need unrestricted access to their own devices at that age.

If you want to try ajd not just be ruthless then maybe sell that they are only for christmas/winter time and now it's spring and light evenings they dont need them.
Or swap them with the eater bunny for chocolate (shameless bribery but who cares😆) or they just tragically break (take the fuse out the charger?) And that's a terrible shame isn't it.

We had one family tablet and the DC, 6 and 8, had strict limits - half an hour a day, absolutely no YouTube. They still went absolutely crazy around it and were frankly obsessed. So it is now ‘lost’ and it’s not coming back.

Take the iPads away.

My 7 year old has one is strictly for school work and educational purposes. It’s an Amazon tablet and I’m impressed with the level of of control I have via my phone. We have no YouTube on it or anything like that. I can turn it off and limit time and what apps are used on it.

Do something with them then

don’t blame them or the iPad

This is such a simple but genius approach. I am going to start using this “it’s mine but you can borrow it” technique myself for anything I want to limit.

Mine have ipads

I use the screen time function to do the following

Nothing works at all except between 6-7pm (we also allowed weekend mornings when they were younger)

Youtube is blocked. So is the website www.youtube.com otherwise they just use that. Youtube is mind rotting dross IMO. Same for Tiktok.

clean content filters on

no apps can be downloaded without permission

I wouldn’t say 2 hours a day and allowing youtube is strict at all. I sould say that’s very lax.

This.

I genuinely can't get my head round anyone buying a 6 year old an iPad.

YouTube got "broken" in this house (DC used to watch it on the telly, not an iPad) because no matter what settings I changed it was still churning out that absolute dross and it did have an effect on behaviour.

I allow a bit of Netflix kids, which is whole episodes of stuff so no screeching and OTT sound effects. I'd prefer CBeebies tbh but I don't pay a TV licence (Netflix is only £5pm) and lots of the same stuff is on Netflix Kids anyway. If that starts to be addictive it'll get "broken" too.

I think our generation have to fix this for our kids. I know I'm addicted to my phone and I don't want that for my kids. I've decided they're not having phones or tablets until they're 14+. Easy to say now when they're younger...

Also weigh up the fact that an iPad is just as educational as for fun

So get them to use it wisely

and to look things up to learn more

At the very least make sure it’s kids you tube - it’s still got dross on but at least more monitored. My 8 and 10 year old share the family iPad. They have switches to play games on but have never been allowed you tube unless they tell me what they want to watch - they get it and understand why!

Take them away. My kids have an iPad to share. They are 6 and 8. Only school work allowed through the week. No YouTube unless they’re searching for stuff with me, and it’s something specific like a drawing tutorial or some info for a school related topic.

The endless YouTube videos will be killing their attention span. You’re really setting them up for hardship if you continue.

Pick a topic and get them to find out as much about it as possible

It’ll help with their reading skills and vocab

pick a topic they’re interested in like, cars or whatever. How does a car engine work, how does a plane fly, what are names of planets and their alignment. Fastest animal, what animals only live in Australia

give them a reason to use their iPads

Complaining about judgement that you invited when you said it was a big mistake is a bit rich don’t you think?

You did something daft, it hasn’t worked out, so take them away. Not complicated. Other parents letting younger kids have them just means you know stupid people.

Another just “lose” them or remove them.

there is enough on Netflix Disney+ etc if they don’t like it let them play or live their life in the real world.

they are 6 not 16… you control what they do

Just take YouTube off. There are enough other educational apps to make up for any educational stuff that they were watching on there.

Surely at that age you are not leaving them alone whilst on iPads. Internet babysitter will never go well

I think your post has attracted a certain type of response.