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?

I really wish more people realised just how damaging screen use like this is, for young brains. Just take them away!

Id take YouTube off it and maybe just put some educational stuff on there. My kids have 1 they are allowed to use between them but all I allow them on now is Reading Eggs

definitely block you tube. It’s not safe for kids that age. There is You Tube kids which is not perfect but it is safer at least.

i’m not being judgemental at all. I think lots of parents don’t realise how unsafe YouTube is. You need to have control over their content and keep them safe.

Agree

You asked for people's opinions. You can't complain about being judged when you don't like them.

I remember DS aged around the same age watching Thomas the Tank Engine on my iPad. All very good until he clicked in a version which had Gordon telling Thomas that he was a selfish motherfucker…
He didn’t have access again for a VERY long time!

Firstly, password protect the devices so they can't get on them whenever they like.

You must have spent at least £700 on them! Trade them in for one single, family, reconditioned iPad. They don't own the device or have autonomy on when to use it but it's there for everyone with restricted use.

It’s not too late
Definitely block YouTube - two 6 yr olds scrolling on that content you don’t know WTF they’ll see
Disappear the iPads

if we had our time again the iPads would come in the teens at earliest

kids themselves say they were given them too early (same age)

We only let my DC (age 9 &12) have 1 hour, twice a week. They moan about their friends having more but I just tell them I am making the decisions I think are right as their parent.

(I spend far too much time on my devices so on that note I'm signing off!)

We had family iPad and consoles in the lounge. Parental controls (both on the tech itself but also DC having to ask if they could go on them and in respect of iPad what for). Until DC were much older games were set up so DC couldn’t ‘speak’ to other players. And games were age appropriate

Wean them away, introduce some sort of creative play, like kids that age used to do before staring into a screen was a thing.

Mine are 8 & 6 and don't know youtube exists. We have two kindle tablets but they are password protected and we simply don't let them have them at all mon- fri. Only one hour screen time on the weekend.

The tablets are heavily locked down and we supervise what is on them.

I think 6 years old is too young for iPads. General advice is to avoid iPads, phones and devices that make them sit on their own and zombie out. It’s preferable to have a tv on so they can watch together (family movie night, or some education stuff on YT).

I don’t know many primary school kids with iPads, but we are not in then UK, so it might be different.

Mine are 9 & 11 and don't have you tube. They do have you tube kids for 30 minutes. We use family link.

Or Mumsnet. The irony of everyone condemning tablets yet here we are.

OP I use sleep timers. If they’re more hassle than they’re worth try taking them away during the week and getting them out at weekends and if that doesn’t help put them away altogether.

If you’re managing their time and the content isn’t harmful I don’t really see the benefit of TV vs tablets tbh.

Op also posted she wished she hadn’t bought them. Easy solution to that, take them away.

Bunkum. In what way does it ‘damage their brains’? 😆

I bought my DS his first iPad at 4yrs old as they were using them at pre-school. We used educational Apps on it and he learnt to read and gained basic maths skills very quickly.

I think it depends on the child but my DS was never interested in games like Fortnight or mindlessly scrolling YouTube although he did love playing Minecraft when younger. I took him to a coding club at 7yrs and he really enjoyed that.

Teen DS much prefers playing his guitar to computer games these days.

How do you do this??

My kids spend more time on their tablets than I’d like, so I’m far from a perfect parent, however I have blocked YouTube on our router as it is absolute dross, even kids YouTube. They were like zombies watching other people playing games and providing hyperactive commentaries. Now they don’t have YouTube they’re at least playing the games themselves.

Honestly i wouldn't be too worried. It's now an hour since your original post, so presumably they are now playing. It's a beautiful day to get out and about.

you have done well, I have 6 yr old twins too who also just got screens (several years after all their peers). Mumsnet responses are always from people who seem to parent outside the norm, I think an hour a day is absolutely fine and don't really see a difference between being glued to the big screen (which is apparently ok) and little screens and at least then they don't fight over what to watch. As a twin mum I say survival is key and if that hour of peace after school means I can pop their ready meal in the microwave and get a few other chores done after being in work all day it's all good ;)

So many younger kids have ipads and way more access to them, calm down judgy posters 🤣

You have more knowledge what they are watching on the big screen. Letting little children loose on the internet without strict parental supervision is madness

There has been research on how too much screen use negatively impacts developing brains.
Take the iPads away. They’re 6.
Tell them they’re broken.
Just make sure they have other things to do to keep distracting them for a couple of days til they get used to it.

They are very young for ipads but an hour in the morning at weekends and an hour after school is surely not all that long and leaves plenty of time for other things - like being glued to the TV as you suggest :-).