"Ipad Kid" ??

[Becc91]

Worried I'm going to be grilled for this 🙈... But has anyone else noticed that whenever you go out to eat there always seems to be a sticky toddler with an i pad?!
After seeing this for a 3rd time this week , complete with spaghetti hoops on the screen , a nasty cough and vacant parents who could care less - one of whom was ON THEIR PHONE 😱 i made what I thought was a reasonable request

to turn off the loud video of dancing fruits , only to be looked at like I'd grown a 3rd head?!?! DS (19) typically embarrassed- says I was out of order , but I just can't understand the laziness of it all.Is it just me?😲

You can parent some of the children all of the time, and all of the children some of the time, but you can not (parent all of the people all of the time. (and anyone who claims otherwise is fooling only themselves..)

But some people don’t try hard enough. Surely you can’t deny that.

You can't be serious.

never denied it! Of course some people are terrible parents, and no child is an angel 100% of the time... (nor any adult)

of course i am being serious. Sometime there is no perfect solution, Or is there, always?

You seriously think a parent with two children can't possibly stop one of them throwing food in a restaurant?

Nobody is disputing that. But as long as you’re making efforts to interact with them and reward good behaviour you won’t be judged. If you can’t be bothered and expect to use a device to control them, you will be. Nobody expects children to perfect.

I've had 2 of 3 of my kids seriously misbehave in restaurants. They are definitely not angels. A few times we've had to leave, food unfinished, and I've been seriously annoyed.
Sucks for me, but as my youngest keeps reminding me, that's what you get if you choose to have kids. I must have said that once, and now it keeps getting chucked back at me.... sigh...
But yes, that's a lesson in itself. Seriously misbehave and we will leave.
No Ipads in restaurants or shops. No calming them with screens. They have to learn to calm themselves. It's part of normal human development.

It's a hill I will die on.

what about 3, 4, what if more than 1 is acting up on a certain occasion (hopefully not all the time)?

You deal with them both, and if you can’t, you take them all out.

You deal with that child or children, and if that doesn't work, you take them all out

As above, we have to go home and mummy will be very very cross and they'll have to deal with the consequences.
That's how the world works, and that's what they need to learn to deal with.

Just back from a trip to town - in TK Maxx a women seemed to be following me around with a (I would say) 2 year old in a pram clued to a phone watching something on loudspeaker. The child looked like it had been given crack.

Yes I do judge as I think it’s very sad.

I do worry about the children being brought up so much on screens... does not bode well for their self-regulation, communication and emotional wellbeing. So shocking to see babies or toddlers in prams on them when there is plenty to interact with in the real world

We are usually a family of screen heads when we go out to eat. It keeps the kids quiet and my DP gets to have some time doing whatever he likes on his phone and I have gone along with it.

I'm fed up with it. I have been for a very long time and I said to DP recently that in future we will not be taking electronics with us as I'm sick of being 'that' family who are all so disengaged from each other. If we're out for a meal then we sit as a family.

He replied, what will they do?

Colouring I said. Drawing, colouring, dot to bloody dot. Electronics are staying at home.

And so we did.

And we all survived.

Can't stand it!!
Our DD (7) told me last week she felt unloved by her DD because he's always on his phone. So I told him what she said and he's taken it on board and pays her more attention although I'm sad to say I don't know how long it will last.

I'm not as bad but I am guilty of being on my phone a fair bit but I made a conscious decision to put my phone down whenever she requires my attention, for anything which sometimes feels like a bite on the arse but if my girl feels seen then that's all that matters to me .

For some ND people, kids included it can help to regulate but the number of really young children with electronics is quite alarming.

But then I do understand why someone would give a young child their phone when in a GP surgery for example.
Or they could just play/read with the child...

Gah I hate electonics

Why would you struggle not to use your phone when out for a meal?

That will DEFINITELY result in other persons not being disturbed …

Eh? Quietly talking to my children, warning them of the consequences if they don't change their behaviour and if they don't, paying if we haven't already done so, getting up and leaving quietly is only going to disturb us, no one else.

Not that we've ever had to do that because they have only ever needed a quiet 'stop/keep your voice down otherwise we will need to go home' to change their behaviour.

Some of us have taught our children how to behave in public spaces , strangely enough. Probably because we actually parent our children.

Just use headphones, job done

Frankly, even if it is slightly disruptive while you’re getting their coats on and leaving, that is infinitely preferable to being forced to listen to loud jangly noise for an hour or more. You are making excuse after excuse.

If your children can’t behave in restaurants, don’t take them. It’s simple. You wouldn’t take a toddler to the theatre and give them an iPad to shut them up.

From today’s Guardian: I’ve never been tempted to vote Lib Dem but this is a policy I could get behind. It’s good to see the issue being discussed.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/apr/23/lib-dems-back-ban-on-playing-music-and-videos-on-public-transport-in-england

This would be amazing if it was implemented. IMO many people have forgotten how to behave in public since COVID (maybe they spent too much time on their own or think their wants trump everyone else’s). The new pandemic of just listening to what you want in public and subjecting everyone around you to the noise is rife.

Every single time someone next to me starts listening to something on loudspeaker I very politely ask the person to pop some headphones in or turn it off. I’m usually met with a very surprised face. Only once did a young girl tell me I was ‘weird’ and started arguing with me - it was on a train and when it started everyone around me started rolling their eyes and tutting. Absolutely no one backed me up or had the balls to speak up. We all know it’s rude, bad mannered and selfish to subject everyone else to this noise. The more people who call out this selfish behaviour the better.

I visited Japan last year and absolutely no mobile phones or devices are used in public areas because it’s such a well mannered, respectful culture. Sadly, the parents who think it’s ok to subject everyone else to their child’s devices noise are only teaching their children that it’s acceptable.

It’s very sad what has happened in the UK and what a selfish, self centred nation we have become.

I bet some people would. 😒

I could absolutely get behind the Lib Dems' idea, I think we need something like this.

What’s different about a GP surgery and a restaurant? The principle is the same - distract your kid so that you and the public around you can get on with whatever they need to get on with?