To not understand why anyone would buy these for a child (tech related)

[Gheesesndbuscuits]

I don’t understand why anyone would get their child an iPad or tablet. Especially under ten and while a toddler even!

I know this sounds like I think I’m superior having not done it, but however I asked the question it would have come across like that. I’m far from a perfect parent and rely on the tv far too much for childcare when I’m making dinner or need to drink my tea in peace.

But iPads and tablets I don’t get, they’re so interactive and addictive. I genuinely can’t understand why you’d get one for a child. Especially when there’s tv that is more passive (though I accept not good either!).

I agree. But there’s no reason why kids can’t do both?

we have a 1 hr limit on the kindle as I believe reliance on tech isn’t good. But I do believe tech can be a healthy part of children’s play a development. She also colours, crafts, builds Lego, plays outside.

If she has an hour is screen time I’d prefer she spent it on Minecraft or something interactive on her kindle than watching tv.

No classiest element here I assure you. My comment was in response to a previous poster and you have read it incorrectly if you think I am saying that not playing out results in heavy tablet use. I am plainly saying that there is no correlation!

Sorry just realised same person I am replying to, rather than a different poster.

Whilst i agree for most children i also want to point out that ipads are used as communication devices pads for some (children and adults) who have little to no speech or complex communication disorders.

I've received a few lectures from eldery people over the years and plenty of tuts from others for allowing my son to use an ipad in various locations they didn't seem to agree with. The truth was that was the only way he was able to communicate with me using specialist communication software and he had no other apps installed.

The irony of someone falsely naive about screens writing on an internet forum 😂

I can't picture a child turning up at school not having a clue how to use the tool that is second nature for everybody else , and as necessary as pen and paper " because his parents are "superior".

When people genuinely don't understand things and post on the Internet, they are looking for information to help understand, become better informed and maybe change the way they do things. I would bet my house you are not one of these people so enjoy the thread you started, judge away.

As we use more voice instruction what might be more useful is how expansive their experience and knowledge is so outdoor experiences, books, films, building stuff, drawing stuff

Im limited e they were gifts from family

My kids have ipads (and phone, and laptops..) and I have never used screens or the tv, for "childcare". It's lazy parenting.

Do I win? 😂

I suspect for many people it’s because they are portable unlike a tv?

My 4 year old has one but we are strict on screen time, she may have it for half an hour in the evening to wind down and she can also play educational games and whatnot. I know on MN this makes me a lazy, feckless parent who is stunting my child’s development. But I really don’t care what people think, everything in moderation is my motto. Screens and tech are part of the world we inhabit, it’s funny how are are all here slagging off iPads…on our phones. My eldest is also required to use a phone or tablet for at least 50% of his school work.

And yeah sometimes, it is just so I can get a moment to get something done or decompress as well.

Friend of mine when buying her pram/ pushchair was horrified to find there was a slot for a phone for the baby/ toddler. Needless to say she didn’t buy it. No wonder children are non verbal, or have poor communication skills or speak with an American accent(UK) and that’s before all the other social media problems.

We live in a tech-driven world and that's not going to change. Being a Luddite isn't going to help or change that. What will help is to teach moderation, boundaries and quality control.

All the kids completely spoilt and damaged by electricity, when back in the days there was none of that nonsense, and we lived with the sun and used candles like we are supposed to, so kids would use their imagination, follow nature cycles instead of being damaged, RUINED I tell you by that modern idiocy.
Disgusting how spoilt and rotten they are these days.

Don't get me started on indoors loo.

Now that is actually horrendous!

Restaurant: Talk or books, colouring etc. For heavens sake no wonder children A) can’t amuse themselves
B) interact with adults

In answer to the question, it is actually ok sometimes to just be allowed to relax and watch or scroll. After all, you do it. I cab remember finding achool so unbearable and exhausting, coming home, curling up on the sofa and watching Byker Grove or playing Sonic etc was hugely comforting. I often bless my incompetent, neglectful parents for not living their lives through their children!

Anyone else trying to picture a mum sitting amongst the wooden toys and joyless snacks, furrowing her brow and thinking I just don't understand 🤣

DS has had an iPad since reception, because as others have mentioned, his school set homework on a variety of apps (TTRS, Spelling Shed, Mathletics, etc). We’ve also invested in a number of apps ourselves that he uses to support his work at school, such as beginners coding, and now in Y2 he’ll often experiment with designing his own websites and games. Technology is a fact of life, and as part of a balanced activity schedule, it can be a fantastic tool to support learning.

It is horrendous and yet doesn’t correlate with the evidence, which is that literacy levels have vastly improved since the 1990s.

So I do wonder sometimes if what we think we know isn’t true. It’s true children read less for pleasure but it’s also true children are better readers.

We never used one in a restaurant or normal travel rather than flights/long drives, so I have no skin in the game.

However , I do remember very well the threads about “performance parenting” - people talking to their children or playing a game or whatever and the really bonkers one where OP was complaining that small children were playing with a shock horror sticker book!!! on a train journey. Can’t have it both ways.

I would prefer them not to have app based HW as I’m not convinced about the quality of learning through these apps due to the gamification of learning and the dopamine children receive as a result.

@wlinewbie26 I completely agree with this. I wish schools would return to written homework especially now with the under 16 social media ban which will reduce children’s screen time.

Im fed up of the argument that children need to learn to be tech savvy. Yes they do but it doesn’t have to start from the cradle. They won’t be disadvantaged if they don’t use an iPad when young. The addictive nature of screen based activities is terrible for developing brains.

What about those who can’t afford an iPad? Education should be free and a level playing field. Exercise books provided by school for homework. There are no advantages in introducing screens for reception aged children.

My kids have child kindles (all controlled from a parent app), they are all primary aged. They watch Disney on them, play some games and also do their school homework which is set and completed on an app. We'd have to buy a tablet to do their homework on anyway so it is easier they all have their own. They also love reading for pleasure (they eat their way through books, costs a fortune!), have multiple clubs and activities they attend and are excelling academically, the older 2 are allowed to play out on their bikes. Their brains haven't melted because they have a device, they have many many other things to occupy their time. We only just got the older 2 who are 10 and 8 a bedroom tv, in many ways watching a TV is no different to watching a tablet. They also use ipads quite a lot in school too during lessons, so I don't see the issue. They are fabulous on long tedious car journeys and stops them distracting the person driving, when I was younger my dad would have to pullover because we were messing about in the back of the car.

If you bought your child a tablet and never spoke to them, read to them or did anything else well yes their development would be stunted, but it would also be stunted if you didn't converse with them, read to them or just stayed in the house never taking them out to explore the world. I don't think the tablets are the issue, it's more that the parent's would be lazy and uninterested in doing things with their children whether or not this technology was invented, these parents have always existed.

We got my autistic dd one when she was about 7, because it had great communication apps she could use and apps for social stories etc which were much quicker to create than drawing out each time. We used it for visual timetables and finding pictures of places we were going as well.

Out and about it was a safe space she could retreat into if she needed it. There’s lot of research that autistic and ND people use screen time to help regulate.

She now uses it (she’s 14) to draw on, she creates amazing art work. She does also draw on paper, but can create different work on tablet with digital pen.

One of the history programmes on BBC did an episode on what happened in Britain when literacy became much more widespread in the late 1700s, and the birth of the novel; very few people read for "pleasure" before that. There was mass fear-mongering about how people would be overwhelmed, addicted, victims of terrible misinformation, indoctrinated to dangerous new ideas, recruited to do evil things. Women would get hyper emotional from reading novels & become non-functional unable to do their duties in the family leading to neglected children ...

Sound familiar?