Just an experience I'd like to share.

[Cappuccino17]

Once i was abroad with my husband and 18 month old daughter. Our 1st holiday away. We had booked for 10 days and she was teething practically all the way from day 1. She'd cry non stop I literally felt like crying too as I'd wanted a break and didn't expect this to be a stressful holiday. I gave her calpol which settled her and so she could actually enjoy the holiday too. We did a lot with her day in day out the whole holiday was centred around her. On day 8 we booked a restaurant for a romantic meal. We dressed up and took our daughter with us. We literally just wanted 1 peaceful meal between us with a chat. So we took the ipad along. We made sure she ate first. When our food arrived we put the ipad on and let her watch rhymes. But we couldn't help but notice many families around us staring in disgrace and whispering. They were from other parts of the world but I felt very uncomfortable. 1 lady in particular was glaring and shaking her head at us. When I say staring i mean very obvious staring from many people. I felt so uncomfortable. Like I couldn't relax. When we finished and switched off the ipad which my daughter was so content watching. They stopped staring but loved my daughter and smiled. So it was kind of a happy ending. Still shocks me till today lol.

No I never did this. We entertained the kids with colouring in.

Salute to the parents who never do it.
Salute to those who do.
And all the judgemental so and so's can bugger off lol.
For myself a 1 off in a restaurant abroad 1 time on my entire holiday and never done it before or after that not even once I'm baffled with the judgement I don't care but I'm just baffled by it.

@Cappuccino17 so why did you even ask? You asked and were handed your arse and say you don’t care anyway, why bother asking?🤷🏼‍♀️

@Cinnabomb
@00100001

how do you know I only have 1 child??

it’s rude and lazy parenting to plonk your baby/toddler/child in front of a screen at meal times. Occupy them, entertain them, involve them and talk to them. We were all brought up without screens at dinner time so there’s no reason why kids can’t be nowadays. It’s too easy to rely on a screen for a peaceful half hour.

It's rude and lazy parenting according to who though? A handful of judgemental parents on mn and another tourist 😂 Mind your own business and save your parenting lessons to yourself please. I bet if I had a minute to take a brief glimpse of your home life, I can nit pack a thousand of things that will qualify you to be lazy but I'm not a judgemental RUDE twat. anyway...

What's wrong with wanting a peaceful half hour?

If it was in Europe they would have judged.

I have close family who we visit often in mainland Europe. Meal times children join in, they actually accept the odd screaming/tantrum and the chitter chatter of children at tables. It's all part of learning to be at a dinner table and engage.

Britain still have that very Victorian hang up "children should be seen and not heard" so we silence them at meals out with screens.

I'd say I do 50/50. But in Europe DS even from a baby to toddler was just encouraged to engage in the meals, and the adults around the table engage with him. In Britain I'd give him my phone to avoid judgemental "your child is making noise" looks.

DS at one hotel in France once took interest in the sideboard full of crockery and you could see him eyeing it up and wanted to open the doors all the time. I kept saying no don't, leave it and picking him up. The restaurant staff in a 5* hotel said "don't worry he can open the doors and look" they thought he was cute. One waitress even allowed him to help her (bare in mind he was like 13months old) put some plates in the cupboard 😂 They gave him a teddy one day before we checked out, he was like a celebrity in the hotel lol.

Swings and roundabouts.

@JudgeRindersMinder I didn't ask anything in my original post. It was just an experience I wanted to share.

I do find that many of the people who don't agree with screen time to be extremely rude with their responses. I do think it's a reflection of your rigid, cold, and boring personalities. Offer an opinion but no need to be rude about it.

Jesus Christ- can you just get over it? If you want to treat shoving your child in front of an iPad like it’s some political point, great. Thankfully I’ll never run into you at a restaurant as I have never seen anyone do this when out for a meal.

You’re protesting a bit too much here. Own your choices and move on with your life. You’re coming across as very wounded and defensive.

40 minutes! Wow, that's a long time

Our kids are 4 and 2 and we have no tablets, so no screens when we're out. They get plenty of TV at home but that's for chilling at home, not out and about.

I do think you had unrealistic expectations, a romantic evening meal and an 18 month old don't go together. We tend to go with an early meal and then get dessert to go to have with a bottle of wine once bedtime is over.

@suprima L.O.L

Of course she's owned her choices. As far as I can see, she is basically asking why the ONE tourist made a judgey look about the iPad on low volume where no one can hear out of all the hundreds of people who walked by, dined, holidayed next to her who didn't give a shit about her choices and minded their own business. When I go for a meal I would rather be surrounded by low volume IPads than screaming kids or pretentious parents creating a crèche environment in a fucking restaurant but hey, I still wouldn't stare even though it's more annoying and leave the poor waiting staff scrubbing off colouring pens and stickers and shit off the floors and tables.

Would anyone object if the parents sung the nursery rhymes to their toddler? Just wondered....

Yes, absolutely, this would enrage me. Someone singing nursery rhymes in a restaurant while I'm having dinner? Get to fuck.

Aw, hey diddle diddle...

There have been some nasty responses on this thread. Also, the people judging you for using an ipad OP, are most likely the very same people who would glare at you if your toddler was crying or being noisy in the restaurant.

Good for you, the comments here are rediculous!

@Somethingsnappy exactly what I was thinking

@JenniferBarkley actually it wasn't an unrealistic expectation because aside from the stares we would have actually enjoyed our romantic meal. My 18 month old was very content and happily watching her ipad with smiles and giggles every so often which only made me happier to know she was okay and not being tortured into colouring or eating food she wouldn't enjoy (hence she was fed before) she was teething too so another reason I fed her in our hotel room because otherwise she would have screamed the restaurant down. In my own personal opinion I think I made a great choice. I made sure my child was happy and not forced to do things she didn't want to whilst on a foreign place and whilst she was in discomfort with teething pains.
We enjoyed parts of our meal but the glares slightly spoilt the evening as I'm not used to being looked at like that.

My dc are older so it's not something I have done but I don't see the big deal. I would be too busy tucking into my meal to notice other people being judgy, and I can't fathom why you are still fretting about it, just forget about it.

A very bizarre post. Almost a year ago you went out for an evening and a couple of people looked at you askew - but then were very friendly - and you posted this why?

also get headphones

🫥🫥🫥🫥🫥

@deadringer lol believe me I am not fretting about it. Well it's all good you can enjoy your meal with a bunch of nobody's staring in your face. Unfortunately i cannot and we are 2 different humans and I find staring and glaring extremely rude so I couldn't fully ignore it as much as I would've liked to, its a total lack of etiquette to the point that it seems hypocrictal that these people think having the ipad switched in is rude. Lol. Nevertheless I still enjoyed myself.

People are very precious over this sort of thing. If my 2.5 year old is getting bored then yes, I sometimes give her my phone. It really isn't a big deal.

It may seem bizarre this is posted a year or so later. It was a thought and a that recently resurfaced. Me and a couple of friends were laughing about it. And in all honesty I just thought hey ho let me see what other mums make this.
I didn't half think this thread would turn out to be like this. I'm astonished.