headphones, smartphones, tablets and parenting

GwylimT

My daughter and son both play with my ipad, they also have a kindle to share (it was £40 so no biggie if it breaks), we have a dvd screen in the car for our fairly frequent seven hour drives, also have a pull out table to put the tablet on, or to colour etc.

We don't watch live TV, so cartoons are on netflix etc, so no need to wait for your favourite cartoon as they're on demand essentially. They can both use this without help if the TV is turned on.

I mainly work from home, so generally when at home they're left to their own devices between 8am and 5:30pm (so less so during term time for daughter).

They're both trilingual and they can both use makaton.

fierystormcloud

Not a lot to add, except to say I agree 100% with Mr Generous. :T

Lunar_Eclipse

Yes, I think we are losing the art of interpersonal communication. Though this development is not necessarily age related - plenty of 40 year olds on phones in restaurants!

Kids are highly adaptable so there's no need for all the screen use where they are concerned. I have teenagers, so thankfully their young years were pre smart technology. They have never had a phone or tablet at the dining table, nor out at restaurants; they have both but are aware of basic social etiquette.

Never had screens in the car. I can recall buying the smallest portable DVD player available in Argos for our 32 hour plane journey when they were toddlers - years before all the iAnything from Apple. We didn't use it and they're used to long haul travel with hubbie being from the other side of the world, but it was great for our peace of mind.

Proxima_Centauri

GwylimT wrote: »

My daughter and son both play with my ipad, they also have a kindle to share (it was £40 so no biggie if it breaks), we have a dvd screen in the car for our fairly frequent seven hour drives, also have a pull out table to put the tablet on, or to colour etc.

We don't watch live TV, so cartoons are on netflix etc, so no need to wait for your favourite cartoon as they're on demand essentially. They can both use this without help if the TV is turned on.

I mainly work from home, so generally when at home they're left to their own devices between 8am and 5:30pm (so less so during term time for daughter).

They're both trilingual and they can both use makaton.

What is the relevance of them being trilingual? Presumably it's a multi-language household and the children will have acquired those languages by being immersed in them in the home environment.

SingleSue

We will use our smart phones whilst out to search for topics to debate over dinner (obviously after doing all the normal catch up talking), so whilst it may look like our heads are stuck in our phones, in reality, we are searching for our next topic or finding the research to back up our points in the debate.

We use them to enhance our conversation, not to stop conversation and there is a very strict limit on how long we can be looking for or not interacting with the others. Of course there are other times when we just want to chill after spending all day doing conversational/other activities together and that is fine too if everyone agrees (although it generally doesn't last long as one of us usually finds something interesting and it then gets talked about)

Oh one further point...this is never when we are actually eating, all phones etc are put away as soon as the food arrives.

tyllwyd

I remember when I was a child (70s) being told off by my mum for reading a book as I walked along the pavement. And we weren't allowed to read at the table during dinner.


As a family with teenagers now we usually have phones/laptops/tablets/tv around while we are together, but we talk lots as well - things have changed from when I grew up but people adjust. My eighteen year old daughter and her friends have friends all over the world that they talk to and so it has broadened her horizons in different ways.

lippy1923

Technology is the future. Exposing children to smartphones/tablets/technology will do them far more favours in life, than sheltering them from it. Like anything, its all about moderation.

Proxima_Centauri

lippy1923 wrote: »

Technology is the future. Exposing children to smartphones/tablets/technology will do them far more favours in life, than sheltering them from it. Like anything, its all about moderation.

I've yet to meet anyone born after about 1990 who uses a cellphone in moderation :rotfl:

ibizafan_2

Whenever I see people on their phones in restaurants and not talking to each other constantly, I remind myself that I often tried to conceal my book under the table so that I could carry on reading during dinner with the family when I was young. I was born in 1953, so it was books then, and phones now, although I have very occasionally seen children in recent times reading books when out for meals. That makes me smile.

penguingirl

Yep I used to try and read whenever possible. And we used to a use a Walkman/progressed to a terrible portable cd player in car journeys. And my dad would come home from work and read the newspaper straight away/put the news on.

My nephew has a kindle fire and really enjoys looking at family photos on it and pointing/naming everyone. Also some of the interactive games are really good. It's everything in moderation, and I don't begrudge parents for being their own people with their own interactions (that may be via mobile or social media) as well as being parents. It's great to know that this generation raise their children with such judgement around.