My friend's daughter

I have a friend I sometimes go out to eat with. Once or twice I've wondered if she actually saw me during the time we were out. One text message after another.

Sad, though I see many kids these days glued to screens, utterly unaware of the world around them.

I wonder why, aside from personal convenience, someone would give a kid that young their own tablet? I can see maybe an hour or so a day of supervised tablet time - it's important to introduce kids to tech - but their own personal tablet, unfettered, before they've even really had a chance to connect with reality or peers or anything?

There is good news over the horizon. The Russkies, the North Koreans, the ISIS pirates and the Frumps will get their act together and destroy the county's sadly neglected infrastructure.No Goog, No Amaz, no cell phones, no texting. Just birds and flowers and the good life.

noirdood said:

There is good news over the horizon. The Russkies, the North Koreans, the ISIS pirates and the Frumps will get their act together and destroy the county's sadly neglected infrastructure.No Goog, No Amaz, no cell phones, no texting. Just birds and flowers and the good life.

Click to expand...

Goodness, is there no third option?

Marian Perera said:

Her daughter is five now, and recently got an iPad for her birthday. She was glued to that for the entire visit. I, and the walks, and the library, and the dandelions, could not compete.

Click to expand...

Give it a little time, and keep offering the hands-on option. It may well be the 'newness' of the device, and the thrill of something adult. I remember Ye Olden Days, when some children loved to play with toy telephones, pretending to make calls, just like the grown ups. Also, from my childhood, the new toy always got pride of place for a while, until the newness wore off.

And, remind her mother that a child can get into all sorts of trouble on-line if unsupervised. Although, they seem to be brilliant at keeping a child occupied in doctor's waiting rooms or other places of tedium and quiet.

My cousin's kid is five. I wish that little lunatic would be glued to an iPad at family gatherings.

You know, ironically, the kids (10 and 8) I babysit banned me from being on screens while I'm with them for two spesific reasons;

1. If I'm playing with my phone, they can't play with my phone, and they want to be playing with my phone.
2. The one time I was allowed on minecraft I spent the whole time decorating the secret war bunker they'd built with pretty things like colourful curtains and plants instead of fighting the zombies we built the fort to protect ourselves against.

My grand daughter Magnolia turned 12 in June. That's her in the car mirror in my avatar. She won a blue ribbon at the Stafford County Fair last week, for that very selfie. We were at a local wildlife refuge, 20 miles from no where, when she shot that picture. We've been coming here since she was little to take walks and pictures, together. Notice the stunned, almost spiritually bereft, but accepting, look on her face? NO FREAKING RECEPTION! MWAhha-Haaa! (Evil Grammy laugh.) 20 miles of wilderness trails, deer, cranes, turkeys, marshes, mythical coyote packs and the only way to get through it is to talk to your freaking grandmother!

Her older cousin almost walked off a footbridge and into a marsh trying to pul up those golden bars. Oh, and the only decent hamburger and fries restaurant in the county is on the other side of the marsh. Talk to grammy and there's a hamburger in it for you. Talk enough and there will be ice cream and pie. --s6

There are a group of kids in the neighborhood who seemed to all move in at the same time and they play together. They're pretty loud, to the point where I think people have been complaining about them, because we're getting notices. But I don't mind it (maybe the teensiest bit), because these kids are actually OUTSIDE playing. Riding bikes! Running! Laughing! They kind of hog the community pool too (I hear them playing Marco Polo), but they're doing physical activity. I think that's great they're not stuck inside or have their eyes glued to some electronic device.

Long time ago I lived in this apartment complex where it had a courtyard. Some of the kids would play there. And people started complaining too, and I thought it was sad, because these kids weren't even being loud. And they were just being kids. There wasn't even any grass for them to play on. Poor kids.

Damn. Kids should be loud and boisterous. --s6

Way too many screens in the life of my kids (teens) their high school has forced us into buying an iPad for them because the school board wants to save money on text books. There is a sign as you enter the main lobby of the school "welcome to ..., turn on your devices."

Now when I drive them anywhere they are glued to the screens.

I'd threaten them that I'll pull mine out when I'm driving but it wouldn't do any good. Thankfully the one that has her license puts her phone out of reach so there is no temptation.

I'm the one going outside to play int he grass - my neighbors think I'm crazy lol
Jer

Most tablets have parental controls and most parents know how/are aware enough to use them, so I wouldn't bother to warn about unprotected internet browsing, personally.

I think tablets are great. My 6yo got one for her birthday and it has opened up a world of information to her. There are so many educational apps and even most of the children's shows these days are educational instead of just being cartoon creatures mindlessly going around beating other cartoon creatures half to death in an endless cycle of futility. My 5yo's favorite show is Wild Kratts: he knew enough from watching that to have an intelligent conversation with his grandfather (a marine biologist) about tidepool habitats.

IMO technology does not take away from real life. If used properly, it adds depth and richness.

Here's the think guys, it's easy to judge....if you're not the parent you're probably seeing only part of the picture. We have a seven year old and a five year old, and they both have their own tablet. Tech time is restricted to an hour on Saturday, and two on Sunday, which is already way, way more than I ever thought I would permit. But here's the thing...tech is part of their lives. Their homework (what little bit they get) is largely tech based (Mathletics, Reading Eggs). They have to know how to use it. There are also incredible educational apps available - my 7 year old loves Scratch Jnr (basic coding app) and this wonderful app that allows her to write/design books, complete with illustrations she draws herself, or photos she takes. She loves Youtube crafting and cooking videos too. My smaller guy prefers games at the moment, but we are very careful about which apps he uses and try to ensure that he has access to good quality age-appropriate stuff only.

Tech is here to stay in the lives of our kids...I think we just have to do our best to take a sensible approach.

And OP, I suspect your friend is just delighted to be able to talk to you and have sensible adult conversation without a little voice chiming in for attention every ten seconds. For you it is a wonderful interlude with a charming little girl. For your buddy it's a 24/7 little need machine, whom I'm sure she dearly loves, but every now and then it's nice to have a little less intensity coming your way!!

Oh nooo, that is heartbreaking, Marian. We severely limit the amount of time wee hippo gets with gadgets, but my parents are ALWAYS breaking the rules and letting her play with their phones or watch videos, and the effects are immediate. She comes home from my parents' house, immediately goes for my phone and says, "Emmie!" (she wants to watch videos of herself =__=) My parents went on vacation for three weeks and wee hippo got zero screen time. She enjoyed her books, Play-Doh, her building blocks etc. Now they're back, and surprise, surprise, she's back to begging for the phone. One day I will "accidentally" lose my parents' phones...