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0 points__turbobrew__1y ago0 comments

Yea if I see a 4 year old with an ipad in a restaurant I lose respect for the parents. Parenting is hard, and everyone fails at some point but there are certain things I have never comprised on and social media/digital crack at a young age is one of them.

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5 comments · 2 top-level

rayiner1y ago· 2 in thread

Well this attitude is why millennials are both failing to have enough kids and miserable as parents.

We had kids in our 20s and my daughter has been glued to her iPad since she was 2. Her grades are better than mine were at her age, she has artistic hobbies (makes jewelry, paints). She’s maybe a tidge slower than I was on reading, but that might be pandemic.

Note that Tik Tok is different than “social media” in that it doesn’t really allow for the gossip and backbiting within enclosed groups that typifies say Facebook. The most emotionally upsetting thing for her seems to be normal girl-girl social conflict, especially through her iMessage group chat.

jajko1y ago

Whats far more important than academic skills are social skills, how she fares on that aspect? Thats where real threat of this lies, not general population having IQ 80.

Life without good or at least normal social skills is pretty miserable in many aspects, almost can't be fixed once adult, and has much larger impact on what I call 'life success' than career can ever have.

BeFlatXIII1y ago

Embrace monasticism.

anon848736281y ago· 1 in thread

4 year olds have always gotten some amount of TV time, right? Is it that horrible for a parent to give them the TV time at the restaurant so they aren't running around / screaming / bothering other patrons instead? (Which of course you can also judge a parent for, but then the only answer may be for one parent to have to leave with the kid).

It doesn't mean the kid is also using the iPad at home for hours on end. Or consuming anything other than Bluey / Paw Patrol / Sing 2...

kelnos1y ago

> so they aren't running around / screaming / bothering other patrons

Going to a restaurant when I was a young kid was considered a treat and special occasion, and if I misbehaved, I was out of there immediately. I quickly learned to sit in my chair, eat my food, and not be disruptive.

I think people in general these days act with a higher sense of entitlement, and that translates to parents believing that it's fine for them to go to restaurants because they want to, ignoring whether or not it's appropriate for their children, somehow also believing that they "deserve a break" and their kids' disruptive behaviors in public aren't their problem. But no, screw that: if your children won't behave at restaurants, don't bring them along. If you can't find a sitter, then you don't get to go either. (If you can't afford a sitter, then you probably can't afford going out to a restaurant either.)

> ...to give them the TV time at the restaurant...

I would have less of a problem with this if the kid was using headphones (I know, risky for their ears at a young age if they also have control of the volume), or if the tablet could be kept quiet enough so I can't hear it at my nearby table. But that's rarely the case.

But hey, sure, if you can give your kid TV time at a restaurant without me having to listen to it, I guess that's fine. I think that's a poor substitute for actually teaching kids how to behave in public, but I'm not that kid's parent, and that's just my opinion.

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