What age for a tablet ?
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Anonymous
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What age should a kid get a tablet? I seen on Parenting TikTok 2 years old tablets when they go out and eat.......
I am not okay with that, my 2 year old doesn't have a tablet and I don't think he will anytime soon. Should we wait til they are 4 or 5 since they will be on them all day at school? |
Anonymous
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My kids got a device to use at home in 7th (old smartphone), and a smartphone in 8th.
Before that they used the family laptop if they needed it for school assignments, or games as needed. We also have a video game system. So, it's very possible to never get them a tablet at all. |
Anonymous
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You wait as long as you can. They’ll learn it very VERY quickly so they won’t be behind if they “need” to learn it for school.
I have teens and they didn’t have their own devices until 8th grade. They still love to read and draw and I think that helped. |
Anonymous
| We got one at 3 to use only for plane rides and road trips. We have never used it outside of those circumstances, and kid has never asked for it once. Definitely never at restaurants. There is a middle ground. |
Anonymous
| There’s no reason for a little kid to have a tablet. It’s all for the convenience of the parents. I say this as someone who will let my 3 year old use my phone to watch shows on plane rides (we don’t have a tablet). |
Anonymous
18. Steve Jobs wouldn’t give one to his kids because he knew what he unleashed. |
Anonymous
| Absolutely do not get one until at least the teen years. I am an elementary school teacher. The really smart kids are from families that don’t allow technology at home. I can always tell which kids spend too much time staring at screens and which kids don’t. This is one of the most important parenting decisions you will ever make. Schools are starting to turn away from screens for elementary learning. |
Anonymous
Do you really think it’s superior to use a phone over a tablet? The entire reason we got a tablet for travel is because of safety. Kid has no ability to see ads that may be scary or inappropriate, can’t click anything or navigate to inappropriate content or images by accident. It is idiotic to give a small child a device with internet access, even just for a few minutes. |
Anonymous
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My kids got kindle fire tablets at 8 and 10 respectively. 5 yo doesn’t have a tablet. My oldest (now 13) got a phone on 13th bday.
On road trips we will put a movie on for everyone to watch together on my iPad (we have a holder for it). On plane trips 5 yo will use my iPad or play on DH Nintendo switch. Otherwise I don’t see any needs for personal devices. |
Anonymous
Not my point at all. A device is a device, just haven’t had a reason to buy a tablet yet. |
Anonymous
| 10 at a minimum. Mine are 6 and 4 and the only time I feel like we ever want to use the tablet is on a plane, in which case they borrow mine. |
Anonymous
| We have a tablet that is shared in the family. It is not my kids tablet. We use it in the car mostly. Never at restaurants. Bring other things to entertain your kids at restaurants. Stickers, crayons, coloring books. |
Anonymous
| My 7 year old does not have her own tablet. I think it's stupid to buy a dedicated tablet for a young child. There are plenty of ways to entertain a kid when you need them to be entertained that don't involve planting them in front of a dedicated tablet screen, and all help avoid all the many downsides of getting your kid hooked on screens in the first place. |
Anonymous
| No age for this forum. |
Anonymous
DP but yes, it is a superior because it communicates to the child that this is a very occasional thing where they are borrowing a parent's device for a temporary use. And it's really easy to monitor a 3 yr old using a phone to watch a show on an airplane -- you are sitting right next to them. When I used to do this, the phone wouldn't even be on wifi -- we'd just connect to the plane's in flight entertainment and limit it to the kid's programming, which is very easy. Buying a small child a dedicated tablet communicates to them that they have an entitlement to access that screen. After all, it is "theirs." I would delay that as long as possible. Our kid's first dedicated screen was a Kindle (regular kindle, not a kindle fire, with parental locks and not connected to internet without our permission) at age 8 which she used to read books we downloaded for her at home and while traveling. And she was very proprietary about that screen. It was "hers." Which was fine because it was a perfectly appropriate screen use for that age. Whe won't get a phone or tablet of her own until high school. She's currently 11 and we do sometimes hear about how other kids have them but mostly she is okay with our rules. We do allow her access to a WhatsApp group via one of our devices so she can participate in a text conversation with friends, but this group is monitored by almost all the parents in the group and she only has access when we give it to her. Usually the access is scheduled so that all the kids are on at once and can chat and there's a designated end time. So no reason for her to have her own device yet. |