Screen time at meals

[Anonymous]

Parents today are failing our children. Many are incapable of eating at a restaurant without a screen time. You go out to eat and see babies to tweens on screens. They are not required to put them away when the food comes. Are we so desperate to eat out that that is our compromise? We are raising a generation that doesn't know how to focus on the food in front of them. That leads to obesity, they don't know when to stop, they are mindlessly eating. On social media, people post pictures of themselves and their kids eating with the TV on. It happens at home and restaurants.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6843261/
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/17/health/meals-ipads-screens-family-dinner-parenting-go-ask-your-dad

[Anonymous]

Thanks for letting everyone know!

[Anonymous]

Lol, I thought this was going to be about adults on their phone during meals (which is the problem we are dealing with in my household) not kids on screens.

[Anonymous]

It is quite disgusting behavior! At home they get 30 minutes per day, during the school year it’s 3 hours total but only on weekends. We don’t allow screens in the car, unless it’s a trip over 5 hours. Then they can watch 1.5 hours of screens max, for 10 hour car or plane ride they can have 4 hours. And NEVER EVER in a restaurant, that’s just repulsive!

[Anonymous]

Teach them to shun using phones so much.

Call it "nerd" stuff and other terms that kids will want to avoid being.

We did that with the kiddos calling video games for dweebs and nerds and wimps and they never wanted one and don't spend hours a day gaming as adults now like most of Gen Z does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is quite disgusting behavior! At home they get 30 minutes per day, during the school year it’s 3 hours total but only on weekends. We don’t allow screens in the car, unless it’s a trip over 5 hours. Then they can watch 1.5 hours of screens max, for 10 hour car or plane ride they can have 4 hours. And NEVER EVER in a restaurant, that’s just repulsive!

How old are your kids?

[Anonymous]

This has been going on for at least a decade. iPads have been out for 15 years.

What makes me sad is seeing babies in strollers being pushed down the street, on mass transit, just watching videos. Not looking around at people, not looking at the landscape, etc. I have such clear memories of pushing my nephew in his stroller and us stopping to look at flowers, to pet dogs, him waving and smiling at people, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teach them to shun using phones so much.

Call it "nerd" stuff and other terms that kids will want to avoid being.

We did that with the kiddos calling video games for dweebs and nerds and wimps and they never wanted one and don't spend hours a day gaming as adults now like most of Gen Z does.

Is this a joke? I hope you are not serious.

[Anonymous]

Yes we are so desperate to get out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teach them to shun using phones so much.

Call it "nerd" stuff and other terms that kids will want to avoid being.

We did that with the kiddos calling video games for dweebs and nerds and wimps and they never wanted one and don't spend hours a day gaming as adults now like most of Gen Z does.

If your kids are grown, it's different now.

[Anonymous]

I can count on one hand - literally less than 5 - the number of times we’ve let my 6 year old use an iPad at a restaurant. It’s always been when they’re over tired and we are jammed up on logistics for one reason or another (example: we are 2 hours from home on a road trip and the restaurant wait was 2x what they said it would be)

What I hate most is the judgement from people who see it, don’t know us, and just assume “we do it all the time” or whatever. When I see kids using iPads, I assume their parents have different rules. Mind your own business. You’re going to be gobsmacked in 30 years when it turns out all of this anxiety didn’t actually matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has been going on for at least a decade. iPads have been out for 15 years.

What makes me sad is seeing babies in strollers being pushed down the street, on mass transit, just watching videos. Not looking around at people, not looking at the landscape, etc. I have such clear memories of pushing my nephew in his stroller and us stopping to look at flowers, to pet dogs, him waving and smiling at people, etc.

It makes you sad? This means your cortisol spikes…what an unfortunate affect on your overall health. To mitigate this, you should practice minding your own damned business. Then someone else’s business won’t make you sad as much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This has been going on for at least a decade. iPads have been out for 15 years.

What makes me sad is seeing babies in strollers being pushed down the street, on mass transit, just watching videos. Not looking around at people, not looking at the landscape, etc. I have such clear memories of pushing my nephew in his stroller and us stopping to look at flowers, to pet dogs, him waving and smiling at people, etc.

And before you try to burn with me with the grammar zing, just know I know so you can shut it.
It makes you sad? This means your cortisol spikes…what an unfortunate affect on your overall health. To mitigate this, you should practice minding your own damned business. Then someone else’s business won’t make you sad as much.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be so hasty to judge based on what you see in public. It could very well be that those parents are giving their kids exceptional screen time as a courtesy to other diners who don't want to hear kid-noises. And yes, sometimes parents are that desperate to get out and be waited on for 90 minutes.

We are and always have been a hard no on screens at the table... at home. There are exceptions when we're out in the world, based on the circumstances.

(That said, I know there are plenty of lazy parents who let the ipad keep their kids quiet, and those kids will struggle in the real world, never having learned how to interact in the most basic of social situations-- a meal.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lol, I thought this was going to be about adults on their phone during meals (which is the problem we are dealing with in my household) not kids on screens.

We struggle with this also.