If you prop up an iPhone in front of your toddler at cava, I’m judging the heck out of you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a child therapist and we are almost screen free. Last week we were on vacation and our almost three year old was just totally deregulated and a nightmare the whole time. I gave her Bluey on my phone at dinner so that I could have one meal that I could actually engage my older kids without focusing on my screaming toddler.

All that to say, you have no idea why someone is giving their kid a screen and what kind of day they're having. Give people some grace.

+1
I truly DGAF if it bothered some rando that I gave my jetlagged toddler a phone during a fabulously not child friendly rehearsal dinner for a not child friendly wedding

Maybe instead of "god how sad is it that kids have phones now" it should be "wow how great is it we have a way to quiet a screaming two year old so we don't have to leave the setting".

Back in my day, we would pick up the child, take a walk, and come back in 3 minutes. Do you not know about that?

Back in my day, you wouldn’t bring a 2 year old to a restaurant in the first place.

That's never been true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They probably needed to talk.

Are you for real? Who's taking their toddler and going to CAVA to have a serious conversation with their spouse? LOL!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am well aware of the exceptions:

We only had a few minutes to talk and needed out toddler to be quiet.
Our toddler has XYZ diagnosis.
And on and on.

But the research is there and the pendulum is swinging the other way. There are few legitimate reasons to prop up a screen in front of your 13 month old at cava while you lunch with your partner. It’s 20 minutes tops.

Knock it off, people.

For all you know the woman is with that child all day long and this is her chance to have a break and enjoy an adult conversation. The screen is then a short-lived treat for the child? 20 minutes. Not only are you ridiculously judgmental but you have a screw loose to post this kind of screed.

Is this a Gen Z parenting thing? It is literally your job as the child's parent to keep an eye on them all day long, even while having an adult conversation. Somehow our parents managed this and their parents this, but a 30 year old can't. GROW UP.

Lol no Boomer parents+ very much did not keep an eye on their kids all day long. That’s some revisionist thinking. Kids weren’t at the fast food place because mom probably left them at home with their gaggle of older siblings. Or they took them to an all night arcade so they could gamble in a casino. And the little girl who died was not the only kid left unattended back then … and “back then” was the mid-90s, meaning it was solid Millennials being left alone. https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/7-year-old-girls-murder-at-nevada-casino-still-haunts-20-years-later/amp/

I was a child in the late 80s/early 90s and my parents and their friends absolutely took us out to eat. The difference between then and now is that instead of handing children phones, they handed us coloring pages and crayons or we brought a book with us or if we were with friends, we played cards. My kids do the same now - the last time we met up with some friends at a brewery, both sets of kids brought along some board games.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love the people judging a mom for letting her toddler be on a phone for 20 minutes while they, themselves, have been scrolling and posting on DCUM, arguing with random internet strangers for likely way longer than that. You want to talk about unhealthy?

You're here, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’m with op. Maybe you don’t get a quiet lunch/shopping trip/stroller walk, but all that screen time at an early age is really bad for developing brains.

But what's great for kids is judgy losers that give their parents the stink eye

Sorry it hits a nerve. Nobody is perfect, I know I’m not either, but this is a very clear place where you can make a choice that can affect your child’s brain development, attention span, ability to self regulate emotions.

Girl I hate screens for kids. My kid's behavior vastly improved when we took away her tablet. You are preaching to the choir. But I don't think giving a random parent the stink eye for giving their kid a phone for 20 minutes is okay either, I think it's really rude and unhelpful behavior (and the parent doesn't notice but look, you're still stewing about it, which can't be healthy)

Wrong. We need to start judging these parents and make it socially unacceptable in our culture to give these kids screens. Hold each other to higher standards

+1
Teachers can confirm that children entering school today have, on average, much poorer language skills than they did 10 years ago. In addition, many are no longer able to play. Important skills for a successful school career are completely lacking.

The school day has changed too - my. kids don't have two long recesses the way I did. My kids only last year started using a real language arts curriculum where they have to read passages longer than a paragraph and write essays. My kids still don't have textbooks which sucks, but the things going on at school are also not supporting growing children with longer attention spans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’m with op. Maybe you don’t get a quiet lunch/shopping trip/stroller walk, but all that screen time at an early age is really bad for developing brains.

But what's great for kids is judgy losers that give their parents the stink eye

Sorry it hits a nerve. Nobody is perfect, I know I’m not either, but this is a very clear place where you can make a choice that can affect your child’s brain development, attention span, ability to self regulate emotions.

Girl I hate screens for kids. My kid's behavior vastly improved when we took away her tablet. You are preaching to the choir. But I don't think giving a random parent the stink eye for giving their kid a phone for 20 minutes is okay either, I think it's really rude and unhelpful behavior (and the parent doesn't notice but look, you're still stewing about it, which can't be healthy)

Wrong. We need to start judging these parents and make it socially unacceptable in our culture to give these kids screens. Hold each other to higher standards

+1
Teachers can confirm that children entering school today have, on average, much poorer language skills than they did 10 years ago. In addition, many are no longer able to play. Important skills for a successful school career are completely lacking.

The school day has changed too - my. kids don't have two long recesses the way I did. My kids only last year started using a real language arts curriculum where they have to read passages longer than a paragraph and write essays. My kids still don't have textbooks which sucks, but the things going on at school are also not supporting growing children with longer attention spans.

Intelligent parents don’t send their children to public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’m with op. Maybe you don’t get a quiet lunch/shopping trip/stroller walk, but all that screen time at an early age is really bad for developing brains.

But what's great for kids is judgy losers that give their parents the stink eye

Sorry it hits a nerve. Nobody is perfect, I know I’m not either, but this is a very clear place where you can make a choice that can affect your child’s brain development, attention span, ability to self regulate emotions.

Girl I hate screens for kids. My kid's behavior vastly improved when we took away her tablet. You are preaching to the choir. But I don't think giving a random parent the stink eye for giving their kid a phone for 20 minutes is okay either, I think it's really rude and unhelpful behavior (and the parent doesn't notice but look, you're still stewing about it, which can't be healthy)

Wrong. We need to start judging these parents and make it socially unacceptable in our culture to give these kids screens. Hold each other to higher standards

+1
Teachers can confirm that children entering school today have, on average, much poorer language skills than they did 10 years ago. In addition, many are no longer able to play. Important skills for a successful school career are completely lacking.

The school day has changed too - my. kids don't have two long recesses the way I did. My kids only last year started using a real language arts curriculum where they have to read passages longer than a paragraph and write essays. My kids still don't have textbooks which sucks, but the things going on at school are also not supporting growing children with longer attention spans.

+1 has it never occurred to teachers that kid's behavior is bad because of the screen time in their classrooms?

[Anonymous]

Teachers, I am telling you as a parent who took away my kid's tablet and saw better behavior immediately, this is what you need to advocate for. Get rid of screens in classrooms. Venting about poor parenting online is not going to fix your problems.

[Anonymous]

Remember when we thought video games were gonna wrap brains and then we found out MD students who never played video games are at the bottom of their class for surgery cause now it’s all on a screen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP here. I’m with op. Maybe you don’t get a quiet lunch/shopping trip/stroller walk, but all that screen time at an early age is really bad for developing brains.

But what's great for kids is judgy losers that give their parents the stink eye

Sorry it hits a nerve. Nobody is perfect, I know I’m not either, but this is a very clear place where you can make a choice that can affect your child’s brain development, attention span, ability to self regulate emotions.

Girl I hate screens for kids. My kid's behavior vastly improved when we took away her tablet. You are preaching to the choir. But I don't think giving a random parent the stink eye for giving their kid a phone for 20 minutes is okay either, I think it's really rude and unhelpful behavior (and the parent doesn't notice but look, you're still stewing about it, which can't be healthy)

Wrong. We need to start judging these parents and make it socially unacceptable in our culture to give these kids screens. Hold each other to higher standards

+1
Teachers can confirm that children entering school today have, on average, much poorer language skills than they did 10 years ago. In addition, many are no longer able to play. Important skills for a successful school career are completely lacking.

The school day has changed too - my. kids don't have two long recesses the way I did. My kids only last year started using a real language arts curriculum where they have to read passages longer than a paragraph and write essays. My kids still don't have textbooks which sucks, but the things going on at school are also not supporting growing children with longer attention spans.

+1 has it never occurred to teachers that kid's behavior is bad because of the screen time in their classrooms?

You're twisting my post a little bit. I definitely do NOT think schools are the cause of children's bad behavior, I just don't think like the direction they went int he past 10 years. Thankfully, my kids' FCPS schools are trending away from computer use. I think they tried using the computers a lot for the couple of years after Covid and have realized it was a mistake. I have kids in ES and MS and have seen it in both places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, I am telling you as a parent who took away my kid's tablet and saw better behavior immediately, this is what you need to advocate for. Get rid of screens in classrooms. Venting about poor parenting online is not going to fix your problems.

You can't blame the teachers for children's poor behavior. Your child is not on a computer all day - your child does not have the attention span to sit at a desk all day, and it's not the teacher's fault or the use of screens in school. Your child needs to spend more time outside, more time reading books at home, AND most importantly, you need to give your child independence without a screen. I didn't see my kids all morning - they are 9 and 12. They were upstairs playing together, reading books, they went outside and climbed a tree, and after lunch they are heading to our neighborhood playground. I know they weren't on screens, because our tablet was in the drawer downstairs this whole time and we only have one TV which also wasn't on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am well aware of the exceptions:

We only had a few minutes to talk and needed out toddler to be quiet.
Our toddler has XYZ diagnosis.
And on and on.

But the research is there and the pendulum is swinging the other way. There are few legitimate reasons to prop up a screen in front of your 13 month old at cava while you lunch with your partner. It’s 20 minutes tops.

Knock it off, people.

For all you know the woman is with that child all day long and this is her chance to have a break and enjoy an adult conversation. The screen is then a short-lived treat for the child? 20 minutes. Not only are you ridiculously judgmental but you have a screw loose to post this kind of screed.

Is this a Gen Z parenting thing? It is literally your job as the child's parent to keep an eye on them all day long, even while having an adult conversation. Somehow our parents managed this and their parents this, but a 30 year old can't. GROW UP.

Lol no Boomer parents+ very much did not keep an eye on their kids all day long. That’s some revisionist thinking. Kids weren’t at the fast food place because mom probably left them at home with their gaggle of older siblings. Or they took them to an all night arcade so they could gamble in a casino. And the little girl who died was not the only kid left unattended back then … and “back then” was the mid-90s, meaning it was solid Millennials being left alone. https://www.reviewjournal.com/crime/homicides/7-year-old-girls-murder-at-nevada-casino-still-haunts-20-years-later/amp/

I distinctly remember going to restaurants that had arcade games. Like a PacMan in the front area. So, we were on screens too back in the day. And our parents smoked and let us run around with out paying much attention to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers, I am telling you as a parent who took away my kid's tablet and saw better behavior immediately, this is what you need to advocate for. Get rid of screens in classrooms. Venting about poor parenting online is not going to fix your problems.

You can't blame the teachers for children's poor behavior. Your child is not on a computer all day - your child does not have the attention span to sit at a desk all day, and it's not the teacher's fault or the use of screens in school. Your child needs to spend more time outside, more time reading books at home, AND most importantly, you need to give your child independence without a screen. I didn't see my kids all morning - they are 9 and 12. They were upstairs playing together, reading books, they went outside and climbed a tree, and after lunch they are heading to our neighborhood playground. I know they weren't on screens, because our tablet was in the drawer downstairs this whole time and we only have one TV which also wasn't on.

I don't know who you're referring to. By the accounts of multiple teachers my child behaves very well at school.

[Anonymous]

OP I agree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher and I agree. It’s not so much the screen time. It’s the fact that parents are spending so much less time talking and interacting with their kids. Even in the checked-out parent years in the 1980s, kids were talking and interacting with other kids. Some of the kids in this generation seem to just be learning to be human at age 5 when they come to school.

do your part and get screens out of your classroom

Teacher here and we have zero control over this. My kindergartens were on screens for math and literacy and I was told it was more important than teacher instruction.

These little kids come to school and have no idea what to do with a person talking to them. They are used to a screen and it’s BAD.

This is such exaggerated bs. The hysterics here are hysterical.