Reply to First tablet for preschooler?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]With all the data out there it is hard to believe people want to buy these for young kids.[/quote]

I've never seen any data about tablets for young kids in the limited circumstances of long car rides. Maybe some parents find that limitation difficult to enforce, but we haven't. Our kid has had a tablet since she was two. In the past 12 months, she's used it seven days total, which is average for a year. I don't think there's any data that indicates that has harmed her.[/quote]

It seems wasteful to buy a special iPad for a preschooler that she uses 7 days a year. We limit screen time for our kid and specifically don't allow her ot use handheld screens because we think they are more addictive. But we do allow her to watch TV or a movie on a tablet on plane trips or very occasionally at a hotel room on vacation. We just use my DH's iPad or my laptop for this.

Also I don't have to see studies to believe that handheld screens and excessive screens generally are bad for you because I am a person who has seen screen addiction and decreased attention span and weakened social and coping skills *in myself* due to screen use. So I don't want to do that to my kid especially not starting at age 2.[/quote]

You're not making any sense. On the one hand, you claim that you don't allow handheld screens, but then in the next sentence, you explain that your kid DOES use a tablet, it just belongs to someone else. We don't have any other tablets in the house, so our solution is a cheap tablet for our kid for long trips. We're doing the same thing, but somehow you're being sanctimonious about it.

You're also projecting your own (mis)use of screens onto other people. Our daughter's tablet is used to watch TV. That's it. It's "handheld" because she's in the backseat of a car, but it's just TV and movies. Is watching a full day of TV a few times a year ideal? Probably not. Is it decreasing anyone's social skills? Don't be silly. That's might be an effect of constant use of smartphones, but it's not an effect of watching cartoons on a car ride.[/quote]

The point (which was admittedly not stated well) is that you don't need to buy a tablet for a kid if you are only going to let them use it in very rare circumstances when traveling long distances. So the PP who was like "our kid has only used her tablet 7 days in the last year" raises a question as to why you'd put effort into finding a "kid friendly tablet." If their use is that minimal they could use a parent's phone or laptop to watch TV on those trips and you don't have to invest in a tablet with special features for a kid.

I think a lot of us are saying that we allow some screens during travel even if we limit screens at home. That actually seems to be the consensus. But OP was asking for recs for a "preschooler's first tablet" and that indicates regular at-home use and most of us think that's a bad idea.[/quote]

I am that PP. We don't have any personal laptops. I have a phone, but 1) it's a pretty bad device for someone with small fingers to watch TV and 2) I use it for the GPS/music when I drive. So putting in the time to find something that fits that our need makes perfect sense. Why do you assume everyone has a tablet or laptop just because you do? [/quote]

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