A distraction is a distraction. iPad or coloring book. OP will have plenty of time to entertain her kid alone since she probably won't be invited to the lunches again. The purpose of the lunch is for the adults to talk without the kids interrupting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids are easier than others.

My first was easy to entertain with toys and stickers. My second isn’t and it’s nice to give her a device and be able to chill and enjoy my my meal and company.

Same here!

+1

Must be OP’s first kid.

You're all just pathetic. Tablets haven't been around for very long. There are studies galore that show how bad it is for your kids, but go ahead and do what you want.

Can you show me some studies on how great stickers are for kids?

I wasn’t aware that there were “better” and “worse” things to entertain your child with.

I also find it hilarious that a society so fixated on co punters and social media disdains it so much for their children. Do you not want them to be part of th future?

Give your kids a sticker book, give them a colouring book, give them an iPad.. you’re still giving them a distraction. Some kids need that and some don’t.

But in case you’re wondering, there’s no actual trophy or pat on the back for those who don’t need it, or do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids are easier than others.

My first was easy to entertain with toys and stickers. My second isn’t and it’s nice to give her a device and be able to chill and enjoy my my meal and company.

Same here!

+1

Must be OP’s first kid.

You're all just pathetic. Tablets haven't been around for very long. There are studies galore that show how bad it is for your kids, but go ahead and do what you want.

Anonymous wrote:Wow, that's great you are the perfect parent in the group. Those groups are for the mom's, not kids to chat. Toddlers aren't going to interact at lunch so the goal is for them to behave. We brought toys and a tablet. Its called survival. Wait till yours is 3 and not wanting to sit for an hour or two.

Hey moronMom, generations of mothers managed this without tablets. Yours did, too. Congratulations for raising a child who cannot entertain themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I probably wouldn't have brought a tablet either, but I am not exactly sure how you all expected a bunch of 18 month olds or whatever to "socialize" in confined chairs at a restaurant.

I think that is odder than bringing entertainment for them. It is not like they are on a playground or a floor where they can play...

Seriously. How did you envision this going down?

It honestly never occurs to me to bring a tablet and I was really surprised that EVERYONE had one. I thought that since we all had little kids we would sort of be in it together: engaging the kids, reading, chatting. I didn’t think I was the *only* one who had a child who doesn’t use a tablet. My guy just sat there with no friends!

Stop, OP, just stop. No one is listening to your violin anymore. You little guy had no friends! He just say there tablet-less! I'm imagining Tiny Tim at this point. Give it up and go bask in your feelings of superiority.

Anonymous wrote:If that works for you - great! But I don't think you need to judge others for making different parenting choices.

+1

OP, my kids have never used a tablet at a table (although they have their own iPads for when we fly back and forth to CA to see my family), and it would have never occurred to me to bring one for them, nor have any of my friends ever done that. However, the difference between us is that I wouldn't have come on here and made a sanctimonious and falsely curious post. That's what makes you unlikable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids are easier than others.

My first was easy to entertain with toys and stickers. My second isn’t and it’s nice to give her a device and be able to chill and enjoy my my meal and company.

Same here!

+1

Must be OP’s first kid.

Anonymous wrote: Are the other moms concerned you'll judge their kids for misbehaving? We don't do phone/tablets at the table, either, but it would never occur to me to bash my friends on the internet about it, so you may be contributing to the issue.

This was a toddler and Mom breakfast, at a small country diner. I did not expect good behavior. My son was not perfectly behaved but he is a good baby. I thought we’d all be in this together, Mom and toddlers chatting and playing. Is that not possible anymore? Is it either screaming kids, or iPads? Do not children sit and eat at tables anymore?

Hey, it works for some.
I know my brother says his kids will not eat or finish their food until the tablet shows something they like.
What do I know, I just have 1 to manage. But, that's when I turn to my kid and said, you better finish up your food if you want to play. My child has not been exposed to screens a lot until this year at summer camp!
These stem camps spends a lot of time on the screen. Annoying.
So of course he's asking for one. I repeatedly say, if you can show me that you are responsible. You MAY get one, but later one, maybe 12 years of age, we'll see.

Are the other moms concerned you'll judge their kids for misbehaving? We don't do phone/tablets at the table, either, but it would never occur to me to bash my friends on the internet about it, so you may be contributing to the issue.

I feel like those of you saying that the OP is simply “lucky” to have an “easy” kid are (unintentionally?) making a pretty wild and statistically unlikely inference here.

Remember, the OP didn’t clutch her pearls at the sight of a single child on a tablet. This was literally everyone else but her.

To scold her for not appreciating her extraordinary good fortune at having an “easy” child, you’d have to believe that it’s so hard to manage a 2-3-year-old without a tablet that 5 out of 6 of them— 83%— cannot reasonably be otherwise accommodated.

That’s an extraordinary child, indeed! And at the same time, purely by coincidence, she lucked out by being a parent who decided not to use tablets at restaurants and stuck to that decision.

You’re tacitly endorsing tablets for toddlers as a default strategy. Either OP’s kid is astonishingly “easy” or the other 83% of the kids are shockingly “hard” kids.

And this is all taking at face value the idea it’s all that much easier to handle a toddler on a tablet than not on a tablet.

But it’s the OP who is out of touch. Cool, cool.

We went to brunch today with DH's mom, his sister and her family. 3 kids, 8, 13, and 18, plus our 17 month old. SIL's kids were on phones the entire time. It's just no enjoyable to share a meal with them.

We’ve never done screens at mealtimes, except for maybe 2-3 times when our 20mo has been really sick and I put on some mickey for her to watch as a treat. We never do screens at restaurants because:

- it basically guarantees the device will get food on it
- we want to teach her good habits at mealtimes
- we’re concerned it would just create a problem when we want to take it away

That said, we don’t stay at restaurants beyond when we’re done eating, so she just has to stay calm for an hour or so. We go when we know she’s hungry and go to places where we know she likes the food. 95% of the time she can stay in her high chair and calm for the duration of the meal. She eats, colors, watches people, etc.

I've never given my children tablets or phones during mealtimes but that's probably because they are not the restless types and were content to color or just sit there. We also don't linger at restaurants. Plus we don't own a tablet so it would be weird to get one just for the kids.