my 4 year old got one for his birthday, only because of a prime day deal. In the winter he goes with me daily while I meet with my trainer and he was using my phone to watch shows which was annoying me, so I got him the kids kindle. He uses it only for that. I imagine as he gets a little older he will use it more for games and such.
I think we got our DS's around age 2.5 on sale after Thanksgiving. We used it pretty sparingly the first couple years but now he really likes to play games on it. It's definitely addictive and can cause problems. However, I'll also just be honest - he's an only child. We aren't planning on having any more kids. Most of our friends' kids are much older, so he does not always have someone to play with. Sometimes I want him to be entertained when we're out doing non kid friendly activities (like, hanging at a friend's house and no other kids are around) and this is the thing that keeps his attention the most and keeps him the happiest/quietest. That probably makes me not the best parent, but oh well. If there are other kids his age around, he doesn't get the tablet and has no issues playing with them instead.
For kids that didn't have tablets when younger, what did you do for long car rides/plane rides? Just asking because DD has always been a pretty poor traveler and I'm wondering if other people just suck it up, their kids are better travelers, or if you give them some other device.
For DS' first plane ride we loaded H's old android with prek games and truck tunes music. He was 3.5 at the time. He's 5 now and gets to use 'his phone' only when H and I agree to it (maybe a few times a week). If/when we travel by plane again we'll definitely give him the phone as entertainment/distraction again.
DS has gotten car sick on any car ride over 45-60 minutes since he was 2.5ish (when we flipped him FF in his car seat). We listen to truck tunes and now paw patrol songs. He can't look at the screens, play with toys or look at books. I was/am the same. When I was a kid my family listened to a lot of books on tape and music.
As old as possible… I let a relative get DS2 a tablet at 4.5 (last Christmas) and I regret it. DS1 got his switch at 7.5 and I wish I’d waited a year or two on that too, but I feel like the Amazon Fire is worse because there’s so much more you can do on it aside from play the games you bought. It’s preloaded with apps, so I’d recommend you go through and delete a lot before you let your kid use it (Ryan’s world and Blippi I’m looking at you). An iPad may be better with parental controls for downloading apps. It is great for travel though. DS2 is more strong willed and less of a rule follower than DS2 so it’s created more conflict and we take it away a lot. I feel like both kids could use a screen time detox after the past year and a half.
For kids that didn't have tablets when younger, what did you do for long car rides/plane rides? Just asking because DD has always been a pretty poor traveler and I'm wondering if other people just suck it up, their kids are better travelers, or if you give them some other device.
For DD, I would make a big deal about packing travel activities for the plane. We had this set of Pipsqueak Crayola markers that we only used when we went places. Coloring, stickers, card games, books, etc. I didn’t do flights longer than 3 hours with her. If the drive had to be longer than 3 hours, we drove at night so she’d sleep.
DS is now 3 and would probably throw all these things on the ground. We just got back from a vacation and had to give him Disney+ on our phones so we could finish our meals. We do have built in screens in the car and he is content with watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVDs on there when we are driving. Or he will listen to music. I have these nursery rhyme CDs that are super long and he listens without complaint.
To answer the OP’s question, DD is 7 and doesn’t have one. Very occasionally now I will give her my phone to play on for a little bit as a reward. I would be irritated if relatives tried to buy them for my kids without checking with me first. MIL felt DD should have had the phone or a tablet from age 3 so we could all go out to nice dinners and I was super irritated even by that because it wasn’t my parenting philosophy. And because as I wrote above, DD was mostly fine without it and if she wasn’t fine, I was ok with not dining and taking her out of the restaurant.
For kids that didn't have tablets when younger, what did you do for long car rides/plane rides? Just asking because DD has always been a pretty poor traveler and I'm wondering if other people just suck it up, their kids are better travelers, or if you give them some other device.
My kids are 2, 4, and 8. None have their own tablet. We've done quite a few 12 hour road trips, so we bought a portable DVD player for the car. It's kinda like this: www.target.com/p/rca-9-twin-screen-mobile-dvd-player-drc772989de22/-/A-11214428, although ours only lets you play one DVD at a time and both screens show the same movie. This year I started taking them to the library to pick out special movies for our drive. Everybody gets a turn picking what we watch next. We bought it for the long drives but have since said we can use it for any drive that's 2+ hours. The last long flights we had were when my oldest was an only child and <4. We just brought tons of activities and snacks to cycle through.
For kids that didn't have tablets when younger, what did you do for long car rides/plane rides? Just asking because DD has always been a pretty poor traveler and I'm wondering if other people just suck it up, their kids are better travelers, or if you give them some other device.
My kids are 2, 4, and 8. None have their own tablet. We've done quite a few 12 hour road trips, so we bought a portable DVD player for the car. It's kinda like this: www.target.com/p/rca-9-twin-screen-mobile-dvd-player-drc772989de22/-/A-11214428, although ours only lets you play one DVD at a time and both screens show the same movie. This year I started taking them to the library to pick out special movies for our drive. Everybody gets a turn picking what we watch next. We bought it for the long drives but have since said we can use it for any drive that's 2+ hours. The last long flights we had were when my oldest was an only child and <4. We just brought tons of activities and snacks to cycle through.
That's essentially what we have for DD. The tablet is solely for shows/movies on car rides and we didn't have anything else that would work besides our phones.
We caved during covid because we were trying to work from home with two kids and I needed a break. Dd1 received one at Christmas (age 6) and then we gave dd2 (age 2) the old family iPad that was never used.
We have pretty strict rules and they can’t just use them whenever. Dd1 uses hers during quiet time (dd2’s nap) or in the car. She has to be on green behavior and has to have read a book to us the night before. She can watch downloaded shows, play a few games, a coloring app and she has Epic. She knows the rules to it and doesn’t whine about not being able to use it during other times. She doesn’t use it every day.
Dd2 gets hers in the car. She can watch downloaded tv shows, and has a coloring app and peekaboo barn. She never asks for it outside of the car.
We didn’t allow dd1 to have screen time when she was younger and it was fine. We did plane rides and long road trips and we would bring stickers, a magnatab, Legos, books, markers, etc.
But to be honest, I love them having tablets! I like that they each have their own because I have it set up to be age appropriate for each. My two year old doesn’t need to accidentally click on adult tv shows lol. Dd1 can FaceTime with grandma everyday if she wants without taking over my phone. We don’t have family help local to use and sometimes the car is the only place we get to have an adult conversation without interruption.
I listened to a podcast and the parenting expert said you can prevent the whining to use a tablet by having clear guidelines of when they can use it so that they know they can expect it at X time. And it did work with my kids..
My oldest got a kindle fire when she was like 9 or so. Before that we had iPads that were mine and DHs that they sometimes used. I was really strict on screentime when they were younger (basically until covid hit). Now all three have laptops that are also tablets because of virtual school. They are 15, 12, and 9.
I’d keep that genie in the bottle as long as you can honestly. I would not have tablets for 4 year olds.
Dang, I definitely tried all of these things with DD. Nothing ever lasted longer than like an hour! Even before she knew tablets/screens existed 🤷♀️
My kids are older and we had to travel back in the dark ages before iPads existed! I kept gallon ziploc with various activities and switched them out about every 20-30 minutes. It was not as relaxing as handing a kid a device at all, but it was the only option since tablets didn’t exist.
We got a tablet around when DS turned 3 and DD was almost born. Its use is very restricted and the kids don't typically throw fits (especially DS who is now 6 - we are very clear on boundaries about it and if he does throw a fit he knows future use is in jeopardy). In that regard, it's been much better than I initially worried.
DD (now 3.5) loves to draw with the stylus on H's Chromebook. We let her watch PBS Kids while the rest of us watch something she has no interest in. Occasionally they play PBS games on there. It's not a regular part of our day but nice to lean on when stuck in the house for a long time (like right now with the smoke) or on trips.