There's an article in our local paper today about parents who rely on their iPhones and iPads to keep their toddlers quiet in public. For all that I understand how frustrating it is when the toddler will not pipe down in the restaurant, it makes me say harrumph. (Hey, now that Andy Rooney has died, someone has to keep the harrumphs coming.)
Back in August I took the kids out for pizza one night because there was a Scout fundraiser going on. When we sat down my oldest son pulled out his iPod Touch and I said, "Excuse me?" I said, "What are you thinking? That is not what we do in a restaurant." Ten minutes later another family from the troop came in and sat down at the next table. Their eighth-grader whipped out his iPod Touch and proceeded to play games until the food came. My two oldest boys were only too happy to kibitz. I said harrumph.
It seems to me that sitting quietly and thinking your own thoughts without external diversions is a life skill. How do you learn stillness if there's always distraction on offer? And if toddlers learn that acting up will encourage mom and dad to whip out the gadgets even faster, are we encouraging more misbehavior rather than less?
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