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IPAD guilt

C

cryingrobot

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 26, 2008
156
0
My 3 year old loves this thing. I have loaded it up with alot of apps for kids so we can look at them together but he has gotten to the point where he knows his way around the OS as well as i do. However, I cannot let him use the ipad alone since I need it in fact as my work email links in as well as my contacts etc and my son explores every nook and cranny of the device. I even tried to turn off the wifi once so he would not be sending out strange mail to colleagues but somehow he figured how to turn it back on. My bedroom on Sunday morning was envisioned as me with the ipad, my wife streaming korean dramas on her macbook and my son watching cartoons on TV. Instead, my son is on the ipad playing Ms Spider and occasionally explaining "Ms Spider is sad!", my wife is watching her dramas and I leave to the office to sit in front of the desktop to surf.

Now..I cannot abide by this anymore since there are work related items on the device so I have have made it off limits and given him my old ipod touch. He seems to understand that is his now and enjoys it but I hav to slink around when I have the ipad.

I feel like I have taken awy his favorite toy and the guilt is killing me. Cannot buy another since I am in HK and this was was especially shipped to me.
 
This is just silly. How do you expect your child to learn to respect boundaries unless you enforce them? :confused:
 
Perhaps I'm old fashioned but I wouldn't want a 3 year old using such an expensive device. Just explain to him that you use it for work.
 
No No No No No No No No

Can't reason with a 3 year old.

Say no, and say no often. He will turn out to benefit more from it. And you are WAY to early on to be feeling guilt there- you haven't seen anything yet!!


-Trust me on this.
 
cryingrobot said:
My 3 year old loves this thing. I have loaded it up with alot of apps for kids so we can look at them together but he has gotten to the point where he knows his way around the OS as well as i do. However, I cannot let him use the ipad alone since I need it in fact as my work email links in as well as my contacts etc and my son explores every nook and cranny of the device. I even tried to turn off the wifi once so he would not be sending out strange mail to colleagues but somehow he figured how to turn it back on. My bedroom on Sunday morning was envisioned as me with the ipad, my wife streaming korean dramas on her macbook and my son watching cartoons on TV. Instead, my son is on the ipad playing Ms Spider and occasionally explaining "Ms Spider is sad!", my wife is watching her dramas and I leave to the office to sit in front of the desktop to surf.

Now..I cannot abide by this anymore since there are work related items on the device so I have have made it off limits and given him my old ipod touch. He seems to understand that is his now and enjoys it but I hav to slink around when I have the ipad.

I feel like I have taken awy his favorite toy and the guilt is killing me. Cannot buy another since I am in HK and this was was especially shipped to me.
Click to expand...

I was in the same boat as you so I had to buy another iPad which solved the problem :)
My 3 year old will sit for hours on the ipad and spends a lot less time watching TV, which I guess is a good thing.
 
I agree about setting appropriate boundaries. There's nothing wrong with that; its actually healthy. Also put in a passcode on that thing that locks after 5 mins of inactivity in the setting.
 
I hope he gets a chance to play with one of these.
DIGa1f.jpg
 
Here is my 3 year old. She has figured out some interesting ways of holding the thing.
 

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Sorry but youve gotta be tough to be kind. Letting him use it whenever he wants is really depressing parenting.
 
One word. No. The crying will end shortly, then the doll playing will once again begin. Oops, or the toy playing, I reread you post and saw it was a boy.
 
My 3 year old loves to draw on my iPad but she does know when I need it her turn is over. She has loved playing on my wifes and my iPhones but she especially loves the iPad since it is a lot easier to draw on. But tell her/him no and I bet they would understand don't just let them have it all the time maybe put a limit on how long she/he plays with it.
 
One option would be to jailbreak and install password protection for all 'important' apps (such as mail).
 
cryingrobot said:
My 3 year old loves this thing. I have loaded it up with alot of apps for kids so we can look at them together but he has gotten to the point where he knows his way around the OS as well as i do. However, I cannot let him use the ipad alone since I need it in fact as my work email links in as well as my contacts etc and my son explores every nook and cranny of the device. I even tried to turn off the wifi once so he would not be sending out strange mail to colleagues but somehow he figured how to turn it back on. My bedroom on Sunday morning was envisioned as me with the ipad, my wife streaming korean dramas on her macbook and my son watching cartoons on TV. Instead, my son is on the ipad playing Ms Spider and occasionally explaining "Ms Spider is sad!", my wife is watching her dramas and I leave to the office to sit in front of the desktop to surf.

Now..I cannot abide by this anymore since there are work related items on the device so I have have made it off limits and given him my old ipod touch. He seems to understand that is his now and enjoys it but I hav to slink around when I have the ipad.

I feel like I have taken awy his favorite toy and the guilt is killing me. Cannot buy another since I am in HK and this was was especially shipped to me.
Click to expand...

Dude, he's three years old. He'll get over it. You need to understand that kids have to learn to respect the boundaries (kids don't learn it on their own) and that'll involve tough love. Every parent has felt the same guilt as you have, you'll get used to it because you'll come to realize that you're teaching him something that he'll use for the rest of his life.

Seriously, don't feel guilty about it. It wasn't his toy in the first place. Just tell him that you'll play with him on the ipad and he can't play it on his own because it's not his. At least this way, you're promoting the father-son bond. Don't forget that kids need to be running around like retards on crack and do exercise, DO NOT SPOIL HIM WITH ELECTRONIC TOYS. Play sports and stuff like that.
 
Obviously many of the responders are not parents.

It's not a matter of enforcing boundaries, and it's not a matter of spoiling your child.

It's an incredible experience to watch your pre-schooler dive into this device, which is testament to the developers' accomplishment (heck, even my two year-old can navigate the iPad OS). The exploration and learning potential is phenomenal. I don't want to take it away from my child because I love that she's being mesmerized/challenged/enthralled/educated. It's a mutually pleasurable deal.

It's not a toy, and no one claims that it is, but if you're a parent who thinks children should play ONLY with toys, then you're very short-sighted, and that attitude is a disservice to your child. Supervision is key.

In our house, we ended up with two iPads. After receiving the Wi-Fi on launch day, we saw almost immediately how useful it would be for the family. Besides movies and music, there are many incredible apps for kids, from games to art to education to make-believe (Puppet Pals rocks). So, we got a launch day 3G that I use for business. The Wi-Fi belongs to the family (although my 4 year-old refers to it as "my iPad").

If your family can afford it, then buy multiple iPads. If you have young children, hand one over and let their minds grow.
 
No, I am a parent of a now 15 year old. When my son was younger we limited his TV, video games and such. That is the point, moderation in everything, but one thing for sure is no 3 year old, or now my 15 year old is going to make me feel guilty about not getting what they want. There is a difference between wants and needs. I just recently went through that when we started looking for a used car for my son. Unlike my dad who told me what kind of car I was going to drive, even though I was paying for it, my son was involved in the process, but he was thinking BMW, he got a Honda. If parents don't start telling kids No when they are young, it gets much harder when they grow up. I'm by no means against kids exploring, learning, and seeing their faces light up when the learn new things, but in my house I'm they parent and they are not.
 
Dillenger said:
No, I am a parent of a now 15 year old. When my son was younger we limited his TV, video games and such. That is the point, moderation in everything, but one thing for sure is no 3 year old, or now my 15 year old is going to make me feel guilty about not getting what they want. There is a difference between wants and needs. I just recently went through that when we started looking for a used car for my son. Unlike my dad who told me what kind of car I was going to drive, even though I was paying for it, my son was involved in the process, but he was thinking BMW, he got a Honda. If parents don't start telling kids No when they are young, it gets much harder when they grow up. I'm by no means against kids exploring, learning, and seeing their faces light up when they learn new things, but in my house I'm they parent and they are not.
Click to expand...

+1. Thank you.
 
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