I guess you have a good point nepalisherpa. When I was a kid there wasn’t any iPad to entertain us.
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All iPads would you get an older iPad for a child?
- Thread starter TrancyGoose
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A bit of peace and quiet by giving your kid an iPad can quickly evolve into realising that those precious years that could've been spent interacting with your kid never happened. It also teaches your child that you don't want to interact with them: that their iPad time is more fun than time with you. This is why teenagers today are so addicted to their devices, and so disconnected from their parents. Tech is a tool, not a substitute for relationships. The harder path is also the more rewarding.
Note to OP: I know nothing about you, so obviously I'm not making some harsh judgment about you. I'm just stating my thoughts on it, having spent considerable time around the younger generation through schools. I'm terrified of seeing kids on their iPads all the time, and 99% when I look, the kids are watching pure crap – at the very least, they need educational entertainment.
Actually, I think OP seems to have a good grasp on things. It's just these kid / iPad discussions that I get worried about.
Note to OP: I know nothing about you, so obviously I'm not making some harsh judgment about you. I'm just stating my thoughts on it, having spent considerable time around the younger generation through schools. I'm terrified of seeing kids on their iPads all the time, and 99% when I look, the kids are watching pure crap – at the very least, they need educational entertainment.
Actually, I think OP seems to have a good grasp on things. It's just these kid / iPad discussions that I get worried about.
I fully agree with this... Why give them something they don't need just to have them distracted? Call me old school but I don't agree with digital parenting...
Also, a kid should not be in the front seat so at least 1 adult should be staying with the kid in the back/middle seat of a vehicle and not leave a child in the care of a car seat...
Don't give them something that would lessen your load in a situation when they clearly don't need it... Give it to them when they are 13 or better yet 18... Again, I'm an old school but that's just my take...
The major issue for longevity is storage space. Our little guys use up every possible megabyte of storage on the iPad. I’d say hold off as long as possible, and when you do get a device, make sure it’s not the lowest storage model. Refurb, used, old model is fine. iPads run terribly when they’re out of storage. So do phones. Ask me how I know.
we have a Childs account set up for each of our kids under our apple family, my wife and I have full control over it. They can even download a free app without needed to send a request. Also can limit the types of apps and content they can seeAnother question!
If we end up getting a refurb standard or mini, should we set it up with icloud acc of one of the parents? if so, how to lock it up tight, or they won't be able to spend any money?
OR will we make an account for him?
I feel some of the judgement comes from people who aren't parents or had kids way before this tech age. You aren't doing kids any favours shielding them from tech when its all around them, especially in school! Just teach them how to use it appropriately so they aren't suddenly introduced into it later and have to navigate it all themselves because their parents hid it from them.
My kids are active in sports, after school activities and actives with friends. They definitely enjoy their downtime on their iPads, they also FaceTime with their friends and socialize over their iPads and play games with groups of them. We set up boundaries and times when its technology free and also give them some freedom to choose when its appropriate.
You can easily set up an iPad to basically be a portable tv for a 3 year old and nothing more and slowly unlock more things for them as they get older. I would try to get as new as you can within your budget as these can last quite a few years. Then it can grow with your kid as they get older and use it for other things. Our iPad Air 3s are 3 years old now and still run fantastic, can easily get a couple more years out of them.
Thanks to everyone for giving their input. For those who are worried, don't be! 
It is merely a portable TV nothing more, below still remains main source of our son's entertainment! 😂😂😂😂
It is merely a portable TV nothing more, below still remains main source of our son's entertainment! 😂😂😂😂
Something I wanted to say on the topic.
My wife, has a nephew, he is 17 right now, and is studying in vocational school for a profession, to be an electrician.
Due to financial constraints and on top of parental mistakes with tech (they come from a poor country), he is really struggling to use technology for the right purposes.
He is now required to use email for school, attend meetings in Google Meet and using chats and professional tools. There was no experience in email handling, no experience in socialising virtually, nothing.
I was the one who got him his first iPhone, and when he managed to screw things up by breaking the display and somehow locking it, we had to attend Apple store (to fix the display) and figure out what his iCloud account is to wipe it there and remove the lock (Apple staff were helpful) , as he has created loads of email accounts and aliases without understanding the actual importance of how to handle communication and cloud.
This was hard work for me, and it remains ongoing, on how to show him communication by email, chat and explain the "ethics" and technical side of it.
Next step, i am getting him a Macbook for his birthday!
And the journey will continue. Hopefully, by the time he gets out of school and goes for his first job, and gets a MS 365/Google Workspace account, he won't be lost!!!My son is only 3, but I know that time will come, when he will ask me for an XBoX or a PS (i hope not) and maybe he'll ask me for a phone and a gaming PC! And i will provide that, as peer pressure is relentless, I will manage and control it as necessary.
There is a balance for everything, and it's down to parents to maintain it and set the boundaries, and I will do so, and my son will have the necessary skills to live.
No. Not for a 3 year old. A 3 year old can be engaged in other ways. Sounds like you’re looking for a solution to just distract the 3 year old. Maybe better to engage the child non-digitally.
These days, it’s not the digital realm that we need to learn to engage in. It’s the physical non-digital realm because the former holds such a heavy presence in our daily lives (for many of us, and I suspect for your family too).
I gave my 3 year old my old iPad Mini (something ancient, 2nd or 3rd gen) and I prepped it with a tough case and a screen protector (which she already broke). Amazingly it still works for YouTube Kids/Netflix/Disney+, the only apps we allow, set up with the appropriate child profiles.
In the larger conversation about kids and tech, I'll add my 2 cents:
Based on our observations and advice from our pediatrician, we restrict iPad usage to 30 minutes on Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of long distance travel (car > 1.5h, airplane), where it's very hard to keep our very energetic kids from not going ballistic with boredom.
I would absolutely not allow the iPad at the dinner table or restaurant. Sometimes this is very hard, but they have to learn manners somehow. And they are slowly improving, they can have a conversation, they love to do "cheers" etc.
As for depriving them of tech - they're basically surrounded by it. My older child just started school and they already have IT classes with tablets and computers. I'm not worried about them not being proficient, at all.
I wouldn't dream of giving them a working phone until they're much older, and it will be a basic one, not a smartphone. The damage an Internet-connected smartphone can do to teenagers is incredible.
Look how uncharitable to downright nasty people are to each other on this very forum. Moderated with a heavy boot no less. I shudder to think what kids say online. No wonder teen depression and general malaise is sky high.
In the larger conversation about kids and tech, I'll add my 2 cents:
Based on our observations and advice from our pediatrician, we restrict iPad usage to 30 minutes on Saturday and Sunday, with the exception of long distance travel (car > 1.5h, airplane), where it's very hard to keep our very energetic kids from not going ballistic with boredom.
I would absolutely not allow the iPad at the dinner table or restaurant. Sometimes this is very hard, but they have to learn manners somehow. And they are slowly improving, they can have a conversation, they love to do "cheers" etc.
As for depriving them of tech - they're basically surrounded by it. My older child just started school and they already have IT classes with tablets and computers. I'm not worried about them not being proficient, at all.
I wouldn't dream of giving them a working phone until they're much older, and it will be a basic one, not a smartphone. The damage an Internet-connected smartphone can do to teenagers is incredible.
Look how uncharitable to downright nasty people are to each other on this very forum. Moderated with a heavy boot no less. I shudder to think what kids say online. No wonder teen depression and general malaise is sky high.
These are interesting points and some I'll say are good points
I think in the larger scenario, I wouldn't think of this as depriving children of technology but more like not necessarily needing to further encourage them with technology when the pre-existing environment already does that well enough. To me, we don't need to deprive them of it so much as not needing to further encourage it when it is not necessary.
Someone in this thread pointed out their nephew from another country not having familiarity with some of these technologies and now really struggling with it. This is not the kind of scenario that I think you or I are talking about. We're talking about scenarios where the growing child is already embedded in an environment where such technologies are ubiquitous (and the child is not a differently abled child).
I see lots of adults around me having a difficult time ungluing themselves from technology and when there's a free moment, they bring out their phone and start engaging with it. My ponder is how about engaging in a different way when there's a free moment, like we used to when we didn't have tablets and smartphones. It's not to say that these devices and hi-tech are bad. It's to say we have grown A LOT in our engagement with technology; we can spare some moment to re-grow in other areas that do not use technology the same way to balance out.
I grew up with technology, I would say I am pretty well-rounded. Technology in itself isn't evil.
Before we had tablets and smartphones, people buried themselves in newspapers for essentially the same reasons, to avoid talking to other people. OR they would listen to music on a walkman, then a CD player, then an iPod.These are interesting points and some I'll say are good points
I think in the larger scenario, I wouldn't think of this as depriving children of technology but more like not necessarily needing to further encourage them with technology when the pre-existing environment already does that well enough. To me, we don't need to deprive them of it so much as not needing to further encourage it when it is not necessary.
Someone in this thread pointed out their nephew from another country not having familiarity with some of these technologies and now really struggling with it. This is not the kind of scenario that I think you or I are talking about. We're talking about scenarios where the growing child is already embedded in an environment where such technologies are ubiquitous (and the child is not a differently abled child).
I see lots of adults around me having a difficult time ungluing themselves from technology and when there's a free moment, they bring out their phone and start engaging with it. My ponder is how about engaging in a different way when there's a free moment, like we used to when we didn't have tablets and smartphones. It's not to say that these devices and hi-tech are bad. It's to say we have grown A LOT in our engagement with technology; we can spare some moment to re-grow in other areas that do not use technology the same way to balance out.
Fire HD is an excellent way to go. We got ours when child was about 3. He almost 7 now and it's still awesome.
Amazon Kids+ is awesome too.
Walkmans were not as ubiquitous as mobile phones are these days. Same with newspapers. Besides, you only get to engage in either Walkman or newspaper for so long because both are relatively static unlike a mobile phone that constantly gets updated information.
I think technology use is fundamentally different to modern social media tech use. Kids discovering "life" through the little screen of a Gameboy game is less invasive and less harmful than TikTok or the banality that is Youtube for Kids. IMO.
I set up my 3rd gen iPad for my youngest when she was about three for pretty much the same reason, long car rides. Her 6 year old sister got a 6th gen around the same time. Pretty much the only time she used it was on car rides, her older sister used it a bit more for learning apps and stuff like that as well (ABC Mouse, and some apps she used as school).
A couple years later my oldest got a new 8th gen for Christmas from her grandmother, so the 6th gen got passed down to my youngest and the 3rd gen was retired.
Just recently I set up my wife's old iPad Pro 9.7 for her to replace the 6th gen because the rear facing camera quit working and she really wanted to be able to use it to take pictures and while on FaceTime calls. I haven't decided what to do with the 6th gen yet.
We don't just let the kids have the iPads whenever they want, or spend a ton of time on them. I haven't even bothered setting up screen time because they just know they aren't allowed to be on them without permission, and we don't let them sit on it for hours on end other than car rides.
Using older model iPads for young children has worked out great for us. Just like any technology and kids it is all about the parenting that goes along with it, there is nothing wrong with the technology and kids using it. Just like when I was a kid I had some classmates that all they did was sit around and watch TV or play Nintendo/Atari/Sega. Others like me had them, but on nice days I was outside playing with my friends instead. We only played with that stuff on days with bad weather, late at night, etc.
A couple years later my oldest got a new 8th gen for Christmas from her grandmother, so the 6th gen got passed down to my youngest and the 3rd gen was retired.
Just recently I set up my wife's old iPad Pro 9.7 for her to replace the 6th gen because the rear facing camera quit working and she really wanted to be able to use it to take pictures and while on FaceTime calls. I haven't decided what to do with the 6th gen yet.
We don't just let the kids have the iPads whenever they want, or spend a ton of time on them. I haven't even bothered setting up screen time because they just know they aren't allowed to be on them without permission, and we don't let them sit on it for hours on end other than car rides.
Using older model iPads for young children has worked out great for us. Just like any technology and kids it is all about the parenting that goes along with it, there is nothing wrong with the technology and kids using it. Just like when I was a kid I had some classmates that all they did was sit around and watch TV or play Nintendo/Atari/Sega. Others like me had them, but on nice days I was outside playing with my friends instead. We only played with that stuff on days with bad weather, late at night, etc.
The car is the one place that we do not allow our child to use a tablet or other such things. No way!! And that includes a road trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans too.
Child can interact with us, entertain himself with various toys and creative play, look out the window or sleep.