Because I can hang out with my friends AND my kids at the same time. Shocking I know.

I'm sure there are lots of parents who use screens too much/improperly. I'm pretty sure there were a lot of parents who gave their kids too much gripe water (the good stuff) back in the day too. There just wasn't a place for other adults to bitch/moan/be anonymously sanctimonious about it 24/7.

Since no one else in this thread will say it, I will. I probably let my kids have too much screen time. But I also say no sometimes and they don't constantly ask for it and they are capable of playing a million other ways without a screen in front of them. Am I killing their chances of being successful at life? Possibly. Do I sometimes use screen time to ensure they survive long enough to prove it? Definitely.

My two year old gets 15-20 minutes of Peppa Pig four days a week because I need to distract her and keep her quiet while I put my eight month old to bed. I used to read to her while the baby slept but now the baby is too old and too aware so the two year old has to stay out of the room. If she gets iPad then I know she’ll sit still on the couch and I don’t have to worry that she’ll climb the counters and look for knives.

I don’t think screens in general are a problem. It’s only a problem when children are only exposed to screens and not given the opportunity to go outside, play with other kids or develop necessary social skills. My kids don’t get screens in public. I expect my toddler to behave herself in public and learn how to behave by the example we set.

Nope, not shocking at all. The OP was talking about the parents at the table and more or less ignoring the kids and letting the screens babysit. This is a big difference.

Also, I can't say we wouldn't have let the kids have screen time. We did limit TV when they were young but that was over 20 years ago so the same temptations now are not the same as then. My son needed constant attention, my daughter could sit and look at her reflection and occupy herself for hours.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

Something else I find funny about this thread in general, is windywaves premise is that kids are just sitting their staring at a screen. While he is about to go to a show, where he is going to essentially be sitting and not talking for 2 hours.

Bolded part made me laugh. The other night I went upstairs for a hot minute and came down to find my 2 year old holding a knitting needle in one hand and a claw hammer in the other, in a sort of Braveheart "come at me, bro" pose like below. He had managed to open the closet door, get to the bottom of the toolbox, then climb onto the kitchen table to where my wife's sewing project was in the time it took me to walk upstairs, find a book and come back down.

They're crafty little buggers. My oldest wouldn't get into stuff - ever. Leave him with toys in one place, come back 20 min later he'd still be in the same spot. Easy peasy.

His little brother - leave the room for 30 seconds, come back to find him SO PLEASED to be sitting on the high bar stool chairs at the kitchen island. How he got up is a mystery that shall remain unsolved.

I think the biggest takeaway from all of this is that us old shits that haven't had kids in a long time really have no clue how we would respond to raising kids now. I know if I had to go through the first 6 years of my son and my daughters teenage years again I be fitted with rubber pants and locked up while I stared out the window and muttered to myself.

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TEAM HD
Each day is what you make of it so make it the best day possible.

It was an improv show

Looks like you win this round!

That should surprise no one