My wife and I have an 20 month-old son named Ivan. He is very concerned that parents do right by their children (he is especially worried about my parenting skills). Ivan has decided to help out new parents by issuing a regular newsletter called:
#TeamIvan’s: News From The Crib (#100) – iPad Addiction.
1. My husband and I have a 20-month old, and he’s addicted to our iPad. What should we do? Hmm? I’m sorry. Were you talking to me? I was busy live streaming something on my iPad. The retina display is just gorgeous.
2. We have a 20-month old, and he’s addicted to our iPad. What should we do? You should be grateful he’s not addicted to heroin.
3. Seriously, what do we do? I’d suggest starting with some self-examination — specifically, who gave him the iPad to use in the first place?
4. Fair enough, but he is addicted? What should we do about that? Have you tried using a neat little word, not often heard these days called “no”? Also you might try and just take it from him, given that you’re easily 3 feet taller and 100 pounds heavier than your toddler.
5. When we try to take it from him, he cries? Yeah? And? If your toddler never cries it means you’re not doing your job as a parent. Because at some point, probably each day, you should do something that annoys the crap out of your toddler (figuratively, not literally), and he/she may cry. And, that’s okay. You’re supposed to be setting limits and creating boundaries. Just ask my father. I setup boundaries for him all the time.
6. Is iPad use by toddlers a bad thing? No, not in and of itself. Besides, they can show you how to download apps.
7. Our toddler threw our iPad on the ground and broke it. Should I get him another one? Yes, and then you should adopt me money bags.
8. Is iPad use really addictive? Absolutely. Just ask anyone who walked into traffic while iPad surfing and walking.
9. What do child psychologists say about toddlers using iPads? They say it’s an awesome way to help kids develop the need for therapy by a child psychologist.
10. Even if a toddler gets addicted to using an iPad is that so wrong? Sometimes it’s so wrong, it’s right 🙂
