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This article made me really happy. Our 3 year old is bound by the same rule - iPad is allowed when flying somewhere but not at home. Fortunately she has made

This article made me really happy. Our 3 year old is bound by the same rule - iPad is allowed when flying somewhere but not at home. Fortunately she has made peace with it... mostly. Every night we play Laurie Berkner toothbrushing song for her so she’ll spend full 2 minutes brushing her teeth. iPad is locked right after; every now and then she’ll try to grab it and enter some digits, and I think she is getting good at it. She knows first two digits already. At some point I’ll be forced to upgrade to touchID/faceId iPad for her as well.

kgwxd 7y ago
"At some point I’ll be forced to upgrade to touchID/faceId iPad for her as well." She'll figure that out too. "Hey, look at this picture I drew! Ignore that little hole at the top of the page."
- benj111 7y ago
  Yes, children are like the raptors in Jurassic Park, testing the defenses, eventually learning to open (high up) cupboard doors. And when the one in front of you is being quiet and well behaved, watch out for the other one.....
- ceocoder 7y ago
  That would be the perfect time for me to say “clever girl” - I mean she does run around the house like a little velociraptor anyway :)
- nkrisc 7y ago
  If my kid pulled that off I'd be beaming with pride.
ExBritNStuff 7y ago
We're the same with our two kids, although not specifically the flying allowance because we don't fly with enough frequency for that to be a thing. Tablet usage is an earned treat, and if I calculated their usage, it would probably average to 90 minutes a week. That being said, I do worry I'm doing them a disservice. I make a very good living, relatively, in the IT field, and I ascribe that 100% to the fact that my parents bought a micro computer in 1982 and allowed me full access to it whenever I wasn't specifically doing anything else. I don't think I would be where I am if they had put some restrictions on my use of the computer. Admittedly I spent the majority of my time playing with BASIC rather than cutting fruit with my finger, so the use cases are totally different. However, by restricting their access I am limiting their ability to do anything with a tablet, including maybe discovering some programming application, or something that might light their imagination as mine was back in the 80's.
- ceocoder 7y ago
  I think I know how you feel. I owe my chosen profession to the fact that I had early access to a computer and GWBASIC, however letting her play Daniel Tiger night/day game doesn’t sound like any sort of developmental aid. I’ve bought a few ad free games for her that cover math, English, logic etc; and I try to play those with her, however I also want her to be a kid as well and don’t want to take the fun out of that part. It is not an easy balance.
- hycaria 7y ago
  Then why not get them a computer instead of a dumbed down ipad ?! Tablets are not the way to programming, you don't encounter enough problems for it to spark necessity.
Waterluvian 7y ago
I have a problem where I feel judged as a parent when others talk about their strict rules. It's not you, it's me. But it inclines me to share my story. Because I was so strictly regulated away from the computer as a kid, I decided to just relax and enjoy life on my own terms and not be so strict with my kids. So my 2 year old has unlimited iPad time. So far the observations are: - on days he uses it, it's between 1-2 hours total. - he knows his alphabet and will sing the song while typing in each letter. So he kind of knows qwerty. - he has complete access and basically goes into Netflix kids and YouTube. Ive never seen him find or watch anything inappropriate. This surprises me the most. - some days it can be like crack. Grab it from his hands and he goes nuclear - he gets bored and hands it back to you after 1-2 hours. - he ignores it for days. - he prefers going to the park or back yard over iPad time. - I think he loves having control. He picks what the tablet does. He picks what video is on. A lot of his day is decided by what mom and dad need to do. - some days we need to hide it because he's particularly fixated and getting him to bed time becomes difficult. - he has an interesting obsession with a few videos that count in many languages. He can comfortably count to 20 in English, French, and Spanish. Mom, dad, and a Spanish speaking grandmother supported this and I think the iPad time helped reinforce the learning on his terms at his place Overall I think it's a big win. But I expect this to change as he gets older. I expect we will have to start regulating it when he becomes capable of doing more complex activities on it.
- rayiner 7y ago
  My daughter got her own iPad mini at about age 2. We don’t restrict access except when she’s grounded. She’s six now and has one of the new iPad Airs with the Pencil, which she uses to draw. She’s very responsible with her iPad use, and would rather do cartwheels than use the iPad. (Although, we also made her keep trying sports until she found one she liked, and now she’s very active between gymnastics and swimming.) Screens aren’t some magical thing that will poison your kids. I didn’t have an iPad growing up. Instead, I was obsessive (and sedentary) with books. Pushing kids to be active is orthogonal to letting them use screens when appropriate.
- ilyanep 7y ago
  > some days we need to hide it because he's particularly fixated and getting him to bed time becomes difficult. Do you have a device that supports night shift? I wonder if using that feature could work to your advantage in re bedtime. (I'm just a childless person speculating, but wouldn't that be grand?)
caprese 7y ago
> She knows first two digits already. At some point I’ll be forced to upgrade to touchID/faceId iPad for her as well. I mean, or change the digits...
- baroffoos 7y ago
  Nah its an apple product. The solution to all problems is to buy the latest model.
lainga 7y ago
She's two digits away - you'd better teach her how to play tic-tac-toe against herself, quick.
vardump 7y ago
My first kid has had her own iPad and allowed to use it for as long as she can remember... In some ways, it was very helpful. She learned a lot of skills early. But in some other ways not so much. She doesn't care to play much with other kids for instance. So my second kid (currently a toddler) will only get a Raspberry Pi. And a controlled amount of total screen time. Not going to do same mistake again.

kgwxd 7y ago

"At some point I’ll be forced to upgrade to touchID/faceId iPad for her as well." She'll figure that out too. "Hey, look at this picture I drew! Ignore that little hole at the top of the page."

benj111 7y ago
Yes, children are like the raptors in Jurassic Park, testing the defenses, eventually learning to open (high up) cupboard doors. And when the one in front of you is being quiet and well behaved, watch out for the other one.....
ceocoder 7y ago
That would be the perfect time for me to say “clever girl” - I mean she does run around the house like a little velociraptor anyway :)
nkrisc 7y ago
If my kid pulled that off I'd be beaming with pride.

ExBritNStuff 7y ago

We're the same with our two kids, although not specifically the flying allowance because we don't fly with enough frequency for that to be a thing. Tablet usage is an earned treat, and if I calculated their usage, it would probably average to 90 minutes a week. That being said, I do worry I'm doing them a disservice. I make a very good living, relatively, in the IT field, and I ascribe that 100% to the fact that my parents bought a micro computer in 1982 and allowed me full access to it whenever I wasn't specifically doing anything else. I don't think I would be where I am if they had put some restrictions on my use of the computer. Admittedly I spent the majority of my time playing with BASIC rather than cutting fruit with my finger, so the use cases are totally different. However, by restricting their access I am limiting their ability to do anything with a tablet, including maybe discovering some programming application, or something that might light their imagination as mine was back in the 80's.

ceocoder 7y ago
I think I know how you feel. I owe my chosen profession to the fact that I had early access to a computer and GWBASIC, however letting her play Daniel Tiger night/day game doesn’t sound like any sort of developmental aid. I’ve bought a few ad free games for her that cover math, English, logic etc; and I try to play those with her, however I also want her to be a kid as well and don’t want to take the fun out of that part. It is not an easy balance.
hycaria 7y ago
Then why not get them a computer instead of a dumbed down ipad ?! Tablets are not the way to programming, you don't encounter enough problems for it to spark necessity.

Waterluvian 7y ago

I have a problem where I feel judged as a parent when others talk about their strict rules. It's not you, it's me. But it inclines me to share my story. Because I was so strictly regulated away from the computer as a kid, I decided to just relax and enjoy life on my own terms and not be so strict with my kids. So my 2 year old has unlimited iPad time. So far the observations are: - on days he uses it, it's between 1-2 hours total. - he knows his alphabet and will sing the song while typing in each letter. So he kind of knows qwerty. - he has complete access and basically goes into Netflix kids and YouTube. Ive never seen him find or watch anything inappropriate. This surprises me the most. - some days it can be like crack. Grab it from his hands and he goes nuclear - he gets bored and hands it back to you after 1-2 hours. - he ignores it for days. - he prefers going to the park or back yard over iPad time. - I think he loves having control. He picks what the tablet does. He picks what video is on. A lot of his day is decided by what mom and dad need to do. - some days we need to hide it because he's particularly fixated and getting him to bed time becomes difficult. - he has an interesting obsession with a few videos that count in many languages. He can comfortably count to 20 in English, French, and Spanish. Mom, dad, and a Spanish speaking grandmother supported this and I think the iPad time helped reinforce the learning on his terms at his place Overall I think it's a big win. But I expect this to change as he gets older. I expect we will have to start regulating it when he becomes capable of doing more complex activities on it.

rayiner 7y ago
My daughter got her own iPad mini at about age 2. We don’t restrict access except when she’s grounded. She’s six now and has one of the new iPad Airs with the Pencil, which she uses to draw. She’s very responsible with her iPad use, and would rather do cartwheels than use the iPad. (Although, we also made her keep trying sports until she found one she liked, and now she’s very active between gymnastics and swimming.) Screens aren’t some magical thing that will poison your kids. I didn’t have an iPad growing up. Instead, I was obsessive (and sedentary) with books. Pushing kids to be active is orthogonal to letting them use screens when appropriate.
ilyanep 7y ago
> some days we need to hide it because he's particularly fixated and getting him to bed time becomes difficult. Do you have a device that supports night shift? I wonder if using that feature could work to your advantage in re bedtime. (I'm just a childless person speculating, but wouldn't that be grand?)

caprese 7y ago

> She knows first two digits already. At some point I’ll be forced to upgrade to touchID/faceId iPad for her as well. I mean, or change the digits...

baroffoos 7y ago
Nah its an apple product. The solution to all problems is to buy the latest model.

lainga 7y ago

She's two digits away - you'd better teach her how to play tic-tac-toe against herself, quick.

vardump 7y ago

My first kid has had her own iPad and allowed to use it for as long as she can remember... In some ways, it was very helpful. She learned a lot of skills early. But in some other ways not so much. She doesn't care to play much with other kids for instance. So my second kid (currently a toddler) will only get a Raspberry Pi. And a controlled amount of total screen time. Not going to do same mistake again.