I think every parent must go through this debate at some point in their child’s life.

You are either debating with your partner, your friends, strangers or a lot of the time with yourself about that very sticky question. Do you let your toddler watch tv, or better yet do you let them play with your phone or Ipad.

As expectant parents my husband and i were both on the same page that we would not let our child watch tv or play games on our phones or ipads till at least they were 5. Actually a time limit wasn’t discussed we simply did not want them to play with anything related to technology. Now as a parent like a lot of things we have changed our minds slightly.

Before i explain what or why we have changed our mind, let me explain why we made our original decision.

My husband and i would often go to dinner before we became a family of three and what would annoy the crap out of us would be seeing families out to dinner and the kids with their eyes glued to an ipad playing games, to us this was so disrespectful. We have always viewed dinner time as family time or discussion time and we often wondered why parents allow this when they go out. Was it because it was the only thing that would keep the kids quiet so the parents could have a peaceful night out? Was it because these days parents have no control over their children or was it just the way life is now. Are we the ones living in some time warp and haven’t moved with the times?

So i asked the question to these parents and their response was that they would much rather have there child seated at a table well mannered and occupied then screaming and carrying all for all patrons to be annoyed at them. So being a parent i can almost see there point, but… and here is the big but, what did my parents do and your parents do when they went out to dinner with us? I’m pretty sure i didn’t have an ipad keeping me entertained. I remember being told in the car before we entered that if i wasn’t good i would be grounded or in trouble when we got home so i happily took the pencils and coloring activity sheet that i often received at restaurants and spoke when i was told and we all went home full and happy.

We were recently on holiday’s and stuck in the room due to rain for three days. My 11 month old was going crazy, so we resorted to getting the Ipad out and playing a kids show. Our son was mesmerized for about half and hour, just enough time to get our sanity back. So maybe these parents are right, maybe technology assists with taming our children.

So now, im contemplating whether we are being hard parents and not moving with the times or simply good parents who should be able to occupy kids without using technology.

The answer? well im still undecided. My though process is i will wait and see what happens. If there is one thing i have learnt being a parent is that nothing is set in stone, things you thought you would do you don’t and things you promised you would never do some how make there way into your day to day routine. I guess the point im trying to make is you just never know until your in that situation. I hope i can raise my kids to be able to sit at a dinner table in a restaurant and behave like humans without the aid of technology to get them through the night, but ill guess we will have to wait and see.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this. Share your experiences with the introduction to technology with your kids. How did you implement it, what rules do you have?

Until next time

– Real Honest Mum