I have a very unpopular opinion about tablets. I LOVE THEM! They are amazing tools that I use for my kids all the time. I think using tablets for my girls is totally fine. Tablets have gotten a bad rap for some reason and I don't think they should. Cooking food over a fire is no longer the norm because technology has advanced and now we use ovens or a microwaves. New technology doesn't always mean it is a bad thing. Some people thought microwaves would give you cancer when they first were invented. There are many reasons why I love tablets but the main one is that it makes my girls smarter and happier. Not too long ago it was perfectly acceptable to leave your kids in a playpen in the middle of your living room for the majority of the day. Today that is pretty much illegal therefore I must find other ways to keep my kids from getting into things that might hurt them. I use their tablets as a virtual playpen. Instead of me doing a song and dance for my kids I use the tablet to entertain them so I can actually get some things done.
When my oldest was 4 years old she thought my husband was skipping parts of her night time books. In her defense that is exactly what he was doing. He wanted bedtime to be as short as possible, like most parents do, and a long book just made the process longer. My smart sassy daughter downloaded a "Super Why" app on her tablet and taught herself how to recognize certain words. I was aware that she had the app because we were obviously monitoring what was on her tablet. However I had no idea that she was using it so she could check up on her Daddy. One night we were putting her to bed and my husband decided to skip a paragraph and turn to the next page. My very precocious 4 year old promptly said "You skipped a part." My husband said "No, I didn't." She insisted "You skipped the part that said Baby Moana." My husband and I both looked at each stunned. He said "Did you teach her what those words are?" I said "No." My sweet little girl explained her devious plan to us and then smiled smugly because she had achieved her goal.
I have stated before that all my kids are very active. My girls never stop moving unless I make them sit and stop for a bit. We call this quiet time because my kids have never been good at napping. Naps were not something that my ladies needed. Unfortunately like most kids they still desperately needed time to rest their brains and bodies for a bit. Originally I started using tablets for this reason. My oldest stopped napping when she was 18 months old. Even before tablets were a household staple we made my oldest sit and watch a movie for 2 hours so that she could stop moving and rest. Usually Toy Story did the trick but sometimes it would be 2 hours of Doc McStuffins or Bubble Guppies. All my girls still need that kind of unwind time now and so do I. If we didn't have tablets my husband and I would be stuck watching a different princess movie every night. We would also have to mediate the fight over which princess movie would be the one of choice. Tablets allow my children to relax and also alleviates the disagreements over what to watch. Even now my 8 year old and 2 year old are snuggled up watching the same tablet but they are finally relaxing after hours of outside running.
My husband works in IT so we have a lot of limits on what they can access. However, especially with my oldest, we want her to learn some self control. We tell her what she can and cannot watch and trust her to make the right decisions. We need to trust our girls little by little to use their own discernment and make good choices. Occasionally we catch her on an unapproved site, usually harmless but still unapproved, and then there are consequences to her actions. Just like letting her play outside with her friends we have to give her freedom and check in on her to make sure she is following the boundaries. The same thing applies to this crazy online world. I don't want them to jump into the deep end when they are teenagers having no guidance from their parents. That would be the same as giving my kids the keys to the car at 15 but they had never actually been in a car. My ladies are allowed to explore their tablets within limits. As a mom I try to use everything at my disposal to help my kids. Tablets are just one of the tools that I use to accomplish my many goals while raising strong independent girls.
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