Mom Calls Out The Hypocrisy Of Criticizing Both IPad Kids & Rambunctious Ones
"Until you increase your tolerance for children just behaving like children, you will see more iPad babies."
Oksana Kuzmina | Shutterstock In public settings, people without kids often love to make remarks about kids they see glued to electronics, labeling their parents as lazy. However, when the parents take the screens away, and the kids begin acting up, the complaints roll in again.
One mother is highlighting the reality that you can have one or the other: iPad babies who are quiet and glued to their screens, or kids being kids.
A mom is calling out the hypocrisy of criticizing both iPad kids and rambunctious ones.
26-year-old Jordan Simone got real about dealing with kids in public spaces in a TikTok video, emphasizing a reality that some of us may not want to hear. “If you all want to see fewer iPad babies, you are going to have to increase your tolerance for childish nonsense outside in the world,” she said.
“If you don't want to see little kids, toddlers, on their iPads at dinner, then you're going to have to accept the fact that for a while, they're going to be loud, obnoxious, even, you know, disruptive to what you at a separate table are up to.”
Parenting in public has become a double-edged sword because critics complain that kids are either too loud or glued to their screens.
In public settings such as restaurants, some parents opt to give their young kids electronics to keep them quiet, seated, and entertained. Kids haven’t exactly mastered the virtue of patience quite yet, and they can become irritable and obnoxious as they wait for their food to come around.
Rather than making those around them endure potential tantrums, some parents depend on screentime in public to mitigate their children’s irritation. Some people, mainly those without kids, view them as lazy parents who can’t be bothered. However, when parents take the screens away and use going out in public as a way to teach kids how to behave appropriately, people love to complain about that too.
“Kids can't learn how to behave in public unless they're in public getting those experiences. And that learning curve is going to be inconvenient and uncomfortable for you,” Simone said.
Even when parents are trying their very best to keep their children’s noise levels down and teach them politeness, kids will be kids, and they may act out.
While Simone agreed that parents should model appropriate behavior in their own homes, kids will never truly learn how to act considerately in public unless they get some experience. They may struggle the first couple of times, and that is okay!
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“Outside at a restaurant, with other people, with things that they're not familiar with, with somebody coming to talk to them periodically, can get a kid excited,” Simone noted. “And unless they're out there getting that experience on a regular basis, they're going to be loud and rowdy and obnoxious.”
Until we can be a bit more understanding of kids in public, parents will continue to feel shame just for bringing them into existence, and we will continue to see a spike in iPad babies to keep them quiet.
Nobody is born knowing how to act appropriately in public. The best way we learn is through observation and experience, and there is always a learning curve. Children have as much of a right to exist in public as adults, even while they are learning.
If you do happen to see kids using iPads or other electronics in public, it is not your place to judge. Sometimes, parents just need a few moments of peace, even if it means they need to rely on screens for a bit. Ingrid Simone, the executive editor of Toca Magazine and former senior apps editor for Common Sense Media, told Today that judging parents for their use of screens when parenting is on the rise, and it's mostly other parents doing the judging. She said, "Parents can be very judgmental of other parents and screen time. But this isn't new — before tablets, it was TV. I think the most important thing is to make sure kids are accessing high-quality content."
Researcher, mom, and children's curriculum creator Melissa Morgenlander told the outlet that judging other parents is especially unfair because you have no idea why they might be using screens. She said, "My son — he's autistic and he's learned social skills from the iPad," said Morgenlander. He's learned how to identify emotions, how to calm himself with music he likes, and he's even learned how to communicate better through speaking and reading on the iPad."
While we may all be entitled to a child-free life, we are not entitled to a child-free world, and iPad babies and kids being kids are a part of that world.
Megan Quinn is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.
