iPad Addiction?

We just got back from dinner at a wood-fired pizza place and I ate too much to be able to focus properly on this blog so I’ll make it short.   My children have iPads.   It’s like interactive television.  It can be educational, but a lot of the content isn’t.   And it’s a very useful “down time” activity for my children.

And when I say, “down time” I’m not always referring to their need for down time.   Sometimes we want it as parents too.   But we try to keep it reasonable.   One of the rules we have is no screen time on school days.   This works well with their schedules although we have been know to make exceptions to the rule on occasion.

My daughter can see things on her iPad though, which is precious to her and is something we do want to take advantage of.   It’s a break from the assault on her other senses as the compensate for the loss of vision.   It also helps her see things and make visual memories in case she loses more or all of her vision.  

But it does seem like on vacation weeks like this week that they’re on screens a good bit.   They’re in the pool and spending time with family a lot of the day but early morning and late afternoon they have some time on their devices.    With one exception this week:  my daughter broke her iPad.

The situation wasn’t ideal, with the iPad being put on a bar-height counter above a tile floor with a child that can’t see well (otherwise know as tempting disaster) but it was an accident and she was upset about it.

She hadn’t said much about being without her iPad until the next day when someone mentioned my son and how he could easily have an iPad addiction.   Her comment?  “I can’t have an iPad addition, I broke mine.”

The Big Boy Update:  Last night after dinner some of our family members went for a walk.   My son saw something bright in the sky and told everyone it was a planet.   He was right, it was Venus.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  At dinner tonight I missed the action down towards where my son was sitting buy my daughter caught me up, “Greyson’s acting like a robot, but to my calculations he’s not a robot.”