{"id":6647,"date":"2025-08-07T13:35:31","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/?p=6647"},"modified":"2025-08-07T13:35:31","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T17:35:31","slug":"redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html","title":{"rendered":"Redditor Sparks Debate Over Giving Toddler Tablet at Meal"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_6650\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6650\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6650\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Child-Screen_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6650\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A mom on Reddit sparked a debate after describing a recent meal with her extended family where she was criticized for giving her 3-year-old a tablet during the meal. The Redditor was having a meal with her child, her husband, her mother and father-in-law, and her sister-in-law. \u201cMy 3-year-old was getting cranky, and I could already feel a meltdown brewing. I tried crayons, snacks, everything. Nothing worked,\u201d she wrote. After exhausting her options, she then offered up the iPad so she could watch cartoons. \u201cShe immediately calmed down and started eating,\u201d wrote the mom, adding that it &#8220;felt like a win.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her mother-in-law, however, was not impressed. \u201cKids these days don&#8217;t know how to behave at the table anymore,\u201d she noted, with the poster\u2019s sister-in-law adding, \u201cBack in our day, we didn&#8217;t need screens to sit still.\u201d Even her husband thought she could have done something else before \u201cgiving in\u201d to the tablet.<\/p>\n<p>Many responded with criticism. \u201cYou should not give kids screen time when at a family meal. They need to learn to sit and chill \u2026 This is promoting bad habits,\u201d wrote one person. \u201cThe dopamine hit and dependence on screen time isn&#8217;t ideal for developing brains,\u201d wrote another. Others had some strong words against the other adults in the situation. \u201cWhy wasn&#8217;t your husband dealing with the impending meltdown, since he has so much to say about the matter?\u201d asked one. \u201cYour parents-in-law shouldn&#8217;t be judging you. They should be supporting you,\u201d wrote another.<\/p>\n<p>The impact of screen time on children\u2019s brains <a href=\"https:\/\/smarttales.app\/2024\/10\/21\/children-with-tablets-at-dinner-right-or-wrong\/\">has been a growing concern<\/a>. Some studies warn that children miss out on valuable interactions with families if they use a tablet during meals, which can impact language acquisition. Other researchers insist on limiting screen time for young children and utilizing educational programs when necessary, rather than mindless cartoons. Debates on tablet use for children rage all over the internet, on Reddit and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mother.ly\/news\/viral-tiktok-should-toddlers-use-ipads-at-restaurants\/\">TikTok<\/a> alike. A recent TikTok video went viral showing a father struggling with his young child as she climbs all over him. The video was captioned with, \u201cfighting for our lives at restaurants to not make her an iPad baby.\u201d One commentor applauded both sides of the iPad debate, writing, \u201cNo screen time = good parents. Screen time to save your own sanity = good parents. We\u2019re all just out here trying to survive parenthood, no need to tear each other down.\u201d Another applauded the dad\u2019s efforts and offered encouragement. \u201cMy best friend did this with her kids and trust me girl it\u2019s soooo worth it! They\u2019re 7, 7, and 10 now still with no iPad and we see a HUGE difference in their behavior from other kids!!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A mom on Reddit sparked a debate after describing a recent meal with her extended family where she was criticized for giving her 3-year-old a tablet during the meal. The Redditor was having a meal with her child, her husband, her mother and father-in-law, and her sister-in-law. \u201cMy 3-year-old was getting cranky, and I could&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":6650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Redditor Sparks Debate Over Giving Toddler Tablet at Meal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mom sparks debate after giving her toddler a tablet at dinner\u2014was it smart parenting or a screen-time fail? The internet is fiercely divided.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Redditor Sparks Debate Over Giving Toddler Tablet at Meal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mom sparks debate after giving her toddler a tablet at dinner\u2014was it smart parenting or a screen-time fail? The internet is fiercely divided.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daily Cup of Wellness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-07T17:35:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Child-Screen_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Redditor Sparks Debate Over Giving Toddler Tablet at Meal","description":"Mom sparks debate after giving her toddler a tablet at dinner\u2014was it smart parenting or a screen-time fail? The internet is fiercely divided.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Redditor Sparks Debate Over Giving Toddler Tablet at Meal","og_description":"Mom sparks debate after giving her toddler a tablet at dinner\u2014was it smart parenting or a screen-time fail? The internet is fiercely divided.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html","og_site_name":"Daily Cup of Wellness","article_published_time":"2025-08-07T17:35:31+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Child-Screen_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html","name":"Redditor Sparks Debate Over Giving Toddler Tablet at Meal","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/2025\/08\/redditor-sparks-debate-over-giving-toddler-tablet-at-meal.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/410\/2025\/08\/Child-Screen_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2025-08-07T17:35:31+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-07T17:35:31+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/dailycupofwellness\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Mom sparks debate after giving her toddler a tablet at dinner\u2014was it smart parenting or a screen-time fail? 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