Toddler Technology - My beef with Steve Jobs

I always said that I wouldn't be the mom who throws an electronic device at my child to keep them  quiet. Nope, not me. Ever. I was NOT going to do that. Just like I was not going to give my kid a sucker to keep them from crawling out of the shopping cart. I lied. In a big way. I'm pretty sure I pictured my kids eating all home made organic food. Never was going to take them to McDonald's. Never going to let them play in a dirty playland. Again. I lied. I was living in "La La Mom Land". Yes, sure there are moms out there who probably stick by their pledge not to give into the screaming or the annoying things that their children do to get their way. When I say "NO" I try to stick to it, but sometimes I just need a little peace and quiet and I give in. I cave. I fold like a chair. It's bad. I know. My mom always tells me "If you say no, MEAN IT!!! Don't just say no if you are eventually going to say yes. It confuses them". Yes, mother. Thanks for the information. I try to not do this but sometimes it doesn't work. I'm a bad mom sometimes. I say No, then cave and say Yes. My bad.

I think we may be the only family that does not own an iPad. You know why we don't have an iPad? Well, frankly I'm afraid of it ending up in the toilet. That definitely could happen. We did however recently get a Kindle Fire HD which was supposed to be mine and all mine and I was never going to let my children use it, but I have caved. They have a cute system called Kindle Free Time. It actually locks your Kindle into "Kid Mode" and they can't change any settings etc. Its about $5 a month which I think is worth it. We also have iPhones. This is where I have a problem.

I hate the iPhone. I really do. I want to thank my soon-to-be husband of my cousin for showing my 2 year old that they have games on there one afternoon at a family funeral. Had to keep her busy. Yes, thank you, but OMG. "The Cake Game" was the start of the downward spiral. Thanks Dan for opening "Pandora's Box". The entire way home from that trip my middle bean asked to play on my phone. More like sang about, screamed about it and demanded. I told her I didn't have any games on my phone. She told me that wasn't true.

I told my husband I didn't want to start this. I didn't want to have children who played on devices. But alas, I caved. It started when my older child got a VTECH Mobigo from her grandparents. I must say. I fell in love with it. She would play at age 3 for 20-30 minutes. They looked like pretty good games. She got excited. It was a nice babysitter and it took her away from TV. Sometimes I would actually put her on the porch to play so it gave the appearance she was outside playing. But she wasn't. I would keep it in the car and she would take it into appointments. LIFESAVER. A year or so later, the middle bean got one to be like her older sister. Then shortly after the first one died and I was on a search for a new system. We replaced them this past Christmas with the LeapFrog LeapPad. Okay. I like those.

My reviews of the systems are as follows: If you are looking for a low budget beginner system for your kids, try the VTECH Mobigo. It's around $50-$60 and you can buy cartridges. I think even the upgraded system has games you can download from the net. You can buy games on amazon for around $12-$20. Nice little system and a 2-3 year old can use it. We upgraded to the LeapFrog LeapPad. It looks like an iPad but it's a kids system. It works well for a 4+ kid. My only note on that system is that it sucks batteries like no tomorrow (the new LeapPad 2 has a rechargeable battery pack you can buy for a HIGHLY ANNOYING PRICE of $40). I think we put $400 into the system including the system, wall charger, car charger, gel skin for the unit, cute pink purse carrying case and like 20 games. My final note on that system is LeapFrog has won the jackpot by putting all those cartridge games on the LeapFrog Connect computer download system where instead of getting those annoying cartridges, you can just download them to the harddrive of the unit. BRILLIANT. My children fight over this one cartridge. Something about a Mr. Pencil. We only have one. But if i would have bought it online and downloaded it, we can put it on multiple units.

I'm sure in a year, my child will want something else. But the question is do we upgrade to an Apple product or do we do a Nintendo DS. Her cousin has a DS and she wants one. Which is where I get to my beef with Mr. Jobs.

Mr. Jobs. If you are looking down reading this, I love you and I really hate you. Well, dislike would be the term. You gave us the educational tools known as the iPad and the iPhone. Thank you. And Shame On You at the same time. How dare you make it so easy for me to reach in my purse and pull out a babysitter. How dare you make my child learn on my phone and play a game and keep her from screaming while I'm at the doctor's office. I love you for doing it, but I also really really really dislike giving her my phone because truthfully, she doesn't like to share and getting it back is annoying.

I have subscribed to a blog about free apps for kids. Since now we have an iPod and an iPhone, I like to load up on free apps. This is a great site. Here is an article on the TOP 100 PRESCHOOL APPS. On Friday's they have tons of free apps listed and sometimes they are the ones my daughter uses on her SIX IPADS she has in her KINDERGARTEN classroom. So I load up.

Top 100 (actually 349) FREE Apps for Preschoolers

This website is great for apps for all ages. SMARTAPPSFORKIDS.COM

So either way you do it, if you like the new technology that is out there, or if you are a slacker mom that just gives your kids crayons when they throw themselves on the floor, I'm sure you can find some good info in this article. Perhaps you can give send this blog link to your sister who dares to give their child an electronic device to have a 30 minute nap. But remember, once you give it to them, you will NEVER hear the end of it. For me, I guess I'm okay with it. They are in the generation of electronics. So they better learn early.

If you have any good websites that have free or reduced priced apps, let me know! Or if you have tried any new gaming systems I would love to know about that. A friend of mine was telling me about the NABI Tablet and I am very interested to hear about that. My soon to be 7yo will out grow her LeapPad. And I'm thinking a Nabi or a DS. I know people just say to get them an iPad because I have so much invested in Apple, but then again, I'm afraid of toilet scenario.

Happy Baby Thoughts :)

R