You could of course just use the tablet to show slow riding trains. At some point though you end up on an 8 hour car ride or flight, and without an army of novel toys it's just far more practical to hand the tablet than have the child screaming bloody murder the whole time because they are bored. This is one of those things that makes the parent sound bad but parenting is 24/7 365 days a year and sometimes people need a low-effort break for an hour, even the child.
You could of course just use the tablet to show slow riding trains. At some point though you end up on an 8 hour car ride or flight, and without an army of novel toys it's just far more practical to hand the tablet than have the child screaming bloody murder the whole time because they are bored. This is one of those things that makes the parent sound bad but parenting is 24/7 365 days a year and sometimes people need a low-effort break for an hour, even the child.