>University of Michigan professor Jenny Radesky, a pediatrician who has extensively researched screen use among children, said problems can arise when tablets are allowed to serve as a “child’s always-available buddy, meaning it is taken everywhere to help manage the child’s behavior, calm them down, or keep them quiet.”
Yeah, that's the crux of the problem. The goal of parenting is not to keep your kids quiet and calm. That's nice to have, and as someone with a toddler myself I get the desire for it sometimes.
The goal of parenting is to raise a healthy human being. Managing kids as problems to be solved instead caring for them as people to be nourished (not just physically with food, but emotionally and mentally) hardcore misses the mark on a fundamental level, in ways that harm your child directly and society more generally (since it's common for children to internalize and repeat their parents' patterns of behavior).
Yeah, that's the crux of the problem. The goal of parenting is not to keep your kids quiet and calm. That's nice to have, and as someone with a toddler myself I get the desire for it sometimes.
The goal of parenting is to raise a healthy human being. Managing kids as problems to be solved instead caring for them as people to be nourished (not just physically with food, but emotionally and mentally) hardcore misses the mark on a fundamental level, in ways that harm your child directly and society more generally (since it's common for children to internalize and repeat their parents' patterns of behavior).