[vldchk]

I would bet on the growth of notepads and smartphone usage by children 0-2 age. There are evidences that electronics and smart screens are destructive for the cognitive development of infants, while they are super easy to adopt by lazy parents.

Click on some YTube show and baby won’t bother you for the next hour or two.

[dang]

> lazy parents

That is both name-calling and flamebait, and therefore breaks the HN guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Can you please make your substantive points without doing that? Note this guideline also:

"Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive."

Parenting is one of the most emotionally activating topics that exists, and therefore one of the most divisive.

[vldchk]

I am a parent myself and I know very good the cost of it, and yes - I think if you enable cartoons on YouTube for your few months old kid - that’s the laziness. You always can find a way to attract and engage your baby without electronics.

You can report me and ban, I don’t mind

[ryantgtg]

Lazy parents? Don’t be hasty.

A coworker of mine had every intention of not having any screentime for their toddler. But lockdown meant two parents working from home + no daycare. The solutions were either one of them quits their job or they buy an iPad. Economy necessity dictated the latter.

With my toddler, we retained zero screentime simply because my wife is freelance and can get away with ~10 hours of actual work per week.

[saurik]

> But lockdown...

The entire point of this sub-thread was to analyze the trend pre-lockdown. (FWIW, I'm then not wanting to comment on whether this is lazy behavior or not, but just that this defense is out of place.)

[watwut]

I had same intention. Even practically largely managed. And then, when I shown toddler first fairy tale, toddler started to have way more varied and imaginative games.

Turns out, it does not destroys them at all. It can actually add quite a lot.

The harm can happen if you overdo it a lot. But some watching or playing is not destroying them at all.

[kkjjkgjjgg]

"There are evidences" - really? There are certainly people who are of the opinion, but evidence?

[hubb]

no chance this guy has kids. ppl said this same thing about television. if you read newspaper clippings from the early 20th century you can find letters to the editor about parents concerned their kids read too many books

[dang]

Please do not cross into personal attack on HN.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[Ma8ee]

And I think it is a valid concern even today. It’s not that there’s anything inherently bad or dangerous with books, videos or computer games. But too much of anything steal time that is needed for other parts of a well rounded upbringing. If you spend too much time in front of a screen or books, you won’t spend enough time being outdoors and being physically active, or being with friends practicing social skills and conflict resolution. And the opposite is of course also true: if you spend all days doing sports or just hanging out with friends, there won’t be enough time for reading or other types of experiences.

[rock_hard]

Some people have excessive behaviors…got nothing to do with TV, Games, Sugar, etc

They just need help to learn to manage those excessive behaviors

[Ma8ee]

Some behaviours are more immediately rewarding than other. It’s rare to find anyone eating too much broccoli or having problems stop rehearsing German irregular verbs.

[rock_hard]

Absolutely, even more important to learn how to manage those early in life and adopt healthy behaviors

[vldchk]

But surprise for you — I have. And I know that it is more than possible to develop your young ones without engaging them to electronics until they reach at least 2 years old.

[cdubzzz]

> There are evidences that electronics and smart screens are destructive for the cognitive development of infants, while they are super easy to adopt by lazy parents.

I know this is a poor form but fuck you. We work our asses off to give our kids what is generally accepted as a “good” upbringing and it’s hard. Hard during any normal period of time and even harder when dealing the pressures of the pandemic’s affect on work, day care, extracurricular activities, etc.

Happy to read whatever evidence you have on this topic. I’m keenly interested and sure as shit not “lazy” for allowing our children time to play age appropriate games on a tablet.

[dang]

> I know this is a poor form but fuck you.

Please don't do that here, regardless of how strong and legitimate your feelings are. It only makes things worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[cdubzzz]

Yes yes. Sorry for the vitriol. As you say, emotionally activating (: