Podcast host Dave Neal and his wife, Tasha Courtney, are new parents, enjoying the newborn stage and posting about it on social media as they experience all the joy their 8-week-old son, August, is bringing to their lives. But one of their recent videos sparked a ton of debate—and a little backlash.
“I don’t mean to ruffle feathers with the moms of Instagram—or the dads,” Neal began in his now-viral video, which he shot while he and Courtney were eating out at a restaurant (ironically, since that’s what his video promptly proceeded to do).
“I have that opinion that if you let your kid use a tablet or a screen while out to dinner, you’re not a bad parent, but it’s bad parenting,” he continued. He then panned the camera to Courtney, who was nursing August under a cover in the background, and asked her, “Thoughts?”
Before she could answer, he added, “Now, we’re only eight weeks into the parenting game, so we can be very cocky, but…”
As he trailed off, Courtney weighed in, “I think I want us to be a coloring book family.”
“We’re going to be a coloring book family,” Neal confirmed.
Courtney added, “I had to color on the table cloth when we went out.”
In the comments, though, other parents got a kick out of the naivete of these newbies thinking they have the whole thing figured out.
“Give it 10 years and you’ll be mourning the ideal parent you thought you’d be, too,” one wrote. Ain’t that the truth.
Another added, “If you have the mental toughness to exist in a restaurant with young ones squirming and crying then you should be fine. If you can’t handle the looks and pressure from other people, welcome to the bad parenting club!”
“Come back in 18 months and tell me how that’s working out for ya,” another commenter said.
“Lol. You’re a newbie. You got no clue what’s coming my guy,” yet another commenter wrote.
What do experts say about “iPad kids” in restaurants?
Screens during meals means kids aren’t as likely to develop patience and even imagination as they entertain themselves waiting for food to arrive.
“Childhood screen-time has increased over the years,” write the authors of a study published Wednesday, and it “has been associated with unhealthy dietary patterns, poor sleep quality, cardiovascular disease, and obesity in children.”
In the study that analyzed thousands of Canadian preschoolers, scientists found that when the kids spent more time in front of iPads, computers, TVs and mobile phones, they experienced increasing levels of “clinically significant inattention problems” as well as other ADHD-type behavior issues. When the amount of daily screen time increased from 30 minutes to more than two hours a day, the problems multiplied by at least five times.
A similar study found that spending a lot of time staring at screens is linked with poorer performance on developmental screening tests later in childhood.
The American Academy of Pediatrics also offers guidelines to help families manage children’s screen time. The academy recommends avoiding digital media for children under 2, except for video-chatting, and limiting screen time to just one hour a day of high-quality programming for children ages 2 to 5.
At least Neal and Courtney admitted they can be cocky. Maybe they will stick to coloring books — but years of experience and the desire for a quiet meal makes many parents give in to iPads, and that’s OK too.
