If your five-year-old has a goddamned iPad, you deserve whatever happens to either of them.

The extremity of these measures depends entirely what's being interrupted. If he's playing outside with his sister, the steps I take are fairly mundane. I give him a few, gentle time checks ("five minutes until dinner" ... "3 minutes until dinner" ...), and then offer something enticing enough to make putting down the ball seem like less of an intrusion ("Tonight's chicken has both teri and yaki on it!").

Isn't that precious. My mom's idea of transitioning was "Get in here right now or I'm giving your dinner to the dog!"

Turn it off, and come to the table/take a bath/do your homework/clean your room/get your PJs on/read a book/brush your teeth/play a board game with me/go outside/pick up your toys/play with the cat/play with the dog/feed the cat/feed the dog/clear the table/get your shoes on/get in the car.

I've got six and eight year old kids. It works fine at my house, because unlike the farking author, I know how to put my electronics down and can set an example, even though it's my job to work with them.

MadAzza: "If I need to transition my son from" activity A to activity B, blah blah blah.

HATE.

this this and MORE THIS

the answer to "dont spank your children" was not "let your kids be spoiled brats"

RancidSorbet: What the hell ever happened to Legos and Tinkertoys? Or actual parenting, for that matter?

but that would require actual parenting!!

Go outside

Yep. My best friend's daughter (4) is a hard-core iPad addict. She told me that she was worried about the kid spending too much time with the iPad. "Why don't you take it away from her?" I asked.

Her response: "I tried."

You're her mom, honey - you don't "try." But if you don't have kids you can't tell parents anything.

have a 19 month old that loves to watch videos of himself, his mom and me on it.

as well as a few apps.

he plays with it some days -- we hide it other days.

he definitely would over-use it if it was always available -- but hell, i'm one to talk.

it's called parenting for a reason -- because you PARENT and, no, it isn't always easy.

but this one seems simple.

OOOOOOKKKKKKK. This is a whole new aspect to human stupidity that I never even slightly considered before.

And I'm pretty much of an expert in human stupidity from the various careers I've had.

My Mom and Dad would have a solution to kids and iPads: throw a tantrum and get the pad taken away for a day or two. Display the classic tantrum of screaming, rolling on the floor, throwing things, smacking Mom or Dad and you get swatted on the ass and confined to your room. Then the iPad would vanish for even longer.

I don't have kids. I recognized early on in life that raising them is a pain in the arse and I'm not that patient. However, I love kids -- so long as they belong to someone else. That's why, for some years, I was very active in working with kids.

For the first part, I'd not buy a rather expensive iPad and load it with somewhat costly software for a 5 year old to use. They're far to easy to throw during a spat of temper and break.

That's kind of like giving a 16 year old a high end corvette for his first car. You KNOW it's going to get some serious dents along with your kid.

I've a desktop and laptop. I don't carry either one with me when I have to go out. My cell does nothing much but do calls and text. No internet connection, no video, just the type that would send a typical teen these days screaming in rage if they got one.

I used to let my niece play with my PC -- disconnected from the internet, using a series of graphic programs and games. The only thing she could have hurt if she threw a tantrum back then would have been the keyboard.

I'd probably get real upset by whatever electronic gizmo parents will give to their kids in about 100 years. Probably laser pointers that can actually burn holes in things.

Nogale: Yep. My best friend's daughter (4) is a hard-core iPad addict. She told me that she was worried about the kid spending too much time with the iPad. "Why don't you take it away from her?" I asked.

Her response: "I tried."

You're her mom, honey - you don't "try." But if you don't have kids you can't tell parents anything.

This part right here. God forbid, you, as someone without children try to tell one of The Exalted anything about how to deal with their little brats. You clearly know nothing, and couldn't possibly offer any sort of advice.

If Obama's mom hadn't had a thing for that guy from Africa, The Prez could have had a child who looked like this kid.

buckler: ElwoodCuse: HBK: Do they still sell regular legos anymore?

Yeah, there are buckets of pieces and Creator sets which come with instructions to make 3 different models.

You can still get like, three-gallon buckets of all the standard bricks, and some of them have a bunch of the semi-neat stuff, like wheels and hinges and rotor mountings and stuff. Still expensive, but completely worth it. They also hone your Ninja walking skills across the carpet during the night.

With my son Legos weren't so much of a problem as the Matchbox cars. They're as bad as, if not worse than stepping onto barefooted. Plus there's the additional hazard of them having wheels, which throw you off balance. I ended up having to take my son's Matchbox collection away for awhile when he didn't pick them up as told.