what’s clear to me from reading this is there is no winning as a parent these days. None of the “older” generation have parented in a digital world. Screens are everywhere, the expectation that we are available to our jobs instantly is everywhere. Don’t like it? Good luck finding a job that pays enough where they don’t expect it. Own your own business? Even more demand to be constantly connected because if you’re not, your clients will go somewhere else. And then when you try to use something like an iPad to keep your kids quiet and not disturb other people, you get judged for being a lazy parent, or for not interacting with your kids. Yet if you don’t give them a tablet, heaven forbid they make a noise in the dining room! Then you’re judged because your kid is being loud.
you get judged if you’re too much of a helicopter parent. And you get judged if you’re too laid back. Heck, I got judged on our cruise the other day cause I sat my almost 4 and almost 5 yo down at a table with their food and went back to the buffet for a couple minutes to get something. They were always in my sight line and they were totally fine. And then I got told from another passenger that I shouldn’t have left them alone. I’m sorry I don’t have 30 hands, and I’m not going to trust my kids to carry a plate in a crowded buffet without spilling when they’re too short to even be in most people’s sight lines.