passage5

Living in the city is hard enough for a single person, but if you have kids life can get more complex. Finding ways to keep the little ones occupied can be a full-time job. So it should be no surprise that parents will go to great lengths to get a little peace and quiet.

However, when I first got to know that some parents bought their young children – not teenagers – iPads, I was shocked. Who spends $500 on an iPad for a young child when so many adults in the United States go without or have limited access to computers and the Internet? Whatever happened to Lego, building blocks and colored pencils? And for those slightly older kids how about a good, old-fashioned book instead of an iPad for the car journey to the beach?

Recently, I was at dinner with a couple and I brought up the subject of parents buying iPads for their young children. I was curious to see how they responded since I knew they had three young kids. It turned out they are a part of this growing trend. The iPad can download or stream cartoons, so it makes for excellent entertainment when they’re trying to get to the grocery store or head out of the city for the annual family vacation. But the best thing about iPads is that there are games and educational applications for nearly every age level.

It got me thinking that maybe my first reaction was a little too “reactionary”. Now I can understand the parents a little better. If I had three kids and was living in the city they would probably have an iPad, too.