Parents let toddlers use noisy iPad during wedding speeches, get angry when fellow wedding guest tells them to turn it off: 'The mother thought I was questioning her parenting skills and screen-time choices'

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Senior Editor
Jun 12, 2024 8:00 PM EDT

There is a time and place for an iPad. I am not young enough to have grown up with this useful technology in elementary school, nor old enough to have to decide whether I'm going to buy one for my children. I know that having 'iPad kids' is a stigmatized thing, and I understand why. If your only exposure to a child in your family is watching them play games at the dinner table and refusing to engage with another person, it might seem like a recipe for more antisocial behavior. But iPads aren't a universally negative tool. Giving them to kids so they don't cry their eyes out on a road trip doesn't sound dystopian to me. But giving toddlers iPads to play with during weddings? Now, we've officially lost the plot. One mother got extremely defensive after a fellow wedding guest signaled that she should turn her kids' iPads off during the wedding speeches. Her excuse? Her kid didn't get their nap today. 

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    Cheezburger Image 10359794688
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    AITA for suggesting someone turn down their toddler's phone/tablet volume during a wedding reception speech?
    via u/Far_Switch4003
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    The table behind me at a reception dinner had a toddler watching a video at a high volume during the speeches. I looked over a handful of times, because it was distracting, hoping they would get the hint to turn the volume down. The mother eventually made a comment about it and said "my kid didn't get a nap today". I totally
    via u/Far_Switch4003
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    understand the importance of a kid's nap schedule and that they can become tiny beasts if they don't get enough sleep. After the speeches were done, the mother confronted me in a very aggressive manner and thought I was questioning her parenting skills and screen-time choices. I hadn't said boo to her and wasn't
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    questioning her abilities as a mother at all. In general, I thought it was common courtesy not to have the volume of electronics up high in a public place or at an event when someone is speaking? AITA?
    via u/Far_Switch4003
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    feminist1946 1 day ago edited 18 hr. ago NTA. This is why child free weddings are becoming more popular. Mothers think the world revolves around them. They are encouraged in this view by other mothers who think they get a pass for imposing their offspring on the rest of us.
    via u/feminist1946
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    Right now I am at a high end restaurant where children are screaming and running around and babies are crying. It so adds to my experience.
    via u/feminist1946
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    JakeDC 22 hr. ago I think it is more offensive that the comment suggests that ALL mothers are like this. Lots of mothers would have handled this appropriately.
    via u/JakeDC
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    youknowthatswhatsup · 20 hr. ago I don't understand why people don't just remove their child in situations like this. I have been to weddings with my son where either me or my husband will walk outside with him if he's fussy. If we do give him the iPad he is wearing kids headphones so that no one else around can hear it.
    via u/youknowthatswhatsup
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    mailslot 22 hr. ago I was mortified when my kid was younger and made a scene in public. My wife or I would immediately take them outside (or a distant empty spot) and calm them down, before the epic meltdown. It wasn't a problem for long. It irks me when I see parents that just let their kids cry, scream, yell, and run amok without a care in the world.
    via u/mailslot
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    Emotional-Ebb8321 23 hr. ago ΝΤΑ If the kid can't be quiet or be entertained quietly during a speech in the nearest thing to a formal event most people will ever be at, the correct thing to do is to take them out of the room.
    via u/Emotional-Ebb8321
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    Tamihera 22 hr. ago My husband and I had our babies at the point most of our friends got married (late twenties). We missed so many ceremonies and speeches because we always carried our babies out before they started making noise and distracting the guests.
    via u/Tamihera
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    (Don't ask why we didn't always get babysitters-when you've travelled to a foreign country for a wedding, your baby refuses to take a bottle, and the only people you know there are all attending the wedding, it's not that easy.)
    via u/Tamihera
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    SeagullSam . 21 hr. ago And that's because you guys have manners and consideration. It is terrifying how many people no longer do.
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    Scenarioing 1 day ago It was ridiculous to allow an audible device to be on at that time in the first place.
    via u/Scenarioing
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    Subjective_Box · 23 hr. ago It was ridiculous to allow a device. Like I want to be empathetic that some kids naturally have more difficulty than others (and I'm not a parent), but how is it not a walking catastrophe that a kid is unable to engage with reality for any amount of time.
    via u/Subjective_Box
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    Incensed_incense - 22 hr. ago To be fair, a long event like a wedding isn't engaging for a child, particularly one that is still napping age. Their minds aren't developed enough to sit through a long event like that; it's borderline boring for adults as is, and our brains have finished developing. We have the skills/brainpower to cope through that, kids are still building them.
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    That's why bringing colouring books, little puzzles, or an iPad with headphones is a good option.
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    ReviewOk929 23 hr. ago NTA - The lack of social awareness some people have is amazing. It's just not appropriate to let your kid have an iPad or equivalent on volume at a wedding let alone during speeches. Nothing says entitled more than this.
    via u/ReviewOk929

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ipads ipad kid kids bad parenting bad parents parenting Parenting Fail parents Parenting FAILS mother wedding little kids wedding speech mom children
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