Tablet for long trip toddler

[nerp]

Travel with kids, your kids. No matter how amazing of a parent you are, no matter how amazing your child psychologist sister is, if you're in a car for 12 hours or a plane, you are contemplating a tablet if you haven't already.

 

[pauldun170]

Yeah, I don't get it. Kids these days don't seem to get much human interaction. Just shove a phone a tablet in front of their face so they shut up and stop bothering the parents.

Then again, many so-called adults do the same thing. Saw a whole party, about 7 people at breakfast yesterday morning - every last one had their face glued to a screen from the time they walked in to them leaving. Didn't say more than a couple words to each other.

I'm behind the times and stubborn.

OP is just looking for a little buying advice and I'm here shaking a stick at him because I have zero respect for the type of parents that resort to electronic pacifiers. Parents who are usually glued to their own damn phone because children are just so fucking distracting when you are scrolling through pictures to like on facebook.

 

[poofyhairguy]

To me the issue isn't giving the kid a tablet, it's the kind of content allowed on the tablet.

Back in the early 90s my family had a van with a CRT and VHS in it. I don't see how a tablet is different.

My issue is that a lot of modern content is inappropriate.

 

[pauldun170]

To me the issue isn't giving the kid a tablet, it's the kind of content allowed on the tablet.

Back in the early 90s my family had a van with a CRT and VHS in it. I don't see how a tablet is different.

My issue is that a lot of modern content is inappropriate.

TV as babysitter. I was a prick about those parents too.
Not to far off.
Now, instead of Barney or teletubbies as a baby sitter, its angry birds or some other "keep your kid quiet and out of your hair" app.

 

[poofyhairguy]

TV as babysitter. I was a prick about those parents too.
Not to far off.
Now, instead of Barney or teletubbies as a baby sitter, its angry birds or some other "keep your kid quiet and out of your hair" app.

I mean, kids being placated by TV is a tradition that spans back decades. "Saturday Morning Cartoons" became a thing so that parents could sleep in on the day their kids weren't in school.

The only difference here is we are talking about placation in the car, which honestly makes even more sense than Saturday mornings when you consider how boring a car ride is to children. I have to figure if we could have put TVs in cars way back in the 1950s it would be just as popular, riding in the backseat has never really been "interesting."

I don't have any kids yet but a lot of my friends do and I have sympathy for them after seeing how difficult it is to deal with a child that wants to be difficult. Especially now that modern parenting teaches that it's bad to escalate situations (aka scream back when they scream) or spank I just don't see how without tablet pacifiers any parent can have a moment of sanity.

 

[lakedude]

Maybe one of you experienced Fire users can tell me how to get local videos from an SD card to play on the kid's account? Not impressed so far for my purposes. This thing is all about content from Amazon. We are going to be in a car with no 3G or WiFi so we need local content to play. Heck now that I think of it I can just let him have an old Moto G...

 

[lakedude]

"Store Photos and Personal Videos on Your SD Card - Pictures and videos recorded with the Amazon camera app on your Fire tablet will be stored directly to MicroSD Card. Pictures and personal videos stored on the MicroSD card will be restricted to the profile that took them. Photos and personal videos that are transferred to your Fire tablet via USB or that were previously downloaded to a MicroSD card will be available to all adult profiles."

I'm not happy about this at all. I want to give the kid access to videos but evidently only adults can view non Amazon videos.

 

[lakedude]

Did it!

Downloaded ES File Explorer which would have worked except the program did not have "root" access so it could not copy the files into the proper folder. Very annoying!

Finally I got smart and recorded a video using the kid's account. I then took the SD card out of the Fire and copied the videos I wanted into the same directory as the on board video file.

 

[Raduque]

ES File explorer is bloated and full of junk. Possibly still bundling adware. I'd recommend Asus' File Manager app instead.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asus.filemanager

 

[Kaido]

To me the issue isn't giving the kid a tablet, it's the kind of content allowed on the tablet.

Back in the early 90s my family had a van with a CRT and VHS in it. I don't see how a tablet is different.

My issue is that a lot of modern content is inappropriate.

Seriously - even the Youtube Kids app has questionable content. I've had to turn off some auto-play stuff that pops up because it's not really kid-appropriate.

OTOH, I heard a rumor that Netflix is going to allow offline viewing, which would be awesome for roadtrips & flights!

 

[lxskllr]

ES File explorer is bloated and full of junk. Possibly still bundling adware. I'd recommend Asus' File Manager app instead.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asus.filemanager

https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=ghost+commander&fdid=com.ghostsq.commander

 

[lakedude]

So we are back from the trip and the tablet proved to be nearly worthless. We used it as an area light because the kid is afraid of the dark.

I know y'all had good intentions but for use in a car out of wifi range the kid's fire was not a good choice at all.

Also I'm not about to let the kid get hooked on all that free for a year stuff so it is getting turned off ASAP.

 

[shortylickens]

Are you sure you were 2 to 3 at that time? Or where you more likely an older age such as kindergarten (5 or 6) or older. Most people can't remember memories from 2 to 3.

You'd be amazed what some parents did in the 80's.

 

[lxskllr]

So we are back from the trip and the tablet proved to be nearly worthless. We used it as an area light because the kid is afraid of the dark.

I know y'all had good intentions but for use in a car out of wifi range the kid's fire was not a good choice at all.

Also I'm not about to let the kid get hooked on all that free for a year stuff so it is getting turned off ASAP.

Bet the window still worked :^P