If you’ve read this blog before or follow us on instagram youll know that my parenting journey is a solo one. When Alden was smaller I used to feel extremely guilty if I ‘left’ him to watch Baby Tv whilst I zoomed around doing the housework. I used to think, I hadnt played with him enough, is it bad for him? I wish he had someone to play with whilst I done the housework.
Then there was an occasion when I was out with a friend and there was no settling an overtired Alden. Little did this ignorant person know I was in the midst of PTSD and an anxiety disorder so his actions were more detrimental than he intended although you’ll agree her probably didn’t care about anyone but himself at the time. I had given Alden my phone propped with a sensory video, the black, white and red ones – good for little ones and played classical music – which helped calm and help him drift into his overdue nap. Whilst I ate the last half of my meal, the guys child was watching – completely innocently – instead of asking his child to maybe not watch or communicate at all he awkwardly made a huff puff and tut whilst picking his chair up – still attached to his arse – you know like a huffy kid does – and plonked himself in front of his kid, in the middle of the wetherspoons aisle, nearly knocking a meal out of the oncoming waitress’ hands – this behaviour brought more attention to him than what I was doing, frustrated his child more than I was and I could see the rest of his table including his wife we’re bloody mortified! At the time, a pretty new first time single mam – with crap mental health I took it to heart big style…. the mum guilt x 3071% more than usual. It’s taken me a while to finally not care about what others think about me or my child because thats what he is, my child – so what I do and how I parent is no ones business but mine.
I’ve procrastinated and went off topic as usual, but I wanted to tell you all about a really cool little app that we were kindly gifted a months free trial for to use and review – Firstly can we all agree how absurd the prices of most baby apps are – or the amount of ads and pop ups its no wonder parents are hit with unexpected app store bills!! My attitude to screen time is a chilled out one, its 2019 after all, Im a self confessed nerd anyway and use my iPad lots of other tech in my job it would be unreasonable to expect Alden to not be interested or want to play. My only preference to him having screen time is I want it to always be educational. Even looking back at the times he watched Babytv he was learning – he could count really early and learnt shapes his first one being Triangle – genius or what lol!
The toddler fun learning app is filled with video content all of which is educational and made here in the UK by a team of parent and teachers, a bonus is it can be downloaded and viewed later so you’re not tied to a network – ideal if you need to pre plan a long journey or maybe a flight. There are NO ADS too!!
Alden really enjoyed the app, he took a great interest in the opposites songs and really enjoyed practicing his counting and alphabet. The graphics are all so good – the characters are great! Its easy to navigate for little ones and another great feature to mention is the parent timer, which ends with a goodbye song – it really helps to calmly say bye rather than have children be frustrated by being cut off by their parents. *Touching wood furiously* as ive not had to deal with a bad reaction … yet.
Every week there was new content and Alden really enjoyed seeing the new videos and also some he recognised from little baby bum too.
The subscription is only £2.99 a month or you can pay yearly if you prefer. If you’d like to try it or find our more about the team behind the app click this link > Toddler Fun Learning
Their website is also full of really informative posts for parents and some mini makes to inspire little artists everywhere.
What is your attitude to screen time? I’d love to hear other parents points of view?
Life with Alden Jax 