All iPads: My daughter is my star! Help me decide how best to reward her.

[nfl46]

Wow. A 5-year old getting an iPad Mini.

If anything get a Nexus 7 since its only $199. If so, check eBay and Craigslist, you may find one even cheaper than that.

Not sure if its worth it spending $329 on a Mini.

[iEvolution]

I think its one thing to allow her to use one but its quite another to buy her her own iPad. Why not just allow her to use yours when she is good instead of buying her own? She can get into trouble by having her own iPad (the internet isn't exactly a safe place for children, nor is your iTunes Account)

I know many of these posts here are jealousy driven but I can't think of a good reason why a 5 year-old needs a $350+ iPad, I mean what are you supposed to get her when she is 12? A car?

Don't spoil her. She'll get this idea that the world will hand her things for nothing and she doesn't have to work hard to earn things. Its one thing to reward her for good efforts its different to spoil them.

[fenjen]

Originally Posted by kolakube

Brradley.

Families are different man. Dunno what to say to you.

I switch on TV and watch spoilts 16 year olds getting given Ferrari's because there spoilt rotten. How could they be anything other?

I dont run things liken that. If my daughter had got 15% for effort (the only column of the report im interested in) then she'd have got a doll and nothing more. I would deliberately be harsh so she can see she has to stick in at school. Luckily Ive avoided this.

But 98%??? Im amazed and very proud and this HAS to be rewarded on the scale it deserves.

Im not very wealthy at all. Infact thanks to the recession and loosing my job ive never been more skint. But it is my duty to reward this.

If I have to pull out like this every year and then one day when shes 21 she gets a first on her honors degree then I honestly don't care.

Still, she is 5. This isn't at all any indication of how she will act when she gets older. I don't think it's a good idea to give a 5 year old an iPad in any case whatsoever. Let her learn appreciate the little things before she gets used to technology and all that.
I would never even consider giving my child anything in that prace range before he or she gets to high school. I would give them allowance so they could learn how to handle with money.

I just don't think it would be a good idea, but that's just my opinion.

[adildacoolset]

Originally Posted by nehope

You realize we are talking about a 5 year-old, right?

I was being sarcastic

----------

Originally Posted by SeanR1

She doesn't HAVE TO customize it. She could have an easier to hold device for her smaller hands at a reasonable price.

As I said, the ipad mini has a wider selection if apps which can prove a benefit

[urkel]

Originally Posted by adildacoolset

You're right, she really needs to customise her device more than she needs a simple device with a wide array of apps

Its not about customizing, its also about price. And Doesn't Android offer better parental features?

Personally, I'm using an iPad as a supplemental tool for teaching my daughter and its absolutely amazing, but the biggest issue I have with iOS is how terrible it is with parental controls. Since we're sharing the device then restricting access is impractical and quite annoying.

At this point the Kindle Fire HD seems to be at the forefront of "kid-friendly tablets". (if you're a Prime user)
- $199 ($160@toys r us this weeks ad)
- Multiple user support
- Freetime controls which allows granular limitations to all functions
- Freetime Unlimited $2.99/mo and offers a kid-only video selection/apps/books
- Passable app library

Yes, I'm sure people will try to find ways to slam anyone not Apple but Let's be honest, Considering the target audience, Apple simply should be better at the whole "family" thing. Ive been tempted several times to buy one but in the end I personally feel that $329 is worth it just because of my personal preferences.

[urkel]

Originally Posted by iEvolution

I think its one thing to allow her to use one but its quite another to buy her her own iPad. Why not just allow her to use yours when she is good instead of buying her own? She can get into trouble by having her own iPad (the internet isn't exactly a safe place for children, nor is your iTunes Account)

I know many of these posts here are jealousy driven but I can't think of a good reason why a 5 year-old needs a $350+ iPad, I mean what are you supposed to get her when she is 12? A car?

Don't spoil her. She'll get this idea that the world will hand her things for nothing and she doesn't have to work hard to earn things. Its one thing to reward her for good efforts its different to spoil them.

I understand your point, but what i find weird is this: Whenever a person buys a new iPad and goes to the boards then a common response is either to sell it or "Give it to your kid" and nobody judges them as parents. But for some reason then if a person decides to buy a new product for their kid then their parenting choices are now being scrutinized.

BTW. With the money we made from selling our 2 iPads we were able to buy 3 iPad Mini's. I dont think I'm keeping the one that the kids are using, but it definitely does make things easier to have their own. They have their own big protective case, customized folders, all the allowed restrictions and our ipads are grease free. So it may be less about spoiling them and more about spoiling us

[Eddie Bombay]

Buy her one of those little Mercedes cars with the built in kindle fire hd.

----------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWpy...e_gdata_player

If you go to your local stereo shop the can add a kids kindle fire hd in the dash for under a hundred bucks.

This is your baby! Your star! Go big or go home.

[gmanist1000]

Originally Posted by kolakube

Hi,

My 5 year old daughter has done superb at school. I do things a little different in my house. I dont just dish out presents for nothing. I illustrate 3 options. One small present for poor effort, then one for medium effort and a top prize for best effort. With the glowing 98% mark she got in the effort coloum of here teachers report im blow away and so proud of her. I simply must reward this as promised and then some!

(Note effort not grades. Not everyone can be a straight A's student. My only concern is she has an incentive to try her hardest and realizes early on that things don't grow on trees for many of us.)

So, time for skint daddy to stump up for an iPad Im not wealthy by any stretch of the mile. But will gladly sell the shirt of my back to reward her.

So, im not that good at this technology stuff but know enough to get by.

Options seem to be iPad 2 vs iPad mini as they cost a similar amount. My daughter is 5, shes gonna be watching stuff like Kung fu panda and other DVDs she already has and playing app store games mostly. She wont have Email but facetime is essential. The iPad will never leave our house.
Can anyone advise me between the two?

I have a load of xvid backups of my DVD collection and my daughters children DVDs too on my PC. Will I be able to stream them across to here iPad? I understand the iPads dont use Xvid and you have to do a conversion. But then with that comes the space to house all of this and the price between a 16 gig and a 64 gig is double. Id much rather get the 16 gig and stream over from my PCs hard drive.

Any help greatly appreciated.

I think I did superb at school when I was 5 too.

[Chundles]

I'd be questioning the 2%, not rewarding the 98%.

[token787]

Originally Posted by AlphaDogg

I think this is a horrible idea.

I'm 16, and I'll admit I'm spoiled. It all started out with things like this. It started out with small rewards for doing well in school. Then that turned into a gameboy color, into a gameboy advance, into a gameboy advance SP, into a nintendo DS, then into an iPod nano, into an iPod video, into an iPod touch, into a MacBook, into a MacBook Pro, into an iPhone, into an iPhone 3GS, into an iPhone 5. You're just digging yourself into a hole and you'll end up with a daughter that will want every goddamn thing in the world.

My parents were against me getting an iPhone, saying that "if I got one now, there's nothing left to want in the future." I think they were right.

And for god's sake, she's 5. What does she need an iPad for? Get her a doll as the high tier reward and a sticker as the low tier reward. You've screwed up the scale. Especially since you lost your job, you need to get a hold on your financial situation for now and the future.

I know a bunch of girls my age who started out like your daughter with parents like you. Nobody likes them, because if they don't get their way, they WILL do everything they can to get it. This translates to objects, friends, and even sex.

I am smart, I have a 3.8 GPA and excel in the sciences. If you're willing to sacrifice her attitude for success, then so be it. I can't make you do anything, but just understand that when you start threads like these online, you are attracting criticism. If you didn't want criticism, then you should not have started this thread.


Just my 2 cents.

^^THIS is well said. I spoiled my daughter and I'm living to regret it now. This here is so true!!!!

[Xanderstone12]

Originally Posted by token787

^^THIS is well said. I spoiled my daughter and I'm living to regret it now. This here is so true!!!!

I absolutely can't stand seeing people spoil their kids with stuff. Reward her good behavior with memories. Take her somewhere awesome for good behavior. The memories will last longer than a iPad.

[raggdoll]

Originally Posted by kolakube

Hi,

My 5 year old daughter has done superb at school. I do things a little different in my house. I dont just dish out presents for nothing. I illustrate 3 options. One small present for poor effort, then one for medium effort and a top prize for best effort. With the glowing 98% mark she got in the effort coloum of here teachers report im blow away and so proud of her. I simply must reward this as promised and then some!

(Note effort not grades. Not everyone can be a straight A's student. My only concern is she has an incentive to try her hardest and realizes early on that things don't grow on trees for many of us.)

So, time for skint daddy to stump up for an iPad Im not wealthy by any stretch of the mile. But will gladly sell the shirt of my back to reward her.

So, im not that good at this technology stuff but know enough to get by.

Options seem to be iPad 2 vs iPad mini as they cost a similar amount. My daughter is 5, shes gonna be watching stuff like Kung fu panda and other DVDs she already has and playing app store games mostly. She wont have Email but facetime is essential. The iPad will never leave our house.
Can anyone advise me between the two?

I have a load of xvid backups of my DVD collection and my daughters children DVDs too on my PC. Will I be able to stream them across to here iPad? I understand the iPads dont use Xvid and you have to do a conversion. But then with that comes the space to house all of this and the price between a 16 gig and a 64 gig is double. Id much rather get the 16 gig and stream over from my PCs hard drive.

Any help greatly appreciated.

What? You reward your kids for poor effort????????????

[RyanMonkey7]

Ok firstly well done to your daughter obviously for trying hard and getting 98% thats really great.

Here's my story, I turned 18 3 months ago and I live in a small village in North Wales. My dad was a chef for 25 years until about 7 years ago so i was 11 when he finished. He had 1 day off Mondays and he usually spent it Fishing with friends.

I was taken to my grandma's most days from ages 1-3 then 3-5 in Nursery and 5-16 School Throughout school I was a typical child in the UK had pokemon cards and pokemon on the nintendo gameboy. I'd come home from school to just see my mum there and id have maybe 2 hours on the gameboy and then i'd be put to bed and sleeping by 7 after tea. At the age of 11 after spending time on games and the home computer i was fascinated by apple products and wanted a mac and 5 years went by i finished my GCSE's with good grades and got a MacBook for my good efforts! I finished A-Levels and I didn't expect anything as I felt a macbook cost to my family was enough to cover Highschool and University and said i didn't want anything.

Basically I'm rambling now and one piece of advice I can offer you is, I'd trade every single one of my rewards to spend more time with my mum and dad when i was younger they didn't have the time and to be honest I wanted to play pokemon all the time.

So my one piece of advice to you OP is sure reward her for doing good but perhaps something that will motivate her and keep her at that high level. Take her to a film or something to eat just please spend as many moments with your children as you can thats my message to all parents. Age 18 now I'm a typical teenager they get on my nerves now and I'm usually in my room playing video games when I'm not studying and sometimes i think wow I wish I could turn back time and try to spend more time with them and try to get them to spend more time with me.

[cardinalryan]

Originally Posted by ob81

Don't get her an iPad, get her an art table and some paint. Teach your children to produce, not to consume.

Exactly this.

To each his own in parenting, but, in my opinion, a five year old doesn't need an iPad. Wow, I can't even believe this dude is considering this...the kid won't even appreciate the gift.

I don't mean "appreciate" in the sense of being thankful (I'm sure she'd be thankful)...I mean "appreciate" in the sense of understanding the level of gift, price wise, she has been given.

Bottom line...I wouldn't do it.

----------

Originally Posted by raggdoll

What? You reward your kids for poor effort????????????

I was curious about that as well.

----------

The more I think about this, the more I believe that this is one of the most stunning threads ever posted on these forums.

I really don't mean disrespect to the OP, but in my opinion, this is an example of how not to parent. This is just wrong.

[WhiteIphone5]

I doubt he's even going to reply, probably did end up buying the iPad.....

[EMAN19]

Yeah, I think most of the people in this thread said it best. I hope the OP doesn't take my comments personally either, but this thread is a bit ridiculous.

I hope the OP can somehow redeem himself. There's still time..

[ercsliberty]

im sure she would love the mini

[cardfan]

Many of you are looking at this the wrong way. It shouldn't be a reward. It's a tool. There's studies all over the place that ipads help kids learn and perform better. But only if you stick educational apps on it and use some common sense and limits. If it's all games and videos, that's what they'll do though PBS has great shows.

My kid got top honors in her K5 class at end of year last year. She'd already been using (the family's) ipad and has had her own ipod touch since it came out (2 or 3 yrs old? i forget). She currently reads at a 6th grade level in the first grade.

There's a few others with a great recommendation which I'll be doing as well. Kindle Fire HD. Unlimited free time. Can use parental controls and she'll have access to a library of books. You want the kid reading, drawing or doing other things like math. Not playing angry birds.

My kid's list of what she wants? Your basic toys (barbies, a bigger whiteboard to draw on, bicycle) and anything to do with animals. The small things are the rewards. She doesn't even mention ipads.

[sladester]

This is ridiculous. You said she is 5. It is not difficult to achieve a grade of 98% when you are in grade school, especially not while you are in kindergarten. Seems more like you daughter performed more as expected than exceptional as you seem to think. I'm not sure that it is possible for a 5 year old child to receive any mark that deviates from that by a couple of points as long as they show up to school..

[roxxette]

Yeah i dont think these guy is going to bother with a reply anyway if you are having financial problems the last think you should think is buying a ipad.

[12dylan34]

Get her nothing. I graduated high school with a 4.5 GPA and got a 34 on the ACT, but was never given a reward for getting good marks.

Teach self-motivation.

Small bribes are probably necessary at such a young age, but buy an iPad for yourself and let her use it if you're going to do something like this.

[adildacoolset]

Originally Posted by urkel

Its not about customizing, its also about price. And Doesn't Android offer better parental features?

Personally, I'm using an iPad as a supplemental tool for teaching my daughter and its absolutely amazing, but the biggest issue I have with iOS is how terrible it is with parental controls. Since we're sharing the device then restricting access is impractical and quite annoying.

At this point the Kindle Fire HD seems to be at the forefront of "kid-friendly tablets". (if you're a Prime user)
- $199 ($160@toys r us this weeks ad)
- Multiple user support
- Freetime controls which allows granular limitations to all functions
- Freetime Unlimited $2.99/mo and offers a kid-only video selection/apps/books
- Passable app library

Yes, I'm sure people will try to find ways to slam anyone not Apple but Let's be honest, Considering the target audience, Apple simply should be better at the whole "family" thing. Ive been tempted several times to buy one but in the end I personally feel that $329 is worth it just because of my personal preferences.

I actually think that the kindle fire HD would be a compelling tablet. I didn't think of that

[puma1552]

Want to reward her? Take her to DQ and get her a small sundae, then get her a rubber ball and go outside and play with her.

How do you even assess effort for a five year old? This really doesn't sound like an "achievement" on any scale to me.

$500 toy for "effort?" Dear lord, everyone is a winner these days.

She won't appreciate an iPad whatsoever, she won't even know what it is. Parents need to stop putting their kids in front of screens and using them as babysitters.

[Luckybobby]

I love these parenting articles. Each one totally different, from not caring to what kid does on his/her device. To putting every single restriction on, so that the calendar is the only app left. Even though the OP just did this for a laugh you guys still comment, yell at him and tell him how to raise his kid (if he has one)
:/

[ZZ Bottom]

Originally Posted by Xanderstone12

I absolutely can't stand seeing people spoil their kids with stuff. Reward her good behavior with memories. Take her somewhere awesome for good behavior. The memories will last longer than a iPad.

This is good advice.