Last month, fellow GeekDad Don Martelli explained why Apple's iPad was made to keep parents sane. The list of potential uses ranged from entertaining kids during long car rides to keeping your child glued to the seat for potty training, but all of these benefits applied specifically to children of toddler age or older.
What Don didn't tell you is that if you hold off on this purchase until your children are walking and talking, you may be waiting too long. Here are several reasons why a tablet is a worthy investment from the moment you bring your newborn home:
It's All About the Data: Caring for a newborn is akin to taking a lab science in college: There's no shortage of data to collect. Whether you are tracking sleep, feedings or diaper changes, your tablet is the perfect input device. For the quick and easy route, search your app store and select one of the many baby data tracking apps available (I recommend Baby Geek in the iOS shop). If you prefer a more flexible format, get yourself an office app that can access files stored on a Dropbox account. With this method, you can add new data to an Excel spreadsheet whether you are on your PC, smartphone, or tablet.
The Modern TV Dinner: Say hello to a life of bottles. In the early weeks of childhood, your baby will be asking for nourishment every few hours, day or night, and you'll be the one holding the bottle. Prop up the tablet for some entertainment while you feed, and you can take advantage of services such as Netflix's streaming which automatically remembers your location whenever you stop watching. Pick a sitcom and watch a whole episode, or start a movie and complete it across four or five feedings.
Stream Your Lullabies: A mobile that plays music can be an invaluable tool for coaxing your newborn baby to sleep, but after a while even the strongest-willed parents will want to rip the batteries out after having heard the same songs on loop for days. Since you'll frequently be using your tablet in the nursery, let it reside there in a charger or dock. Preferably, you can get a dock that includes some speakers, which will allow your tablet to add some much-needed musical variety to the bedtime routine. An easy option is to install a music streaming app such as Pandora, and set up a children's station. Now if only the tablet could respond to the babies cries by giving songs a thumbs up or down...
Get Your Game On: Family comes first, and that puts time for personal enjoyment at a premium. For a board gamer, that makes get-togethers with the local gaming group a luxury. In order to scratch your gaming itch, seek out some of the amazing board games turned into tablet apps. The iPad is leading the charge in this area, sporting top-notch versions of Ticket to Ride, Carcassone, Puerto Rico, Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer and more, all of which support online play. Even if you are more of a video game player to begin with, it's probably a good idea to take your gaming onto a personal screen such as your tablets. Your choice is either that or having little Sally asking questions about what's happening in *Grand Theft Auto *when you play on the living room TV.
You Can Pass It On: Don's advice for tablets and toddlers sparked plenty of controversy in the comment threads, some of which centered around the risks inherent in handing off a shiny new $600+ device. Many parents had images of dented cases and shattered screens, and it's hard not to blame them. However, If you take my advice by purchasing a tablet now and using it to help get yourself through the newborn phase, your tablet will have aged a bit by the time your little one starts wanting to use it. There will be less anxiety all around once the device is of an older generation and has lost its shine.
