Tired Parent Who Let ChatGPT Babysit 4-Year-Old Concerned They’ll ‘Never Be Able To Compete’ With The App
While some people found this funny, it seems like a concerning new use for an app that's already questionable.
Iren_Geo | Shutterstock Taking care of children is no easy feat, and it’s only natural that parents would get tired easily. When kids are young, their role can feel even more difficult as they chase around toddlers all day. One parent felt they had hit their limit and turned to an unlikely source for help — ChatGPT.
ChatGPT has exploded in popularity since it first became available, and people realized it was essentially a more interactive form of Google. Not only can the app give you answers to any question, but it can also hold a conversation with users. While many people have taken advantage of this feature, using it as a babysitter is still a relatively new concept.
One struggling parent let ChatGPT babysit their toddler, and they were a bit startled by the results.
An anonymous Reddit user shared the mistake they felt they had made in using ChatGPT as a babysitter for their 4-year-old son. “I’ve had a rough week,” they admitted. “After listening to my 4-year-old son regale me with the adventures of Thomas the Tank Engine for 45 minutes, I tapped out.”
This parent was in desperate need of a break, so they did the only thing they could think of — they turned their son over to ChatGPT. “I needed to do other stuff so I opened ChatGPT, put it on chat, introduced it to my son and then gave the phone to my son and told him to tell the computer all about Thomas and Friends.”
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Interestingly, the parent let this go on for several hours. “After about two hours I went looking for my phone so I could text a friend and found my son STILL talking to ChatGPT about Thomas the Tank Engine,” they revealed. “The transcript is over 10,000 words long.”
This has them concerned, not that their son spent so much time with nothing but ChatGPT to keep him occupied, but that their son will prefer the app now. “My son thinks ChatGPT is the coolest train-loving person in the world,” they said. “The bar is set so high now I am never going to be able to compete with that.”
Commenters’ reactions ranged from concern about the use of ChatGPT as a babysitter to amusement that the child enjoyed talking to the app so much.
Some Reddit users made light of the fact that this parent let their son be occupied with ChatGPT for two whole hours. “New iPad kid just dropped,” one joked. “You just Her’ed him,” said another, referring to the movie in which a man falls in love with artificial intelligence. “Dude, just get your kid some Thomas the Tank engine toys,” another suggested in exasperation.
Other users were concerned by what they read. “Yeah, I don’t think it’s smart to introduce a 4-year-old to ChatGPT before he can even tell the difference between a bot and a screen with a person on the other end,” someone else said. “Even adults are becoming parasocial about AI and we’re talking about a 4-year-old.”
ChatGPT use isn’t recommended for children in the first place.
According to OpenAI, ChatGPT’s parent company, the app is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 13, and those between 13 and 18 should have their parents’ permission.
Common Sense Media recommended that if children do want to use ChatGPT, they do it with a parent. As the organization said, ChatGPT is still new, and not much is known about it. Because of this, it’s best for kids to have parental supervision when using it and not be left to their own devices.
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While all parents need a break from time to time, leaving your kid alone with nothing to occupy him other than ChatGPT for hours on end isn’t really the smartest choice. Surely, having your child watch a movie would be preferable to leaving him with an app that can talk back.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
