There are a lot of compelling studies and arguments against screen time for toddlers, but here’s one that hits you in a whole new way: your wallet. One mom says letting her two-year-old play with her phone resulted in a bill for a $430 couch.
It seems harmless to pass off your phone to your kids for few minutes while you wait in the grocery check out line or try to make dinner, but one mom got a hard lesson when those few minutes of play time resulted in a new couch being delivered to her door. Isabella McNeil explained to San Diego TV station NBC 7 that she had been browsing for couches on Amazon when her two-year-old asked to play with her phone. She handed the phone over and that’s apparently when her toddler decided to make her first big purchase.
photo: OfferUp
McNeil says that a few days later she received an alert saying “Your couch has shipped.” Of course she had no recollection of ordering a couch. “I thought, ‘Did I buy a couch in my sleep?'” That’s when she remembered the fateful moment she handed her phone over to her daughter.
Lesson learned the hard way, unfortunately. It was too late to cancel the order which was already shipped, so McNeil had no choice but to accept the couch. With a $100 return shipping fee and a restocking fee, she decided to put the couch up for sale on OfferUp rather than return it.
On July 3, McNeil reported that Amazon offered to fully refund her for the couch accidentally ordered by her toddler.
—Shahrzad Warkentin
Feature image: Amazon
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