Kirstie Allsop made the confession on Jeremy Vine's BBC programme.
Kirstie Allsop made the confession on Jeremy Vine's BBC programme.
UK TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp has revealed she smashed her children's iPads after they failed to stick to her rules on screen time.
The Location, Location, Location presenter, 47, made the confession on Channel 5's Jeremy Vine show on Monday, during a discussion over how much parents are responsible for their children's behaviour, the Daily Mail reported.
The Channel 4 presenter, who is mother to sons Oscar Hercules, 11, and Bay Atlas, 9, with husband Ben Andersen, admitted it was the first time she had discussed her drastic disciplining tactic.
Explaining that they hadn't followed her rules as to when and how they could use the tablets, she confessed to smashing them against a table leg as her children watched as punishment.
However not everyone agreed with her approach to discipline, with many branding the move a "waste" on Twitter, arguing that they could have been donated them to less well-off families, and that her sons would not learn to "value their things".
Speaking to Jeremy Vine on the panel, Kirstie said: "This is the first time I've said this publicly. In June I smashed my kids' iPads, not in a violent way. I actually banged them on the table leg."
She added: "There is a game called Fortnite and another called PUBG and I decided - we had made all sorts of rules and all sorts of times when we said you can't play them and all those rules got broken and in the end I said: 'Right that is it, I have to physically [break them].'
"It was remarkably easy. I didn't intend to speak about it but it's come up now."
Imitating how she would have broken them, Jeremy added: "I would have loved to do that - did you confess that you did it?," while Kirstie replied: "They saw me do it."
Questioning her on the UK show, Storm Huntley, who appears on the show alongside Vine, asked: "What about the computers and the smart phones - they have millions of gadgets?" with Kirstie replying: "They don't have smartphones."
But many Twitter users slammed her move, with one parent writing: "Nice to be so well off that you can do this. Why not confiscate them or donate them to a children's hospice?"
Others agreed, arguing that most parents wouldn't be able to relate to this technique due to their financial position.
Kirstie Allsop with her (much younger) boys in 2010. Photo / Getty Images
"Deliberately breaking something expensive out of spite is a luxury few of us would want to afford, however well off," another added.
Suggesting Kirstie should have donated the items, one woman wrote: "I agree with taking them away but donating them to people who can't afford to be so frivolous might have driven home a better message."
And others admitted Kirstie's confession had made them cross, with one woman writing: "Destruction tends to come from a place of privilege. This made me really cross," and another adding: "I agree.
"I wonder if it also sends out the wrong message re respect for others' property. Tbh tho, parenting is often a trial & error thing."
Branding it wasteful, one user tweeted: "I am glad she has enough money to not worry about smashing up expensive items."
Meanwhile others questioned whether she couldn't have found another solution.
"Shows the wasteful core attitude of Kirstie in a position to destroy something that someone else could have benefitted with a little more thought a better solution could have resulted," one user wrote.
Questioning whether it was a good example to set, one parent tweeted: "Good parenting would involve the children doing as they're told with out having an hissy fit and breaking things, hey kids, if you don't get want you want smash stuff up."
Arguing that simply removing the items would have been more effective, another wrote: "This has annoyed me, I couldn't afford to smash my kids tablets and just replace, what does that reach them about the value of things? Surely just removing them is the more sensible option?"
But others were more understanding, arguing that parents should be less judgmental.
"Being judgemental about another parent's attitude towards maintaining a healthy relationship with their own kids is what? think she must have been at the end of her tether & done something desperate to regain control The punishment must've fitted the crime," another argued.
Admitting they themselves had been pushed to the limit, one father wrote: "Who hasn't been close to this? Never mind, we're being pushed to the brink daily!"
And others even shared their own similar experiences. "My mum once through mine and my sister's comics on a coal fire for the same reason ...60's equivalent!" a woman wrote.
Replying to a man defending her move, Kirstie later tweeted: "Thank you very much, in life everyone needs to occasionally know there are limits. If you never learn that you are lost."
