<p>Children’s independent use of media devices may have negative consequences. Our study focuses on Joint Media Engagement (JME) as it pertains to parent-child interaction, which has been shown to mitigate some of these risks. Social robots have recently been explored in triadic parent-child-robot interactions, showing promise due to their interactivity and physical presence, which enable multimodal natural communication. We explore how a social robot’s physical attributes influence the engagement of parents and toddlers with the robot and their interaction with each other. Our results indicate that the robot’s physicality promotes non-verbal parent-toddler communication and is overall more enjoyable compared to interacting with a tablet. These findings highlight the added value of social robots in the triadic context with toddlers, contributing to a better understanding of physical embodiment design, interaction design, triadic dynamics, and the role of the robot in these interactions.</p>