Do your kids have a tv in their room?

[Jaimee]

I recently took the TV out of DS's room...I also grew up watching TV from the moment I got home until I went to sleep and I'm ok BUT...I started to notice that not only was he watching too much TV, I was letting him eat in his room on occasion (like if we had pizza or something) and I thought that was getting out of control. I only see DS for a few hours during the week the way it is (after work) So we took the TV out and now we eat together at the table and we'll watch TV together in the LR if we decide to. Actually I found that he's asking to play a board game or cards more often that watching TV now anyhow which is good

 

[clutter]

Yep. My 6yo dd has a 9" tv/vcr in her room. No cable. It's got an automatic wake-up function, so I set it as her alarm. She watches one PBS show (reception's so bad, I've taken to taping Clifford and using the tape, lol.), then knows it's time to get up. On a rare occasion, she'll watch a movie in her room. But she's never in her room except to sleep, usually.

Of course, we 'd probably watch more tv if we had the time, but I'm about to cut the cable... I can't stand paying an extra $30/month for maybe the two or three times a month we watch something on cable channels.

 

[clh2]

Originally posted by cruisnfamily
NO! Our kids DS8 & DD11 do NOT have TVs in their rooms and nor will they ever! I think they are the only children on the planet that do not have TVs in their rooms but that's our rule.

My DD, 10 doesn't have a TV either. Nor will she ever. We are a family of 3. We have 2 TV's, so it's not like she doesn't have a reasonable chance to watch what she wants to watch anyway. I like to keep am eye out for what she is watching. PERIOD. And, every once in a while, I will turn off the TV with no warning, due to the content of a commercial or a song video. She gets a little PO'd at me, but being a mom isn't about a popularity contest.

 

[mom2boys]

NO! Our kids DS8 & DD11 do NOT have TVs in their rooms and nor will they ever! I think they are the only children on the planet that do not have TVs in their rooms but that's our rule.

Your's aren't the only ones. My poor deprived children don't have tvs in their rooms either. They won't be getting them either. In fact we don't allow them to watch tv or play video games on school nights either. It got to be too much of a chore to get them to do their homework. And they didn't want to leave the house to go to THEIR activities.

 

[6_Time_Momma]

All the bedrooms in our house have TVs with cable access.

 

[crazelion]

I had TV and VCR in bedroom growing up. I was the kid going around taking everything part and putting back to together again. My mom got tv and vcr to keep me from getting shock all the time from electronic stuff.

So sometimes a TV and VCR is a good thing to have.

 

[Dizzy-Disney4]

My Sammi has a tv and a vcr, she is five...Patrick 10 has a tv and DVD player. Funny thing is...they still fight over the tv in the family room . Patrick would rather read though so thats good. They think its absolutely amazing that I grew up with one tv in the house with...gasp NO CABLE!

 

[CourtasanSatine]

I have a tv in my roon that was a Christmas present(along with DVD player).I mostly watch things on normal tv that would normally have to be fought for(Alias,CSI,CSI:Miami and a few other shows).Mostly I watch DVD's

 

[CEDmom]

We are definitely in the minority here. We have 1 tv in our house and it's in the family room. I wouldn't mind having 1 in our room since I like falling asleep with it on but DH doesn't want one. It's not enough of an issue at the moment to push it (many more important things on my want to have list )

I think the fact that we have only 1 child who goes to bed by 8pm each night helps with not needing more TVs. DD also doesn't really enjoy most kids shows outside of Playhouse Disney. She'd much rather watch Emmeril, 30 minute meals, Trading Spaces etc. Finally, DH and I seem to enjoy or at least tolerate the same shows when we have it on at night.

 

[pirateofthecarolinas]

We have 3 TVs but none of them are in our children's rooms. They have asked but we say no.

Lori

 

[wdwnutze]

I grew up without a tv in my room(we had 1 tv in the living room). My DS has had a tv in his room since he was about 5. At that time he only used it for video games which wasn't very often. (He is now almost 20 and not living at home). My DD's share a room and they got a tv with a built in DVD and a vcr for Christmas. They do not have Satellite hookup so they use their tv for movies only. They don't use it as often as I thought they would.

 

[mommytotwo]

We were planning on getting one for my daughter's room-she is now 17 months old, but my husband said to hold off. She still sleeps in our room, and we just use that room more or less just to put her things in-so in the future. In our house though, we have four televisions.

 

[Kermit]

We won't have TVs in our kids' rooms. I grew up with fairly strict TV-watching rules. We weren't allowed to watch much of it, and what we watched was very limited. DH, on the other hand, was raised by the TV. His parents were divorced, and he came home by himself and watched TV. He had a TV in his room, so he watched whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.

We've both decided together that we don't want our kids to watch much TV. So we'll only have TV in common rooms, and what they watch and how much will be limited. Right now, I'm thinking about 3 hours/week, with only half of that allowed during the week. Of course, that could change. I'd like to eventually not have a TV at all, but I just don't see that happening.

 

[jsmith]

Nope-we have two tv's in our house-family room and mom and dads room-and the one in our room is because DH wants it there. I wanted them to read at night not look at TV when they were small and now it is habit for them not to have it-we do have six computers and since some of those are laptops with wireless cards and we have a router with wireless they can pretty much take the internet to the bathroom with them if they want to. They are old enough( 15 and 18) that I don't monitor them too closely.

 

[luvmy2sams]

DD-5 has had a TV/DVD/VCR in her bedroom for as long as I can remember. In fact, Santa upgraded her from a hand-me-down set to the Disney Princess combo last Christmas. She's also got a video game system in there that the grandparents bought her. Our living room houses the TV/VCR/DVD along with an XBox, PS2 and GameCube (DH is a video game nut, and DD isn't too far behind.) DH and I have a TV/DVD player (not even hooked up) in our bedroom. We'll put a TV/DVD/VCR in DS's bedroom when he's older. Neither of the kids have cable connections in their rooms, and the TV in DD's room is usually on for no more than 30-40 minutes a day.

Growing up, I had a TV & cable in my bedroom. The TV was always on, but we didn't watch much. It served more as background noise than anything else. My mom never had to monitor what we watched or how much we watched. It was never an issue in our home.

 

[momm2four]

I had a little 13 inch b&w in my room when I was a teenager. I remember sitting about 2 inches away from the screen with the sound turned WAAYYY down watching Saturday Night Live b/c my mom would have freaked if she had known I was watching that show.

Both, DH and I, decided before we ever had kids that we really didn't want TV's in our kids' rooms. We have one in the den, one in our BRoom and one in the playroom downstairs, all with cable, so there's usually a TV to watch if it's that important to them.

Lori P.

Poor boys, they keep asking for a dog or a TV in their room and they don't stand a good chance of getting either one. I guess they'll be in therapy one day, lying on some doctor's couch, "It all started when my parents wouldn't buy me a dog..."

 

[GEM]

Our little guy is only 10 months old, so he definately does not have a TV in his room. And he won't either, not until he is at least 16. If he needs something to keep him busy and quiet in his room, there are TONS of great books out there. I would much rather him grow up a reader than a TV watcher. My husband and I didn't grow up watching a lot of TV either, but we both did lots of reading in our beds before the lights went out. I don't really have anything against TV. There are some great shows out there for kids. We have a TV in the living room and in what we call the computer room and he can watch those, although we will still limit the time and what he watches. I just know too many kids who spend hours watching TV and never pick up a book. Sad.

 

[cadburysmom]

Definitely NO TV in DS9's bedroom. My parents were very strict about watching TV when I was growing up and now so am I. We only have a TV in our den and one in the playroom. He watches too much TV as it is and I want to be able to monitor the shows, especially with all the filth on TV these days!

My cousin's children both have TV's in their rooms because she claims that's the only way they'll fall asleep.....she never really read or sang to them at night, but just flipped on the TV, kissed them goodnight and then came back later to turn off the TV's after they were asleep.....that makes me sad because I love to read to my DS9 and cuddle and sing a lullaby or two. I think she's missing out on so much!

 

[nativetxn]

I don't know, Travis is all grown up and has his own apartment now

When he <i>did</i> live at home his paternal grandmother gave him a television when he was 9 and it was in his bedroom. He didn't seem to suffer much for it.

 

[Rock'n Robin]

We have 3 TVs in my house, one in the family room, one in the basement and one in my room so I can watch as I get ready for work in case of school delays, etc. Mine has a VCR; the other two have VCRs and DVDs.
I didn't get my own tv (a 13" black and white!) until I was a sr. in HS in 1980. No cable. The oldest thinks she is the only 6th grader without her own TV, but she has a castoff laptop from dad's office (no internet, only for homework) and so does DD#2.
I like to monitor what they watch. In fact, I have all 3 of the MTV channels and BET blocked from our cable. My students think I'm the meanest mom around (one girl even said "I've been watching MTV since I was 6") but my kids have never been allowed to watch and don't miss it. Right now I'm trying to limit them to one hour a day, and they watch"Seventh Heaven" and then DS watches "Kim Possible". Of course when DH gets home he turns it on.
All of the kids (and DH) tend to get a glazed over look and everything stops when they watch TV, so I try to turn on the radio for noise instead of the TV. We also do not have PS, PS2, etc. although we have gameboy, which is useful on our trips.
Robin M.