Do your kids have tvs.....

[MiniGirl]

in their bedrooms?

After reading the bedtime thread, I wanted to ask this. I didn't want to hijack that thread, so I'm starting a new one.

I've noticed many of you have said that your kids are in bed by X:XX but they will watch tv and fall asleep around X:XX. My oldest (7) has been asking for a tv to be placed in her room for awhile. She tells me, with all the drama she can muster (and believe me, that's a lot), that she is the ONLY one in her class without her own tv. Truthfully, I tend to believe her. I know all of her friend's homes that I have been to the kids do have tvs in their rooms. My best friend has 4 tvs in her 1500 square foot, 3 bedroom house. Our house is over twice that size, and we have 3 -- family room, master bedroom, and guest room.

Please understand. I'm not flaming. While my friend has tvs in each bedroom and family room, her kids love playing outside and they really don't watch them that much. However, I struggle with my kids watching so much tv. My girls get hot very easily, and hate to play outside. Also, if I can't engage my girls, they will tend to sit in front of the tv or at the computer. Not always, but enough that I'm reluctant to add a tv to their room. And while, I'd love to sit and play with my girls, I just can't. Laundry needs to be done. Dishes, too, etc, etc.

So, all this just to ask if your kids have tvs in their rooms. Am I being unreasonable or mean because I won't do it?

 

[Pixiedust34]

Our kids don't have TVs in their bedrooms.

 

[DAISY DUCK FAN!]

Neither do ours.

 

[ilovejack02]

I wouldnt have bought one, but a close friend bought DS4 a Sponge bob square pants tv. He actually doesnt watch it alot. If he did I would make him turn it off lol. I didnt want to put it in his room, but its a big YELLOW sponge bob, so it wasnt going anywhere else. He plays Vsmile on it, because Im not going to have those games strung out in the living room. He also watches it while im cooking dinner because I like to have the news on. But other than that it doesnt get turned on alot. He plays outside alot and sometimes I just dont let any tvs on in the house. We also dont watch tv before we fall asleep, 8 pm is bed time and thats it.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

As I kid, I used to hate hearing my mother say "I don't care what so and so's mother does...this is my house". And now-I use that phrase pretty often! I think you have to do what works for you and your family. Sometimes it means going against the masses, but the kids survive. My kids tell me they are the only ones out of all their friends that don't have cell phones (for about 4 years now) and I do know that this is true, but I didn't want my kids to have them and they've made it through and they were not teased by their friends. Now they are older and we are looking to get them phones, but my point is that me and DH did not cave to the pressure of what other families were doing.

That said, my kids have tv's in their rooms. In fact, we have one in almost every room of our house-even the kitchen and master bath. Funny thing is that I almost never watch tv. My DH however, is the armchair warrior! The kids are good about their tv's-they have had them since I can remember (probably even before elementary school). If they are ever caught having them on after they are supposed to be in bed, the cable cord comes right out of the room. They don't sit and vegetate in front of them either-they are active kids.

Anyhooo....do what you think is right.

 

[2Monkeys]

Mine don't either, for the exact reasons you've listed. They do have portable DVD players that I do allow them to watch in their rooms, but that happens very rarely. If you have a hard time getting your girls to play outside or otherwise engage in non-tv activity, I would stick to your guns and not let them have it in their rooms. I always tell my children that I am not their friends' mother and that's why they have different things than we do.

 

[eliza61]

My kids are 16 & 13 and they don't have TV's in their bedrooms. After countless years of whining, they've given up and moved on to whining about some thing else.
My reasons.

1) Nowadays the shows they want to watch are on cable. There is no way on god's green earth, I'm paying for cable tv in every room. I have comcast cable and it already cost a fortune for cable in 2 lousy rooms. So a tv in their rooms would just have the basic tv (CBS, NBC etc)

2)I don't like the whole "go in bedroom, close door" thing. We're pretty old fashion, we monitor who they chat with on the computer, what video games they buy etc etc. I know they are teens but you want privacy... Graduate from college, get a job, get your own apartment. All the privacy in the world

 

[powellrj]

my kids have tvs in their rooms, but they really don't watch them too much. We have a small house and its great sometimes for them to have a place where they can just "get away and chill" for awhile.

If you want to limit how much they watch, just use rabbit ears and don't hook them up to cable. There isn't much to watch in our area unless you have cable, so they only tend to watch when there is something on the main channels and we are watching another show downstairs.

 

[jenrein]

Mine do- the girls share a room and have a tv and a dvd player. My son has a tv with the xbox. They go to school from 9-almost 4. Then they have lacrosse or dance. By the time they get home we have dinner, showers and bed. My kids are smart, they play outdoors and they watch tv. TV is not the devil or the antichirst. Its a form of entertainment and for me its quite relaxing to sit and watch a show...and the kids like to watch a little tv at night. They fall asleep and I turn it off before I go to bed myself.

 

[disneymomto5]

My kids get TV's when they are seniors in High School, mostly to take to college with them. And like the above poster, I'm definately not putting cable in their rooms!

 

[dhardawa]

My daughter has her own tv, but it is in the playroom, not in her bedroom.

 

[tttessa]

Hiya,
we have a "spare" room with a tv in for them to play video games on, (spare meaning home office/storeroom/ z-bed room for relatives coming etc....) but not in their bedroom - that's for sleeping in.

Tessa

 

[plutolovr]

Hmmmm! My kids are 19 and 21, in college but still come home, and they have NEVER had TVs in their rooms or computers. In fact, we just moved to a new home and I told my daughter she can get a TV in her room and she said she didn't want it. We have a 2nd TV in the wreck room upstairs they can watch with a TIVO so they can record their programs while they're at work.

When my kids were little, they had set bedtimes and never had an issue. In fact even in high school, unless they were working, they had to be in bed by 11pm.

 

[HeatherC]

My 3 kids don't have tv's and probably won't ever. That is because we already have 4 others in the house. The major reason I won't let them is because they have all become avid nighttime readers. I am convinced it is because the tv is not there.

We make them get ready for bed between 7:30 and 8 and they usually will go read in their beds for an hour to an hour and a half. I don't have any other friends whose kids read like that. I don't force the reading, but they love going to the bookstore and picking out their own books. I don't care what they read as long as they like it. (Age and subject appropriate of course.) My son loved the Captain Underpants books...ridiculous to me, but hey he read them all.

It really must be working to some extent because all of their reading scores are through the roof...even my kindergartner.

HeatherC

 

[Keara'sMom]

Hi,
My dd10 WANTS a tv in her room, but she won't be getting one. She also wants a computer in her room, but that's not happening, either! We have tvs in the master bdrm and the family room, and the computer is in the family room as well. We take a portable dvd player into my dd's room when she's sick or overtired so that she can watch a movie in bed, but that's the extent of it. She complains a little, but I think she's pretty much over it.

 

[pperfectmom]

We have one tv in a central location and that is all I plan to ever have. My mom asked if DD would like one for her birthday and you really don't want to hear my response. I'm against personal tv's or computers in my kid's rooms but to each his/her own I guess.

 

[blessedby3]

I have 3 kids and it took until my oldest was 13 before she got a tv in her room. She bought it herself and I felt at that time I trusted her judgement as to what she was watching on tv. My DS11 had only a tv with no cable for his xbox for a long time. The only reason he has cable tv now is because the house we bought last summer had cable already in all the rooms. We dont pay per outlet, just per address. We can have as many outlets as we want for the same price. I moniter what they watch and we have never had a problem. My youngest DD8 does not have a tv and it will be a long time before she does (if ever). She is sneaky and I cant trust her to have the proper shows on a tv in her room unsupervised. My kids are never allowed to watch tv to go to bed, though. They may watch it during the day or a show in the evening, but it goes off before they go to bed.

 

[traviesojmt]

No, my children do not have TVs in their bedrooms. We have a playroom/computer room off the main living room. We do have a TV in that room for them to watch and play video games. I prefer to have the TV/computer in open locations so that I can monitor what they are watching. I also have the parental controls set on the TV so that a password is required to watch any shows over certain ratings. BTW, my children are DD (almost 4) and DS9.

 

[Crazy4Disney72]

No, my kids don't have TVs in their bedrooms. Right now we have 3 TVs, one in the living room, one in the master bedroom, and a small 7 inch screen TV in the kitchen. We are moving next month and our house will have a finished basement and we are going to put a TV down there for the kids, thus increasing our total TV count to 4. They all want them in their rooms, especially my soon to be 14yr old DS, but no, they are not getting them.

 

[sacall]

My girls don't have TVs in their rooms (10 & 8) and they never will. When it is bedtime, they read at night before bed. I agree with what another poster said about getting cable in each room, no way could I afford the bill

They have a computer in the one bedroom, but it does not have internet access. They use it to play computer games or dance to music. Our main computer with internet access is in an open area. I can't wait until my oldest goes to Middle School next year. According to my neighbor, all the Middle School kids have laptops, well that's what her daughter keeps whining about

Stacy