TV in kid's bedroom? Yes/No? Limitations?

[Sarah7401]

Discuss...

 

[padams]

No.

 

[luvmy3]

My dd has a TV and a VCR in her room. It is not hooked up to our FiOS so she can only use it for the VCR or those plug-in games.
My dses do not have any in their room.


ETA We do not use TV as a means of helping to fall asleep, it is only used when dd wants to watch one of her movies that the rest of us don't want to. She rarely uses her TV in her room anymore since we got a new big flat screen for the family room, now we all pretty much watch stuff together.

 

[FireDancer]

I don't think there should be a TV in any bedroom, adults or children. I have read many an article that making the room into anything other than a room to sleep (for adults a room for something else too of course) is detrimental to many people's quality of sleep.

 

[Bren's Mom]

For kids, whether it's a good idea or not depends on the kid.

We put a TV/VCR combo in ds's room, he's 4.5. It doesn't have cable, he can only watch the 5 or so VHS kid's tapes that we have. He's a VERY early riser, so this gives him something else to do in his room when he gets up to allow us a little more sleep. He can read the clock, so if it's after 5am he is allowed to get up. If it's earlier he must go back to his bed. And he can wake us at 6:30am.

He's good, he never asks for it at night, or on the weekends. It's never a problem to turn it off when we get up and get ready for school/work.

If it did become a problem, though, I'd have no issue removing it. Dh and I agreed to try it and see how it went, and for us it's working well.

 

[SaraJayne]

No.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

No.

 

[Duchie]

Nope.

 

[Momvic5]

My ds14 has a TV in his room for game playing only. He doesn't have a dvd player or cable connection.

 

[luvmy3]

I don't think there should be a TV in any bedroom, adults or children. I have read many an article that making the room into anything other than a room to sleep (for adults a room for something else too of course) is detrimental to many people's quality of sleep.

My kids are detrimental to my quality of sleep

 

[Sgt Mickey]

Our kids have tvs in their rooms. No cable and they do not watch it every night.

 

[MissFitt]

Another no vote here

 

[MrsPete]

No.

Even without cable, there's plenty that I don't want my kids to see. Even sit-com type things are filled with sexual induendo, etc. I can't easily supervise what they're watching in the bedroom.

Many teens withdraw from their families, which is a bad thing on several levels. A TV in the bedroom is just one more thing to draw them away.

It does interfere with sleep and homework.

And it's not easy to withdraw a privledge once it's been given.

No. Never.

 

[Aisling]

I don't think there should be a TV in any bedroom, adults or children. I have read many an article that making the room into anything other than a room to sleep (for adults a room for something else too of course) is detrimental to many people's quality of sleep.

You may be right about that. I'm so used to the TV in my bedroom being on that I now can't sleep without it.

That being said, both of my kids have always had TVs in their bedroom. In fact, the TVs were given to us at my baby showers!

I do limit the amount of TV watching, though, with my younger son. The oldest is over 18, so he has the freedom to make his own choices in that. Turns out, he's not a big TV watcher. He mostly has the news on at night.

 

[TinklednPants]

Yes. TV, DVR, DVD, PS3, X-BOX etc.etc.

 

[karibritt01]

Nope. They get enough TV when they are in the den, and we are at least together then. They do not need to go into their room and watch more TV. We also do not have one in the playroom.

 

[Holly]

No.

 

[Sarah7401]

Lots of varied responses.

Our 7 year old wants one because "all my friends have one." He has one in the playroom but the door is to be kept open if the TV is on.

Sometimes I think I'll put one in and limit it to the weekends before bed, then I always change my mind. At least right now, he's not the type of kid that would go up there and watch by himself. He might want to go up there but he would want my husband and me to go with him.

A few of his friends do have them in their rooms along with game systems, etc., but the parents have done that so they can always watch they want to watch and so they don't have to deal with the kids all the time... their words, not mine.

 

[turkeymama]

I think it depends on the kid. Some kids need total silence and darkness to sleep. Some kids need white noise to sleep. Both my kids have t.v.s in their rooms. My daughter rarely turns hers on (maybe once a week), and when she does, she can only watch Nick (during the daytime) or Disney. DS has his t.v./DVD player combo in his room and he sleeps with it on Disney every night with the volume down almost all the way. He used to have one of those fish/light things that played the ocean noises, but it broke. He loved that. At one point, he only slept in silence with no light, but as he got older, he needed a little background noise to drown out the normal "house noises". He doesn't watch t.v. at bedtime and goes right to sleep. I could just as easily leave it on the Weather Channel and he would never know the difference until morning.

To me, this is kind of like having junk food in the house. It can get out of hand real quick if you let it.

 

[NEM]

No....

Although I did have one in my room growing up...and I used it as a teen to get away from my family. Maybe my mom would have had a clue what was going on with me if we had to spend that time together. She never said anything. But I spent many nights in my room alone. Not a good thing in the long run. My kids can stay in the living room and we can all be together if they want to watch something.

I had one...in hindsight, it was not a good idea, so in this case. My kids will not.