TV in Bedroom

[StellaCruella]

Does your DC have a TV in their bedroom? If so, what age are they?

Mine are 8 and 6 and they don't, but I was reminded today that my sister and I had one in our room in the 90s and wondered how common it is now.

Oh I'm interested in this too. My kids need their space away from each other and are constantly arguing over shared Tv/rooms. I'm now thinking that a Tv in my 10yo's bedroom might help, but I hate the idea of it!

Nope. I was never allowed one so now my children must face the same fate. They have iPads though so can watch stuff and we’re lucky to have a second reception room with a tv to reduce arguments.

no way, we have no TV's in any bedrooms. Oldest DC also has a phone and is not allowed to have it in his room. Stays downstairs at night-time.

@FrothyCothy if they can watch TV on their iPads that's the same thing, no?

I wonder if the fact that iPads and smartphones are so common now have given us parents the fear of too much screen time so we wouldn't consider putting a TV in a child's bedroom - but actually in the 90s it just wasn't a big deal. My sister and I would often watch a film in bed before we went to sleep and probably had comparatively much less screen time than we would have if we were growing up today, even without the bedroom TV.

I guess I feel I have a bit more control over iPads - they have their own profiles on Netflix etc with age and content restrictions. Plus iPads are set to shut down at 9. Whereas a TV they could have on all night and limited control from me about what they watch.

@Minkyscamp if you don't have two reception rooms that makes sense. Neither did we as kids and my parents wouldn't have wanted to watch the crap we were watching of an evening!

@FrothyCothy that makes sense if you have Sky TV or the like. We just have a smart TV which is basically a big tablet!
Even in the 90s we weren't allowed the TV on past 9pm until we were well into our teens.

@Rickrolypoly is that for sleep hygiene reasons?

No, no TV in 9-year-old's bedroom. He can't access TV programmes or videos on his tablet either. He has scheduled times during the week to watch TV or else he just constantly asks for it.

It's funny because I really don't like the idea but I can't work out why. DS has a tablet and DD has a laptop.
I don't like the idea of TV replacing books and they read before bed. But then at the weekends they can stay up and watch a film in our bedroom before bed, so I can't work out what the difference is in my mind.

That makes sense. Mine are still too into drawing and toys etc to want to watch it much in the day, but they like it in the evening. They're younger than 9 though, maybe it'll change.

We have two sitting rooms with a TV in each. None of the bedrooms have TVs and all phones/screens are downstairs overnight. I think it's really important to build in screen free time into their routines now before they get phones.

Yes mostly but also I think that they are less likely to watch things that they are not supposed to when they are alone in their room. So TV, phones etc are all downstairs. I know kids who are younger than mine even who have their phones all night and could be awake at 2am on their phones. It's crazy.

No, not until they were about 14 or 15 with later bedtimes and wanted to watch something in the evenings when we didn’t want to watch.

There’s no reason for a primary school child to need a television in the bedroom.

No, when ours were about 12 we put a little TV in their rooms but neither of them watched them so they didn't last. DS has a monitor for gaming but he's 20 now anyway.