Do children/teens need tvs in their bedrooms nowadays and do your dc's have a tv in their rooms?

[thesqueezedlemon]

Having an ongoing debate with DH. He says the dcs (8 & 9) need tv's in their rooms to watch dvds etc. I don't think it is necessary anymore, as it was when I was young. They can watch anything on their tablets now and I think ugly black tv's in bedrooms look a bit shit.

What do you all think and do your dc's have their own tv and why?

My dc have TV in there room. With their Xbox & PlayStation games. No TV in my bedroom.
We have TV in the kitchen too rarely on though. They are only allowed on after homework and only for a couple of hours during weekdays. They sleep fine and school work is going well. We actually gather together in the sitting room most days. Just chatting or sometimes play board games.

Who actually watches DVDs anymore?

I don't think it's necessary to have a TV in bedrooms. Films can be accessed on Netflix/Prime/Now TV. All Freeview channels can be watched online. If you have Sky/Virgin then you can use Sky Go/Virgin Anywhere on mobile devices.

That said, I doubt that watching TV for 30 mins-1hr a day can cause any problems.

Why is your DH saying that they need a TV in their rooms? Surely if they wanted one then they would say so.

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10448123/Computers-and-phones-in-childrens-bedrooms-can-cause-anxiety-and-sleep-loss.html

No. Definitely not. Would have been really unhappy with this. Dcs now late teens, and still wouldn't let them.

Agree pagwatch. DD2 is never (and I mean never) without her phone/laptop to hand...certainly hasn't held her back academically or socially. I think that's just a fallacy.

no-one "needs" a TV in their room, definitely not young children, experts (medical) say everyone should leave off any devices because of their blue light disturbing sleep, for at least 2 hours before bed.

My kids all had TVs in their bedrooms.

Tbh, I find the idea of unrestricted internet more worrying than unrestricted TV.

My ds was 13 before he asked for one and we got a combi cos he really wanted to watch dvds now just uses it for xbox. DDs each have one dd1 watches dvd and dd2 doesn't use it at all - boxed up in loft - uses her chromebook. Internet is switched off at 23.00. All sleep well and doing well at school. Dds were 10 before we put above in motion.

No screen in our ds bedroom except his phone which he takes up at night to use as an alarm for school.

My dc don't and neither do dh and I. In fact I've never lived in a house that had more than one tv in it. Tv watching has always been a communal thing for us, which I prefer to the idea of sitting alone in your room with a screen. None of us ever watches tv alone really - the dc always watch together, as do dh and I, or all 4 of us.

No tv in ds's bedroom and there is no plan to get one. He is 9. We don't have a TV in our bedroom either, although we do have a spare small TV from when we joined households. I don't think watching TV in bed is good for you. It stops you sleeping properly.

My children are 18, 15 and 14 and don't have television in thier rooms

However, we have two televisions in the house and they all have laptops and/or tablets that they could watch stuff on

Tvs are things of the past for kids anyway they have all got tablets or phones i find the toddler stuck in front of peppa pig on a tablet odd but tonnes of parents do it every day that really is no different from letting them watch a dvd

I think its a discussion for parents and children to have but, to be honest, I hadnt considered that aesthetics of TVs would come into play. That is very odd.

I had a TV in my room from a young age. And old black and white thing for playing my ZX Spectrum+ on. My sister had one went she got her ZX Spectrum +2 and my cousin got one for playing his Commodore 64 on. The TVs could pick up standard broadcasts back then.

We are all highly proficient users of technology now which may or may not correlate to our parents lack of fear of technology in bedrooms. We all had PCs as we entered Uni as well. Big 90s beige boxes. Lord only knows what the OP would have made of those aesthetics.

Many parents want to know or be able to know what their kids are watching/looking at and have a no TV or no laptop or no iPads in bedrooms. This seems a good idea to me, especially for younger teenagers and kids.

I don't think TVs in bedrooms are as popular as they once were. Is it a class thing, a bit like having a huge TV in your living room - something the middle classes abhor? (Waits to be flamed)

TVs in all bedrooms here. Teen DSs like gaming and I am not having that in the living room.
We don't watch any TV together, completely different tastes.

AS for black TVs making the bedroom look 'a bit shit' that's the least of the worries in a teen's bedroom.

My child has a small TV in his room. He sometimes likes to watch a film on his own on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. He likes watching Newsround on it on a weekday morning too.

He's 9. Sleeps well, 11/12 hours a night, isn't behind at school, is in fact achieving all targets and more and as far as I am aware, his life hasn't been ruined by a screen in the bedroom as yet.

Not sure a class has anything to do with it however you do read on mumsnet that they have no Tvs except the dusty portable in the corner of the roomtbut they have ipads instead the way we watch medis have certainly changed. me i still like my hoooooge tv and love slinking off to bed early to watch telly in peace

Media*

Ds got a tv in his room for xmas when he was 12. He mainly plays Xbox on it, occasionally a film when he has a sleepover.

Me too MrsJayy. Also Sunday mornings in bed-tea and toast while watching Sunday Brunch.

My DD14 has a tv with a NowTV box, with YouTube and demand channels including films.
Not meant to have phone/iPad upstairs but does anyway
She goes to bed early anyway as paper round.

It is a terrible idea and a fast track to obesity and poor exam results.
One tv in the house means a bit of compromise and not having it on all the time.

We never had a Tv signal in my dds bedroom when they were younger so it was films they watched so i can smugly say that i did know what they were watching,