5 year old and TV in room...

[Grimbles]

Short and sweet!

AIBU to allow 5yr old DS to watch TV in his room when he wakes up at sparrows at the weekend?

something , you see once again you are making assumptions that because there are lots of TVs people don’t sit as a family . We do and always have . You get parental controls on Sky so anything with unsuitable content should require a PIN number and that you keep to yourself .

There are quite a few programmes though that are nominally "suitable" but I don't want my DCs watching. I can't just deem a whole channel suitable - some are too scary, or are basically a 20 min advert.

OP if you’re needing more rest, when my eldests were that age, on a Friday night for a Saturday morning I would give them a breakfast picnic in a lunch bag- fruit , brioche, small packet Cheerios, carton of juice and a frube; set up the IPAD and leave them to it. Was fun for them and gave me a couple of hours extra sleep.

No tv in kids rooms ever.

I’ve told DP I don’t want one in our bedroom in new house either.

One TV should be enough for any household. Kids only get 30 mins a day week days, hour at weekends (or one film but nothing the other day)

I dunno about Muppet touching a nerve.
My first thought on reading her post is that she is unable to trust her children.
That and how dangerous it is to leave all those devices on charge downstairs overnight.

Am I missing out on something here. Ive never stayed in bed when my kids wake up. They wake up from 4.30 onwards. Ive always got up with them. Ive never thought to allow them to play in their room until I am ready to get up. 10 years I have been waking up every morning with them going straight down stairs and desperately getting coffee down me.

This seems like magic!

It was quite an interesting debate for a while there before the usual suspects piped up to tell everyone that it's bad parenting to do anything other than what they themselves do.

In my mind's eye, they are that parent that makes everyone else feel inferior at the school gate.

I don’t think muppet struck a nerve. The post strikes me as her thinking her way of parenting is the only way which comes across massively smug.

We bought our then 8 year old a tv/dvd combo for his room for his birthday last year, it has a passcode and age restrictions set on it, most modern TVs have these functions if you have a look through the setup menus. His DVD collection is kept in his room and everything which is pegi15 or over is on ‘the high shelf’ downstairs. He doesn’t watch it at bedtime and also knows that if I hear his tv before 6 am (he’s an early riser), it will be removed from his room. His tablet is only allowed upstairs at weekends and not until 7 at the earliest.

I’d much rather he watched this in his room as our tv downstairs doesn’t have these switched on. DS has his own ‘kids’ Netflix account which he does always go on, but to a bugbear of mine that there’s no passwording, so he could just as easily access my unrestricted account. Because of this he doesn’t have Netflix access or on demand services on his tablet or tv.

My little boy who is my 3rd child has had a tv in his room for a few years at least, he will be 8 this year.
He rarely watches it, in fact I think I watch it more when I'm cleaning in there and sorting washing.
Just do what you need to do for your sanity. Everyone has an opinion, you live with the consequences of whatever you choose to do but in my opinion the novelty of the tv wears off. My older 2 share and I don't think they've turned their tv on this year!

My kids are 22, 19 and 14 and no TVs in bedrooms is still a family rule. I'm sure if one of them bought their own TV I'd struggle to uphold it, but for now it works.

My ds (2.1y) sleeps with me in my room. If he's awake at a very uncivilised hour in the morning I put on cbeebies or milkshake and try to snooze until a respectable getting up time. He doesn't seem too damaged by it so far... still manages to play creatively with random inert objects when he feels like it, likes me to read to him etc. He even has his own tablet. Judge away, tech hating fuckers.

I think Hooble's approach is very sensible.
I think it really depend on the child, and how parents manage.
I wouldn't put TV in my ds's room, but it's our choice, and it works for us. But I can totally see there's nothing wrong with someone like Hooble's ds having TV in his room.

Exactly what MrsDV just said!

Children with televisions in their bedrooms don't do as well as their peers at school and are more likely to have sleep problems

Utter bollocks. Utter, utter bollocks.

There are plenty of other things he could do getting up at the crack of dawn other than watch TV. Why not leave him a drink and a small snack and let him play with his toys instead?

I don’t have a problem with TV in the room per se but it seems like a not-terrific habit to start so early. I know too many men who feel the TV must be on 24/7.

They wake up from 4.30 onwards.

good lord, how do you manage! Mine are not allowed to get out of bed before 6am full stop. When it's a more reasonable hour, they can play in their room or downstairs, but I wouldn't stay in my own bed until they are 5 or 6.

I would. For dvd's.

Have a lie in while he chill's out and watches telly. Obviously it won't be all day every day.

My DS2 (now 8) wakes at 5.15am every morning and always has done, no matter when he falls asleep.

I put a tv/dvd (no aerial) in his room when he was 3 and I was falling apart. We put a timer plug in that meant he could only switch it on at 5.30am (gradually that got later as he was more reliable at playing quietly in his room) and watch whichever DVD I'd put in. Generally he'd watch until 6am if DH was home or 6.15am when DS1 gets up. It was a sanity saver for me.

usernameavailable how old are your kids?

From when dd was about 4yo I have popped her in front cbeebies on the wend mornings with a drink and gone back to bed!! She was also more than able to play quietly for an hour or so, there is no way I would be getting up at stupid o clock on the wend.

God yes. Means the whole house isn't up at 5.30am. Ours has no aerial so they can only watch dvds.

@coddiwomple
I just do, We go downstairs, I have a coffee and we sit and play a quiet game. It doesn't matter what time I put them to bed they will wake usually between 4.30 and 5.30. 6am I am ecstatic at having a lie in.
I refuse to do breakfast before 7. I think I have got used to it. A close friend of mine has early risers too, so we will have a chat on whatsapp at 5 in morning.

@Girliefriendlikesflowers My kids are aged 10 (usually wakes at 5.30)
Almost 4 (usually wakes at 5.30)
And almost 2 (my earliest 4.00 but i can get her to nap in my bed for half an hour before she wants to get up)

It can be difficult as they all sleep walk too, so we spend the night guiding the kids back into their beds.

Energy drinks helped, but I got addicted to them and they ended up having no effect, I could drink one and go straight to bed without a problem.

Concealer helps to hide the bags under my eyes.

We take it in turns to have lie ins, but our body clocks are so messed up neither of us can stay in bed past 5.30!

We have no plans for TVs in the children's bedrooms, currently don't have one in our room either.

My concern is them accessing it after bedtime. They're perfectly happy to come downstairs when they're ready and play, watch TV or put on a DVD. The TV is put on ready for CBeebies when we go to bed.

Long term when we move beyond being knee deep in toys, we'll probably put a TV in the playroom that can then be used for consoles.

Only one TV in our house and it’s in the living room.
Otherwise it is a Slippery Slope to Delinquency and you are Making a Rod for your Own Back.
Fact.