To not allow 10yo to have games console in his bedroom?

[Tallzara101]

My 10yo (nearly11) has got a console, he plays online with his friends. It’s downstairs in the living room. It does drive me a bit mad at times because it means he takes over the TV and we have to listen to him talking to his friends.

But, otoh it beans that I can mostly keep an eye on what he’s doing. It makes it much easier to set limits because it gets switched off so that we can all watch something together.

Most of his friends this age have them in their bedrooms but I want to keep it downstairs as long as possible.

If you’ve got children this age what’s your experience do you let them have it upstairs?

Mine all have their own console in their room but they are all secondary age (think they probably moved upstairs when they were in Y5/6). If I had one DC the console would probably have stayed downstairs for longer.

We are lucky we have somewhere it can go that’s not the living room, but they do do vr in the living room (which is intensely annoying as they fail around and smash into things), but as you say, we can hear all that goes on and we have a no devices upstairs rule which we will maintain for as long as we can! It’s a stipulation of being allowed the devices so they don’t have much choice, and instilled when young, hopefully will be accepted/recognised as the norm as they get into later teens.

My other child is much older and has outgrown the console stage now.

I can’t remember what age he had it in his room, I think it was around year 7. But I found that once it went upstairs he disappeared to his room and it was really hard to get him back out.

Stick to your guns.

We don't allow any tech at all in bedrooms. We have a play room/snug as well as the living room, and that's where the console lives.

I don't allow a lot of gaming though.

Mine are in their rooms a lot, they come down for food!

They can be quite loud when gaming with friends (even in their rooms). I wanted my living room back!

I have a 10yo ds. He doesn’t do anything online with friends. We don’t allow that. And there definitely won’t be any consoles in rooms. 😂
you are the parent here, parent!

We never had consoles or tv in bedrooms. But we did have a separate tv room so we were spoilt a bit.
there’s no way I’d let an under 14 have a console in their room.

I'm with you. I let my 15 year old watch his inane crap on youtube on the tv, even though it drives me mad, because I know from experience that teens spending all their time in their rooms on screens when we don't know what they are doing/ being influenced by can be dangerous. He also does gaming downstairs partly because DH also games so they share a console.

We have just done up our dc1s bedroom for their 10th birthday and as we have a new TV downstairs did debate whether she could have the old one in her room. The decision was no I want a blanket ban on devices upstairs. I don't mind them playing on a games console or watching TV downstairs and much prefer that where I can see them. I find it is easier to implenent limits on use a as I am present and they are less likely to push boundaries.

It is possible to have devices in bedrooms and also strict rules regarding monitoring and usage but I think this requires a lot of active parenting and many people get distracted or fall short allowing kids to take advantage.

Mine are 12 and 10
and have their set ups (they are pc gamers) in their rooms and have done for quite some time
it’s not ideal at all (12 yo only comes out for food!) but we are where we are.

I work with too many children who have consoles in their rooms and game late into the night. This impacts on their sleep and their ability to function at school.
We don't have devices upstairs. Kids are now mid teens.
There's no reason to have screens in bedrooms.

Two sons 17 and 20. The console has always been downstairs..... they are happy with that. Yes its annoying when they hog the TV but I know what they are playing. Plus Minecraft has some really cool music 🎶 😁

I’m with you - no devices in rooms (apart from Alexia, DS likes to listen to music while he goes to sleep). And yes the online gaming with friends in the living room does get annoying even with headphones but he does come off in the evening so we can watch family TV.

Mine have never asked for one but I agree they should be downstairs until at least 14 kind of age, longer depending on maturity of the child

My two oldest had consoles in their rooms late teens (15 years plus). They didn't have a TV on their room until then. My youngest who is in year 6 doesn't have a TV or console in their room, they play the pc downstairs.

Smaller screen in corner, headphones.

My 12yo DS has his Xbox in his room but he rarely plays on it. He prefers to bring it down to the living room for the bigger tv when he has friends over. He might play on it on his room with his younger brother once a month but really just doesn’t bother much. He’d always choose to be outside whenever possible. Even in the rain!

I wouldn’t let my DS have a console in his room at that age. We had a gaming chair and large tv set up in the dining room so I could still watch tv myself in the lounge. If he’d had it upstairs I would never have seen him. We moved house and don’t have a separate dining room so he was able to set everything up in his bedroom but he was 15/16 by then.
It’s not just gaming they tend to video call each other on their phones whilst they’re playing the same games online so I didn’t want random people seeing him in his bedroom. And he probably wouldn’t have got dressed if he didn’t have to come downstairs. So he’d be just wearing boxers.
Plenty of his friends lived in their bedrooms with minimal parental contact for years but I actually wanted to see and interact with my child.

My son’s always stayed downstairs until he grew out of it.

We have a ‘no screens in bedrooms’ rule in our house. For all of us. Screens all stay downstairs.