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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not understand why children need a TV in their room?

361 replies

mrsruffallo · 28/06/2009 22:35

Following on from another thread-I am quite surprised how many kids have a TV in their bedrooms.
Surely they can read to go to sleep?
Or watch the one in the living room?
Come and enlighten me, why do children need their own one?

OP posts:
AnarchyAunt · 28/06/2009 22:42

They don't.

Nobody needs a television.

roulade · 28/06/2009 22:43

Definitely don't.

janeite · 28/06/2009 22:43

They don't - and neither do adults. And nobody really needs a TV at all: I'd get rid of ours like a shot but dp insists on keeping it.

2shoes · 28/06/2009 22:44

you do what you want with your own dc's
mine had one from an early adge my choice

Tortoise · 28/06/2009 22:45

DS2 has one in his room for the PS2 but it doesn't have an aerial so no TV can be watched.

Other than that i don't think kids do need TVs in bedrooms.

CherryChoc · 28/06/2009 22:45

Well when I was younger we had a TV in our room so that when we played the playstation it wouldn't damage the tube of the TV downstairs (It wouldn't have anyway but my mum insisted this was the reason - I think she just didn't want to hear the annoying music). It was also useful when we wanted to watch the Simpsons and she wanted to watch Chris Evans.

But having said that, we didn't have one for years and so had established other ways of winding down before bed etc. I loved reading and still do, so it was only ever used to play the console or if there was a clash of TV viewing. I wouldn't let a very young child have a TV in their room and I don't want one in mine now.

IkeaSnake · 28/06/2009 22:45

because peopel live in small houses with only one reception room?

What is the diff to bedroom compared to a playroom or a study?

RealityIsMyOnlyDelusion · 28/06/2009 22:45

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

TheLadyEvenstar · 28/06/2009 22:45

2shoes glad I am not alone lol

harleyd · 28/06/2009 22:46

my kids need a tv in their room coz by teatime im tired looking at them

IkeaSnake · 28/06/2009 22:47

i think peopel forget that there ARE homes where all there is downstaris is a kitchen and a living room and tbh NO ONE wants to watch zack and cody

onagar · 28/06/2009 22:47

Could just put one in the kids room and if the adults wanted to watch TV they could ask if it was convenient to come and watch. (they might have to watch whatever channel the kids happened to be on)

Dysgu · 28/06/2009 22:47

I really don't like the idea of children having TV in bedrooms.

Classes I teach (aged 9-13) seem to be full of children with loads of stuff in their bedrooms. Have also taught younger children with TVs, DVD player etc in their bedrooms.

We were brought up without TV and I was the only person in my Uni house share without one in my bedroom.

In my family we read and talk and talk and talk

Ivykaty44 · 28/06/2009 22:47

mrsruffalo - if you have a tv, why?

IkeaSnake · 28/06/2009 22:48

ask the kids if they could watch tv?

snort

onagar · 28/06/2009 22:50

If you have just the one TV do you turn it over to watch something even if the kids were enjoying something?

IkeaSnake · 28/06/2009 22:50

we have THREE

oh yes
and the kids are sporty literate, social and clever.

2shoes · 28/06/2009 22:51

harleyd
you and me both

bradsmissus · 28/06/2009 22:53

I think it's a bit narrow minded to say if your child has a tv in their room then you don't talk as a family and your DCs don't read.

My dd is 10 and has a TV in her room. Tonight she watched a programme about the solar system which she is the thing she is curently into.

If you don't want your DC to watch TV that's your choice but don's assume the rest of us do it out of lazy parenting.

Dysgu · 28/06/2009 22:53

DD1 gets to watch TV (Beebies or Nick Jnr) in living room. If there is something on that we want to watch we turn it over - but usually what we want to watch is on after she has gone to bed (is only 2.9yo). If she is up late, then we watch what we want.

TV is only on in the daytime if we put it on for her.

May well change as she - and DD2 - get older...

Bonneville · 28/06/2009 22:54

Children dont actually NEED a tv in their bedrooms but I cant see any problem whatsoever if they do. Why should it be a surprise that so many do?

UndertheBoredwalk · 28/06/2009 22:55

DD (8) has a tv/dvd in her room, no aerial so no tv.
She has it because I do not want to watch Hannah Montana and HSM dvd's over and over and over !!

FAQinglovely · 28/06/2009 22:55

so when they get their weekend PS2 fix you can chuck them upstairs to play it and have the TV to watch Wimbledon

Ivykaty44 · 28/06/2009 22:56

you watch tennis....

cory · 28/06/2009 22:58

aibu to not understand why we all have to worry so much about other people's household arrangements?

as it so happens, we only have one TV, and that is a recent acquisition, but I don't seem why everybody else has to be the same as us

if I really think carefully about it, I suppose there might be some people that can't see why you need 6 fishtanks in a house

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