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

[mrsruffallo]

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?

Sorry, post was to mrs jammi.

Correct me if I am wrong Pagwatch, but he is SN isn't he?
Different kettle of fish, I can see why he needs to be entertained for you to spend time with DD

I think Posie is being quite reasonable actually. TV crazy mums much more vicious on here

posie - thats kind of you

But people do have very complicated lives and i think you are blaming a symptom.

I think it is perfectly possible to have tvs in bedrooms and yet still have a child who is full of life and vigour - who has multiple interests and who is sporty and active.
The parents you are talking about are those who use tv as the main interest - in the same way that some use shopping as an activity. Those who do nothing else - expose their child tro no other interests or activities.
I don'tthink there are many on this thread and the comparison is what is upsetting people.

This thread is about tv when it shouldn't be. We are talking about engaged interested parents who show their children attention - and those who don't. The difference between those two is not the posssesion of a tv

We have one TV in our house: two children aged 10 and 12. We won't have more sets because we're trying to give the message that TV-watching doesn't figure very highly in our priorities.

It's in the playroom.

mrsr
yes he is.
But I think that there are complicated structures in many families not just mine.
Thats all I am trying to say. Suggesting children should never have one is just a bit OTT for me.
I don't care if they have a tv as long as they are doing loads - reading, playing laughing etc etc.

Anyway - have to go out now. Interesting topic

We have one in each bedroom (so thats 2) they hardly get used but are there incase, they get used more in winter, i like to have my 42in plasma to myself so got to have spare tv's for those who dont want to watch re-runs of come dine with me

no-one needs TV.

but then, a fair few years back, people didn;t understand the need to a bathroom in the house, what was wrong with a lavvy at the end of the yard, or children never needed their own beds, let alone their own rooms............my dad used to share a bed with his two older brothers from stories he used to tel me before we fell out.

so, now we all have bathrooms, we all have our own beds, we all (most of us) have our own rooms, so now we all sometimes get TV's in our rooms.

I think there are a few lessons around TV in my house. It has to be earnt, shared and compromised.

I do think that TV is yet another quickfix, instant bag of rubbish that add more lazy time into our lives. I'm not saying that I don't watch really bad TV and too much, I do. But if you peer into houses all accross our nation you can see the little box replacing family life all over the place.

I think it's quite a blanket generalisation to imply that if children have a tv in their room then family life is being stifled because of it.

My ds (9) has got a tv in his room for the simple fact that my brother bought a new one and was throwing his old one out. I hate throwing things out , so we took it but we have simple rules in place such as, he only watches if he has permission or in the morning on a weekend.

He asks to watch A Question of Sport on a Friday and the rubbish Saturday night entertainment type shows. Apart from that, it doesn't really interest him.

He is always charging around the garden and only occasionally puts the tv on after school - he'll put it on to watch the tennis (or whatever sport championship is on at the time) and Horrible Histories on a Thursday. So you can't say that he is suffering because he has his own tv!

I know of a family who's dc's were only allowed to watch tv on a Friday afternoon for an hour and one dvd on a Saturday. On Fridays, they used to sit staring at the tv like zombies because they were "allowed" it. My ds used to walk off and go and play in the garden by himself because he didn't want to watch it.

If you make something out to be so out of reach and inaccessible then you can have more problems that way because children will always want what they can't have!

We have one, small, TV in our household. We hardly ever watch it, though DD does watch DVDs on it.

We don't feel the need for more TV.

DP and I don't have a telly in our room and dd won't have one either.

TV's fine in moderation but putting one in her room gives her far too much control over how much/what she watches.

And given the total sewage that passes for tv these days? No chance.

It's part of the reason we have a country full of lazy, fat, celebrity obsessed, inarticulate children.

My DH was brought up eating, sleeping and living in front of the TV, I was brought up hardly ever watching it and thinking it was a precious wonderful thing. I hope that my dcs watch enough (1/2 on a school day unless baby is very very miserable and then the older ones are allowed extra time to drown out the noise!) and a movie on a Friday and Saturday morning before drama and Sunday evening we may all watch something. This is flexible and not set in stone, but they're only young and my ds1 (aged 7) loves the TV so it's vital that it's restricted or that's all he would do.
Of course generalising is not going to fit everyone but it's fair to say TV is the entertainment choice of poorer people and maybe there's not so much balance as they can't afford to do much else.
Of course it doesn't really matter where the TV is if it's on all the time! But it's a thing in this house of TVs in bedrooms, if I had one I don't think we'd have four dcs!!!

We have one small TV in our house.

We keep it in a cupboard and only take it out for documentaries and Royal Weddings.

In fact I'm not sure I can remember where I put it.

We have one TV in the house. And that is plenty.

I don't understand why having a tv in a child's room means that they would have too much control over what they watch? Why can't people have rules in place that their children must adhere to? If the children can't follow basic instructions from their parents then that is more worrying than having a tv in their room imo!

I had a TV in my room from the age of 10, because (shock horror) I wanted to watch different things to my dad (who retained control over the sitting room tv even when asleep).

I only turned it on when there was a specific programme that I wanted to watch. It did not affect my sleep or schoolwork. I did (and still do) read books for pleasure.

This debate does keep cropping up doesn't it? I agree with those who said you cannot equate TV in room with poor family life etc.

My dc both have a tv in their room (AND aerials ) but they are not allowed to just switch it on when they feel like and never have been. It is used mostly when they are ill and stuck in their bedroom tbh, oh and sleepovers! As long as there are rules governing use, then a TV in the bedroom is just fine.

mrsruffalo - absolutley. No TV, video games, computers or whatever in bedrooms. Only books.

DSs have plenty of time for that during the day downstairs and we want to know what they are watching or lookig at on the internet. They have special head torches so they can read books in the dark - bit like miners' lamps which they like doing.

my ds used to get up at 5am too, he watched tv in the lounge until i got up

they dont and i wont be letting my child have one, im convinced that i cant go to sleep at a resonable time due to haveing a tv in my bedroon from about the age of 7. i would stay up late and watch it all the time. now i have sleep issues. my mum said i used to sleep well before then..