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?

Loool Yep always VT!! Its been a long while thou at the moment I smell of baby oil!!! and coco butter

I'm actually sat her now in front of my 42 inch plasma, Ds at school, dd in bed asleep. I'm watching last night's house whilst mnetting, with my bumper pack of peanut M&M's. It's bliss.

Oh, and by the way, i'm not poor either.

We have 4 tvs - 1 in the lounge and one in each bedroom. There was a time when the two kids sharing a room also had their own tv each making a total of five.

My DH is like TrillianAstrahasaJOB dad - he has total control over the tv. The tv in our bedroom is one that was being thrown out so it ended up there - only used when my DH used to work shifts and I used to watch that thing with Caroline Quentin in it because it was comfier to watch in bed. I very rarely watch tv - an odd hour of some rubbish here and there. Like Ashes to Ashes!

Two of my daughters very rarely watch tv now and the youngest watches loads of drivel - I'm sure once her social life gets going, she'll forget it too. None of them are fat or inarticulate! They all read lots too.

I had a tv in my room from a very young age, DH didn't and he is the only one to watch it compulsively. Psychoanalyse that!

Makes no difference how many tvs you have or don't have or where they are. You may be able to control viewing now while they're little but that just ain't gonna last.

Ooohhh, i have just read the post that says House is back on, just off to look it up.

Whoa I'm not posh, easy to guess..... but I did sociology as part of my University studies.

We have sky plus which stops most arguments. DD (8) has recently taken to watching dvds, a new development, and we have discussed whether a tv in her playroom would be a good idea. We're undecided right now though.

I can see good points and bad. I don't think she'd watch it much more, once the novelty wore off, but it would give her choices on when to watch stuff. I do think, however, that it could make her more isolated.

The point is, though, that at some point in the not too dim and distant future it'll be laptops we're thinking about, surely? And laptops these days mean free access to whatever viewing is available. That I find slightly more worrying to be honest. Tv's? No big deal in my book.

tabitha.. You've missed a good few weeks of house i'm afraid and it's been better than ever! Cuddy and House snogged last week

People in higher demographic households watch less TV....

YABU - Why do you care?

They don't need a telivision in thier room. DD2 and 3 have got TV's in thier room but they are 19 and 17 and didn't have them umtil they were 15.

mumeee... I know that ds doesn't need a tv in his room just like we don't need one in the living room, just like we don't need a microwave or a radio. We've got them all because we want them. You say your dd's didn't get televisions until they were 15. Why 15? What danger lurks from the tv that eradicates itself once 15 hits them? Just curious...

ruby... I know... and imagine the cost having it on 4 tv's

Tv's are not cheap either

you can get free TV's on freecycle

It seems, although I maybe wrong. That the majority of people on this thread have older children.
My ds is 4 and a half. I don't want a tv in his room becuase I believe his room, at this age is for playing in and sleeping in. His space. He watches tv in the living room, when he's tidied his room and if I think he's been good enough during the day.

I'm a cruel mummy!

When he gets older then I may let him have one. Right now though it's not really on the agenda.
I know my sis had a tv in her sons room from 3. It's certainly done him no harm at all. He's an incredibly bright child and an amazing gymnast (I'm just bragging now).

I certainly don't judge anyone if they do have tvs in their kids room. It's not my place.

My 13 yr old has one in her room, but she only watches it if I can't bear another Friends re-run downstairs. My DP's son (14)has one in the room he sleeps in when he visits too because I don't particularly enjoy Match of the Day. The kids generally prefer being with us in the evenings though and we might watch a movie or play boardgames.

Basically I'm glad the tvs are there because it means I can sling both the older kids upstairs by ten at the latest and then smoke and shag on the sofa spend quality time with DP. Everybody's happy with that arrangement.

Psst, Vinny, I have emailed you...not about tvs though

We don't have a TV. However that said I watch tennis on line, the occasional programme on iplayer, and DD watches Peppa Pig on DVD sometimes in the evening and Postman Pat on a Saturday morning, but only after she turned 2. So, to all intents and purposes we do have one I guess, we don't happen to have an actual television set. I feel in my experience with a toddler, it is tempting to put it on, even though my more thought-out longer-term parenting views are not to use it. I would imagine that would amplify for me if I had a television, and more again if I put one in her room.

Message withdrawn

It is about choice - not bad parenting, not bad sleepers, not watching too much tv...

BOF i cant check hotmail in work (blocked) will have to read it later (hope its not important?)

gah, i am being bashed by the bookworms, been told i must be dyslexic, ignorant, stupid, low vocab all because i dont enjoy a good novel

link please vinny..

DD has a tv in her room but has only had one for about 2 years (she is 13). It is not plugged into the aerial, is a DVD/TV combi which my mum bought her for Christmas a couple of years back. I wouldn't really have wanted her to have one when she was little, but don't mind now that she is older. She likes to watch a huge load of crap which I wouldn't want to (she has just borrowed the box set of Midsomer fricking Murders from my MIL fgs - she can watch that in the privacy of her own room thank you very much!)

Having a telly has not made dd reclusive - far from it! She is very sporty and social.

There is only one other telly in the house - in the sitting room - and there is a Playstation 3 there as well, however all of us are lousy at games sop it is only used as a jumped up DVD player and the only Playstation games we have are Sing Star and Guitar Hero!

Comstock and Paik 1991, just one of the studies that I could find quickly that says less affluent people are more likely to watch more television that more affluent.