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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:
barnsleybelle · 29/06/2009 22:56

grumpy... can i settle down with wine instead . Oh yes, and the tv is on too.

LupusinaLlamasuit · 29/06/2009 22:57

We are soon to join the Dark Side. Mostly because of a massive age gap between kids and frankly am sick of world war three after tea every night.

And would occasionally like a bit of peace and quiet.

Have not braved it yet though.

Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa · 29/06/2009 23:00

Oh go on then Barnsley. I am just imposing my teetotality on everyone (3 week old baby so still off the booze grrrrrrr). I'll sip tea and you can quaff wine.

I'm watching tv too.......

barnsleybelle · 29/06/2009 23:02

grumpy

squilly · 29/06/2009 23:02

I just don't get the thick, lazy, tv in bedrooms connection. It's surely no more thick and lazy than having an x-box in the house or a dvd player or a wii or a psp or whatever other piece of modern gadgetry we happen to be talking about.

It's the noughties people. Our kids can have a lot more than we had and we don't have to keep them in caves with linen finger puppets and a wind up radio (though I'm sure that too has it's place).

For me, I'm off to watch tv with a bottle of Bolly and a nice bowl of olives and in the morning I'm off to John Lewis to buy dd that portable tv we've been planning on getting for a while.

BalloonSlayer · 29/06/2009 23:04

It also depends on the child too, surely.

My two elder DCs are 7.6 and 9.

If DD (7.6) had a telly in her room she would probably only use it to watch educational programmes as part of her interminable "playing schools" with whichever hapless younger child she has managed to capture and force to play with her (usually a kid who hates school who has naively thought that coming over to play with DD would be a welcome change from all that hard work). Her school progress would be - predicatably - unaffected.

However if DS1 (9) had a telly in his room, he would spend the entire day watching endless repeats of Spongebob/Drake&Josh/Hider in the House, playing Playstation, picking his nose/toes/arse and only emerging for meals. We would never see him. His school progress would go right down the drain.

Some people have DCs of one type. Some of another.

And yes of course I have met the year 7 children with the big black rings under their eyes who tell you all about their prowess with Grand Theft Auto, which you can just know guess was all earned during the small hours, with the sound off so Mum and Dad can't hear... DS1 would be like this given half a chance - he can whistle for his telly.

barnsleybelle · 29/06/2009 23:12

But.... it can be turned off you know....
Ds is 7 with a tv in his room. He watches it when i say, and turns it off when i say.
It's about parental control.

posieparker · 30/06/2009 09:45

97% of children from deprived areas (ages 9-13) have television in their rooms in comparison to 50% of their more affluent peers. These children were six times more likely to watch TV during an evening meal. These children are also more likely to watch programs too old for them.

Most studies use very negative language about TVs in bedrooms too, like 'the alarming fact is that 50% of the nations 3 year olds have a TV in their bedrooms. Every wellbeing program about child they take Tvs out of bedrooms and limit time on the family TV too.

Now whilst many don't neatly fit into that box it is a frightening statistic isn't it?

flashharriet · 30/06/2009 09:50

Have just come back to this and am a bit disappointed that no-one answered my questions. Would be really interested to hear the views of those with TVs in bedrooms.

Also, I realise that TVs can be turned off and parental control is all, but with 3 children potentially watching TV in 3 different bedrooms, that's an awful lot of monitoring. How do those with 3 or more DCs do it?

posieparker · 30/06/2009 10:00

I still don't understand when these children are watching telly in their rooms and not in the lounge, unless people have one room downstairs. Surely that means that all of the household are watching TV seperately??

madwomanintheattic · 30/06/2009 10:16

dd1 has a tv in her room. it's not tuned (from laziness rather than decision lol).

it is truly fab for gender-stereotyping dvds although i do sneak in occasionally for a bit of a trip down memory lane... mind you, ds is causing a bit of angst at the mo wanting star wars various instead of hsm...

mine too are sporty, bright and obsessive readers. i force them into the bedroom with a dvd when they are whining i need to hoover and they are under my feet.

none of them have even asked if they can watch it in the evening. it hasn't occurred to them (they are too busy being middle-classed to within an inch of their lives)

i can't get excited over it tbh. we're moving, and in the new house i think it will probably go in the den/ playroom - but only because we'll have one, we haven't here...

madwomanintheattic · 30/06/2009 10:23

(that would be ds1 who does ballet who wants to watch star wars. i would have thought he'd rather watch hsm tbh, but apparently not. despite the fact he was desperately upset he couldn't go the pta fundraiser 'mumma mia' (sic) night...)

and dd2 who is insisting on reading the hideousness that are beast quest. she's 5.

abraid · 30/06/2009 10:26

Posie, I have heard this, too.

Even adults shouldn't have TVs in their bedrooms. TV watching in bed is associated with insommnia.

Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa · 30/06/2009 10:37

Oh dear we have a TV in our bedroom too.

I watch it when I'm bf'ing DD3 at 1/3/5am. Insomnia? I don't have time for it

Now DD2, who is 4.5 does not have a TV in her room, she's asked, but she would watch it ALL the time. She does watch the TV in our room sometimes if she's tired and feeble and whining.

I think I am now officially the worst and most chavtastic mother in the world. I obviously cannot be a good parent if I have 3 tv's in 3 different rooms. My poor, deprived children with their bookcases groaning with books and their many sporting activities.

Oh well.

Walkingwiththighosaurs · 30/06/2009 10:38

Insommnia! It sends me off to sleep very nicely!

My DS (age 9) has a TV in his room, he is allowed to watch 20 mins each night, but this is DVD's not TV. He tends to watch cartoon type things. Currently watching Spacechimps. He still likes to bring duvet down when he is poorly and sit on the sofa, so the poster who said this would not happen if they had a tv in the room is wrong.

Oh and we are not fat (size 10) or lazy and we don't eat junk food. We enjoy a variety of programmes and in fact watch a lot of National Geographic, DS has learnt loads from this and watches with great interest.

Walkingwiththighosaurs · 30/06/2009 10:40

Oh and forgot to say, sometimes when I am in the shower I watch Coronation Street, because of the postion of the shower cubicle in our En-suite and the TV in the bedroom, you get a perfect view

Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa · 30/06/2009 10:44

@ showering and watching TV (but not Corrie!!) Also @ en-suite, you're posh Walkingwiththighosaurs..........

madwomanintheattic · 30/06/2009 10:45

on saturday we had a chinese takeaway (a first for the dcs) and ate in the lounge in front of a film (cinema night!). the dcs thought it was the most exciting thing in the world (we had popcorn too...), and dd2 went into school on monday and told everybody on the teaching staff... who all commented on it at pick-up time...

tearinghairout · 30/06/2009 10:47

I have always felt uncomfortable about TVs in bedrooms and totally agree with what Posie has been saying.

BUT.. my DTWs are nearly 16 and we have got to the point where one is watching Top Gear while the other one comes in & wants to watch Gossip girl.

So I am thinking of getting another TV. As has been said, when dch are small adults watch after the dch have gone to bed, but now that they are older, know how to read, will do their homework etc, maybe it would make life easier for them, but I still don't like the idea of them cutting themselves off for hours watching Tv in their bedrooms - they already spend enough time up there away from the rest of the family.

Will get one in the kitchen! (But will NOT be having it on at breakfast - can't bear that drivel!)

Walkingwiththighosaurs · 30/06/2009 10:50

Oooh Grumpy no-one has every called me posh

posieparker · 30/06/2009 10:51

I am very amused by the many posters who feel the need to comment on their balanced lives with reference to books and sports, noone without TVs in bedrooms have felt the need.
It would be quite ironic if we all had fat, antisocial dcs who also watched no TV!!!!

Walkingwiththighosaurs · 30/06/2009 10:53

From my experience tearinghairout, once they become teenagers, they will spend hours in their bedrooms, TV or no TV.

Grumpyoldcaaaaaaaa · 30/06/2009 11:21

I think posieparker we have felt the need to point out that our children are not fat, antisocial, deprived lardarses because the majority of your posts have been to the effect that children who have a TV in their room are invariably fat, lazy and live in a socially deprived area. Perhaps if you made slightly less sweeping generalisations and accepted that some children can have gadgetry in their rooms but can also lead a full and healthy life, we would not feel quite so defensive.

There is nothing like being made to feel that you are somehow a terrible parent to make you defensive.

It's a tv in a room ffs, we don't beat/starve/abuse our kids.

posieparker · 30/06/2009 11:26

I wasn't making sweeping generalisations I was merely stating the reasons that some may have for not putting a TV in a child's bedroom. Like the research shows it does have negative connotations.

barnsleybelle · 30/06/2009 11:29

I think people who have tv's in their childrens rooms are commenting on how active their children are due to the fact that a number of posters have implied that sitting and watching tv alone in a dark lonely bedroom is all they do. .

My children are not allowed to watch tv whilst eating any meals.

When ds does watch tv in his room it most certainly does not mean that we are all in different rooms doing the same!! Goodness me people have some sense.

Ds might want to watch walking with dinosaurs or some other programme or film that my toddler might find scary. It's not that ds is watching age inappropriate programmes in his room, it's that i don't want dd to see age inappropriate programmes in the living room.

DD chases him around like a lunatic and sometimes he likes to retire to his room for some much needed alone time... We need it for goodness sake and so does he!!!

He may go up and read a book, play with his toys or watch tv... his choice.

He does not watch tv just before bed or whilst in bed, it's under his high sleeper so he can't see it from bed anyway.

Any more questions i'm happy to answer.

Flog me, do what you like... i'm a 4 tele owner and i'm not ashamed.