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Original poster

How old before TV in bedroom?

262 replies

Mummywalsh · 25/04/2011 17:38

My 2.5yo DD1 and 19mo DD2 share a bedroom and MIL has just given us a portable TV with DVD player. I've always been against the girls playing in their rooms and believe they go there to sleep, but now I'm thinking would it be such a bad thing for a quiet DVD in the afternoon, definitely not before bed or otherwise. How old were your LOs before they had a TV in their room?

OP posts:

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Minkyjj · 26/04/2011 22:56

Both my children (5 and 8) have tvs in their rooms but these are not connected to tv - just for dvds. On Friday and Saturday nights they are allowed to choose a dvd to watch in bed and they see this as a treat for behaving well during the week. The rest of the week they read when they go to bed. They always have to ask one of us to put the dvd on and we turn it off at bedtime. Its never been a problem for us and the kids are not obsessed with tv. Do what you think is right for you as a family - everyone has a different way of doing things but you will know what is right for your family.

NotaMopsa · 26/04/2011 23:09

I don't believe 'if they don't see it it's not happening' but I do think children can have very happy fulfilled childhoods without much tv
I don't like tvs in bedrooms but I am a bit old fashioned wrt the importance of quality sleep
No judging here - just our own choices and what works for us as a family

MillyR · 26/04/2011 23:10

The tv thing is neither here nor there to me. There are plenty of other things to do in your bedroom if you are allowed to make it your own space. I don't know what people are expecting to stay up all night watching; when is there ever anything decent on the tv anyway? DS has had a tv in his room for games and DVDs. It has no reception - if he wanted to watch an actual tv programme he would use the iplayer.

But the idea that children's rooms are just for sleeping in and not for playing in is a revelation to me.

The options for your kids must then be:

Play outside even if it is dark and raining.
Spend 16 years in your own home in the company of your parents at all times apart from when asleep.
Live in enormous houses with a separate wing for the kids.
Come round to my house where my children's rooms function as mini youth clubs because your kids don't want to be with adults all the time, particularly their own parents.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

1 year olds 2 year olds Babies & sleep Children's sleep

NotaMopsa · 26/04/2011 23:20

milly is that directed at me ?

MillyR · 26/04/2011 23:21

No, I think we crossposted! I am just griping generally.

NotaMopsa · 26/04/2011 23:23

I see what you are saying though. My kids DO play in their rooms just not screens

SpeedyGonzalez · 26/04/2011 23:40

My kids will get TVs in their rooms when hell freezes over and I turn into a cabbage.

NotaMopsa · 26/04/2011 23:45

millyr you sound judgy and defensive tbf

MillyR · 26/04/2011 23:58

Maybe NAM. I have a 10 year old and a 13 year old, so am moving into a new phase of being a parent, and this thread (along with another one earlier where a poster thought it was inappropriate that my 10 year old DD had her best friend - a boy - in her room or went out to play together unaccompanied) has made me wonder exactly how much freedom and space other people's kids have and if mine have too much. I could probably write a very long list of things my kids do (and which I remember most kids doing when I was young) that people no longer allow their children to do.

buttonmoon78 · 27/04/2011 00:04

I find that v sad Milly. Not only do we over sexualise young children (girls in particular) we then project our own fears and adult knowledge onto them (in particular boys, it seems).

My kids have plenty of freedom - more than many of their friends - and more responsibility too as the two go hand in hand in my eyes. They are very well rounded individuals.

As others have said - it works for me and my family.

fizzylaces · 27/04/2011 00:16

Dd1 has a tv and got it for 13th birthday. She and her friends hang out in there and it is great as I never have to watch another episode of Friends or another of CSI just in case Justin Effing Bieber is in it I wouldn't get a very young child a telly, though, and limit to 1 hr a day my 2yo's screen time despite how tempting it is to stick her in front of Nick jr

Does no-one work full time, have kids and just really want them out their hair now and again? This thread is bonkers surprising - of the other parents I know, I am wierdly strict and old-fashioned because I have waited until she's 13.

annapolly · 27/04/2011 00:17

DS has had a tv in his room since he was about 4. I don't think it has even been turned on in the past year.

He is now 10 and has his own sitting room with TV if he wants to watch or play games.

I don't see the problem, all things in moderation, don't like banning things it just makes them more atrractive.

spiderslegs · 27/04/2011 00:20

Nope - absolutely not.

Never. Until they move into their own houses & then realise a television in the bedroom is a pernicious seeker of souls.

Or not, they may gorge on the X-Factor until it spills out of their ears & their eyes pop out the back of their heads.

It's up to them when they're old enough to make that decision. Don't make that crap freely available to them at an impressionable age.

I grew up in a house without TV. My children are now doing the same. We have one TV in the sitting room on which they may watch a DVD.

buttonmoon78 · 27/04/2011 00:24

Annapolly I don't feel that I'm banning anything. I regulate their viewing/surfing but I don't ban it (unless for bad behaviour).

I feel that to watch in the only lounge where I can keep an eye on content/quantity is moderation.

Works for us!

skybluepearl · 27/04/2011 05:09

we won't bother - seems very isolating and could spell hours in front a TV which is very unhealthy mentally and physically. I just remember all the crap i used to watch on the tv in my childhood bedroom when i should have been doing other things. Seems such a waste of time.

skybluepearl · 27/04/2011 05:12

...tv isn't banned here either but it is watched in the lounge in moderation. only an hour a day mostly. it isn't an important part of our lives at all. we all have other more interesting things to do.

ExpatAgain · 27/04/2011 06:27

never, imho, deeply uncivilised..

randomimposter · 27/04/2011 08:47

what ExpatAgain said.

NotaMopsa · 27/04/2011 09:44

Annapoly take it out then. If it has not been on in a year seems odd.

Millyr I agree with you. On the one hand kids are growing up too fast abs on the other we cossett(sp?) them and allow little personal freedom. I was in a park last week with half ds reception class and my ds (2. Years) my friend was nervous and horrified that I let ds romp on a climbing frame that he could 'fall off' I was
Silly example but that sort of cotton wooling is at odds with so much
other parenting

Re the ten yr old boy poppy cock of course he should be allowed in a girls room. I have teenagers and alarm bells sound if there's a worry

Bellbird · 27/04/2011 10:16

We put a little one in the guest bedroom to keep my Mum happy when she stayed. She is one of these 'I hardly watch any t.v' types - yet will have it on in the background for company - it's a bit sad really - but she misses my Dad. I don't think the kids had realised there was so much rubbish on the box. We still use it if we want a (rare) sleep-in and the children want to see Milkshake / CBBC upstairs ... but we have no intention of buying any more. We tend to use iplayer more often these days, so they will more likely have their own laptops - eventually - maybe should start saving now ....

Butkin · 27/04/2011 10:20

DD only 8 so not an issue at the moment. Currently although she sometimes plays in her bedroom during the day she goes to bed at 7.30 and then reads/is read to until 8pm. However she does watch TV with us during the evenings and in the mornings she'll come into our bedroom to watch breakfast TV and chat.

We don't see the TV as a bad thing at all - although we obviously monitor the sort of programmes she watches.

Don't plan for her to have a TV in her bedroom but when she gets older it may be useful as I guess she'll want to watch her sort of programming at the same time as us. We don't see why everybody should just watch one communal programme at the same time - we all have a variety of interests and (in the case of DD's favourite) there is only so much Come Dine with Me that we can suffer!

Bellbird · 27/04/2011 10:21

I don't know if anyone's mentioned.. ? Apologies if you have.. but what about radios - a lot less intrusive... and more civilised. Radio 4 plays are great and waking up to Five usually gets me going in the mornings.

Of course, when I was young I always listened to the Top Forty on a Sunday afternoon and woke up to Radio 1 / local radio.

verybusyspider · 27/04/2011 10:27

just wanted to add - never and neither should they have computers in there.

Radios are brilliant - mine are 4,3 and 1 and we have a CD player for audio books or music if they need some extra wind down time in day or at bedtime.
BBC 7 had cbeebies radio on in morning - think its radio 4 extra now...

GwendolineMaryLacey · 27/04/2011 10:34

MarianneM the 'children' in question who were likely to be using their mobiles to access the internet when the wifi goes off were 17 and 20 so you can hop down from your high horse.

everlong · 27/04/2011 10:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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