Child on playdate has just told dd...

[eemie]

that she has a tv in her room and is allowed to watch it till 10pm (they're 8)

that bedtime stories are babyish

and that for her packed lunch she has a sandwich, a packet of crisps, two chocolate biscuits and a scotch egg

dd has to stop watching tv at the close of CBBC (7pm) goes to bed at 7.30, has stories till 8 or so, and has no tv or music in her room. She'd love to have packed lunches but I've always said that, until she eats more fruit and veg, she has to have a cooked meal. Also that when she does have packed lunches they'll be healthy.

Am I trapped in the 1950s?

My kids have now grown out of buggy stage. They now walk along the street eating their sausage rolls and dropping crumbs as they go. Very common.

I know what you mean though. And I know I probably jump to conclusions when I see a child in a buggy eating a sausage roll.

It just pisses me off that TV in bedrooms is automatically bad and that we should all be aspiring to bring up our children in a 1950's environment.

Were women still encouraged to put a bow in their hair in time for the husbands coming home in the 50's?

LOL my son is a thin a rake and goes to all sorts of activities like scouts and nature clubs. Freind with 2 boys who go to swim practive at 6 am and running 3 nights a week and win loads of competitions, has a TV in there room.

Perhaps parents who let kids watch TV at all hours unsupervised and play 18+ games into the small hours are the crap ones with porky kids.

Class doesn't come into it, it was very middle class in our area in the 80's and a bit of a status thing for you kids to have their own TV in their fully fitted bedrooms.

FFS you are all so perfect.

Both of my children have tv/dvd's in there room and at 7 and 9 I think it's fine.

They hardly watch them at all.

SO what? How can that make me a bad parent???

You all need to get off your high horses and stop polishing those effing halos of yours

Ooh no Skribble, fitted bedrooms are also terribly naff doncha know.

I remember seeing an article on a footballer's wife who designed houses and theirs was the usual fock off huge mansion thing.

And they had a

Oh no fully fitted bedrooms from the likes of shrieber were very middleclass stutus thing in the early 80's. along with ercol livingroom stuff. Kids got MFI though.

Halo as an alternative to the bow when hubby comes home? Wotcha reckon..

Agreed BH

Mine have tv's and dvd players in their rooms too. They probably only watch them once or twice a week and always have to ask permission and tell me what they are watching.

heheheheheh

gawd you lot are so feckin' easy to wind up

get a life

does it really really matter what someone posts on a website .. about a decision you've made for your own kids

so, you've decided to put a tv in your kids' bedrooms .. I'm sure you all have thought it through and have very valid reasons for doing so

if I put a tv in my kid's bedroom it would be so I could 'get rid of him' so he would go to his room .. that's what I'd use it for .. so I won't do it .. not because I'm perfect but because I'm so far from it I know I'd probably use it for peace and quiet

I don't restrict the tv they do have .. I don't care too much about it .. they turn it off as easily as turn it on and they won't veg out in front of it

yes many 'middle class' parents think its a daft idea .. and yes there are stereotypes involved in that thought process .. but as Greeny pints out about her fridge it could be the epitome of 'good parenting' couldn't it .. although hard to see how that relates to a tele tbh

anyhoo ... don't care what I say .. care what you say and you think

its a discussion board

I also did a double take at the "class ishoo"!
I think children having televisions in their bedrooms completely transcends class tbh.
I suppose when I was younger, televisions were super-expensive, so actually having more than one television was a sign of affluence. Not that mine was bought for that reason - rather I shared a house with 2 older brothers and was simply fed up with football, football, football.
My mother was unusual in some respects because she afforded myself and my brothers rather a lot of (disciplined) autonomy. I don't recall having bedtimes, was never watched over while doing homework and so on. But I still did it, and still went to bed when I was tired.
That's not to say of course that I would allow dd to watch unlimited television, to stay up all hours and get exhausted. But rather that I'd like her (when she is older) to have the freedom to do what I want her to do and what is sensible without being constantly overtly monitored and pushed along. Not sure if that makes sense

I think there is something to do with use of house space here. I questioned twiglet (tongue in cheek) about whether she had put a TV in her kid's playroom (because she had a previous thread about it). And someone has come back and said it is not the same as in the bedroom because of supervision etc. But in our house DS's bedroom is really the main playroom. We have very few toys downstairs. The last two days (I have been working) we have not used the living room until after the children have gone to bed. We have played upstairs/done DS's reading book in my bed. And on Monday during the day DD and I read for 10 minutes in there. Then we had friends around (a total of 8 children aged between 1 and nearly 6) and they played mainly in the bedrooms although the younger ones were up and down the stairs quite a bit. We mothers sat in the living room. But the living room is the room with the TV. There is also a small portable in our bedroom receiving channels 1-5.

I have to admit that I don't like the idea of TV in bedrooms - and that goes for my room as well

Whilst I can understand the teenage thing, what I really don't get is why anyone would have their younger children in their bedrooms watching TV rather than in the sitting room.

It seems to me to be fragmenting the family somewhat - although perhaps that is because if we watch TV or a DVD we tend to do it as a family. TV not on otherwise.

My fear I suppose is that they end up watching TV in their rooms at a time when I would prefer if they were reading a book - i.e. wind down time before sleep.

When are children with TVs in their room watching it - I really would love to know!

Agree Soapbox, I have a really stupid thing about not wanting a TV in my bedroom either. I don't really know why I dislike the idea, though, I think it's something to do with current ideas about bedrooms just being for sleeping in, and having lots of other stuff around not associated with sleep, can be disturbing to sleep. But in most houses, there simply isn't enough space not to duplicate uses of a bedroom.

Well DS1 uses his to play ps2/xbox for half an hour after school if he's not playing out.

If his younger siblings would leave him alone he'd be able to do that downstairs but DS2 will turn tv on and off and generally make a nuisance of himself.

My DD's wind down time before bed is quite often watching the Bedtime Hour on CBeebies though. (Not in her bedroom of course, perish the thought. )

And actually often my wind down time before bed is watching TV. Is watching TV not a good wind-down activity?

What conclusions do you jump to when you see a child in a pushchair with a sausage roll???
I know that was a bit of side issue but really. Does allowing your child a bit of rubbish food very occssionally because you are very busy make you a bad parent aswell now?

Ooh LizaLu see about a million threads passim.

I read these kind of threads though Caligula - and wonder whether I am from another planet - or more likely an other age

I'm going to be that mother that all the children's friends think is loopy, aren't I!

I suppose it's not just the fact that I disagree with the TV thing, but that I can't even begin to understand why one would want one in their children's rooms. Makes me feel very out of touch!

OTOH, I have been playing song star on the DCs playstation - although I even managed to cock that one up by buying the 80's version! However, I have managed to clock up a few hit artist ratings - kids in america being my best so far

Yes I must admit it simply wouldn't occur to me to buy one for my kid's room. When they're teenagers if they want them, they can jolly well go and buy them themselves, out of their own money that they've earned from their saturday jobs.

Unless one of their relatives buys one for them. Which they probably will and then I'll be jealous because they'll have a better model than the "family" set.

I know this couple who are so puritannical about TV that for years they refused to get a proper one and had this 14" set which they would wheel around their house depending on what room they wanted to watch it in. They thought I was frightfully vulgar for having a normal sized one, and they go into apoplexy at the mention of a plasma screen.

love sausage rolls, not crap very lovely especially Greggs .

Well caligula am new to the boards and have a free afternoon after dumping ds at mil but can guess how the sausage roll thing goes - much the same as this tv thing - so will skip looking at past threads and go and look through argos for a pink princess tv/dvd combo for dds bedroom instead.

I always think parenting is like a jigsaw tbh.
Just because someone breastfeeds/bf whatever doesn't make them a good mum just like having a sausage rolls doesn't make you bad.
There are certain things I will judge and that is things like smoking around children as I think plain selfish.
I have a tv in my dd's room and it is great. She has sn and needs and likes time by herself. I think I am being a good mum as it meets her needs and that's important. However she is not sat in front of it all the time, just when she needs time to calm down, chill whatever. I am happy with that decision.

ahem, our telly in storage is 14" - I thought it was normal, it is in colour and has 5 channels so I thought it was normal! Now I feel even older (rolls eyes onto ceiling to get better view of grey hairs)

Ok so back from ordering tvs off argos and wanted to just ask a question that kind of relates to op because that mentioned food aswell. DD came back from sleepover and had a pot noddle for tea and tea for breakfast. Another mum at toddler group mentioned giving ds 2.5 cups of tea. At this I was at least it wasn't an espresso.