TV's, computers or game consoles in their bedroom

mum2JK&TH

New Member
Do your children have any/all of these in their rooms? If they do what age were they when they were allowed?

husband and I are struggling partially in disagreement with this but as well as when it is time to give a little as they are getting older.

Just wanted to get an idea of what other families are doing.
 

stepmonster

New Member
Absolutely NO computer.
Told her that her room was too much of a pit for a tv. She finally earned it at 17!!!
I was 12, but mine was the old demoted family black & white!!!lol
 

timer lady

Queen of Hearts
Christine,

It's been within the last year that kt has had a computer in her room (no internet access though) & just in the past few months a television with parental controls over the cable. No phone.

Up until now, her bedroom had been simply for sleeping. Now she's expanding it's use to computer time, (homework sometimes), playing radio & dancing as loud as she wants, & watching her shows at night until bedtime.

She's enjoying learning to be on her own to an extent.
 

Suz

(the future) MRS. GERE
Rob had an old computer for word processing but no internet. He ended up taking it apart instead of using it :rofl: (we had a family computer in the den).

No tv/nothing else electronic, except for a stereo, in his bedroom. We wanted it to be as distraction-free as possible.

Suz
 

skeeter

New Member
NF had a TV at age 14, but was totally trustworthy with it.

NL will be moving to NF's room once all his stuff gets moved to his wife's apartment. The TV is going. Otherwise, NL would NOT be moving in there. That child will stare at a TV screen for hours.

Both have had access to a laptop, but it comes out when not in use or at night. I've also been known to turn off the router if they misuse it.
 

smallworld

Moderator
No computers, TVs or game consoles of any type in our kids' bedrooms. The TV and game console are in the family room. The computers, with internet access and under almost constant parental supervision, are in our home office. The girls have iPods that they sometimes use to fall asleep; J doesn't even want one. The two older kids have cell phones, but it is for my convenience, not theirs. They need to be in touch with me about when they need a ride home from school (it changes from day to day depending upon what they and I are doing after school).
 

susiestar

Roll With It
No computer, tv, or game console in their bedrooms while they live with us. When they are old enough to go out on their own they can have this stuff wherever they like. We don't even let them have phones in their rooms.

Jbird has a cell phone, but it lives on the entertainment center in the living room.

Each child has a boombox and a cd-walkman. J also has an mp3 player.

Just our family values.

Susie
 

SRL

Active Member
Computer is in the kitchen and is going to stay there.

TV and game console is in the basement family room. Handhelds can stay in their rooms until I find them sneaking too much and then they come up to a shelf in the kitchen.

We have a portable VHS/TV and DVD players which the kids can take in bedrooms as needed when they are sick or watching something the others can't or won't watch. Though given a choice they usually put it in the living room instead of disappearing into their rooms with it unless they're sick. This option has worked out really well for us as it's given a lot of flexibility.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
difficult child has a Game Cube in his room-the tv he plays on doesn't work for anything else. We had no other room for it and he really isn't addicted to it at all. Neither difficult child or easy child have a tv or computer in their room.
 
F

flutterbee

Guest
Both kids have tv's, computers (with internet access) and game systems in their rooms. difficult child's game system is the Nintendo DS with pretty much all animal games. easy child has just about all of the game systems except for the Wii...and that's next.

difficult child did have her computer password protected and I made her give me the password. I can see where the kids have gone on the internet via history, etc and they have never given me any reason to take internet access away. We have talked about what is safe and appropriate vs what isn't and they have had those discussions at school.

When they were younger I had parental controls set up on the internet.
 

witzend

Well-Known Member
We tried it with M when he was about 6 or 7. He became very sassy mouth, angry, and anti-social. It became an issue that went on for the rest of his life with us.

Studies show that most young kids do not do well with this type of thing in their room. To this day, I regret having tried it as much as anything I did. Second only to giving him computer games, I think.
 

Pam R

New Member
Nope, no TV in the whole house, no computer or games in his room. His computer is in the living room with ours, so he can be supervised. There are no games on it. His is not networked, so he can not get online.

The reason for this is, if he were networked, he'd go to "those sites" and allow in all kinds of viruses and bugs, which would infect all the computers. NOT going there.

He goes to the library and uses their computers for short periods, to be online.

He has a stereo in his room and that's it. That's bad enough. LOL

Pam R.
 

SRL

Active Member
Our library has blocked just about every site that a boy might typically be interested in frequenting. I found this out last week when our computer broke and I wanted to take difficult child to the library because he was obsessing over not making his daily visit to the Super Smash Bros site. I was feeling pretty obsessive about being cut off from my sites and I felt for him!
 

busywend

Well-Known Member
difficult child has TV and Playstation and now a computer that she bought herself. I unplug the internet access nightly.

Seriously, I felt pressured by what all her peers had. They had it all and I wanted to make her feel more like everyone else since there were already so many differences being a difficult child. Most likely wrong on my part.

She had the TV at about 12 when she paid for half of it. Game system is an old one from her dads that came about a year ago. Computer just about a month ago.

I do think it helps our household stay calm. Sounds weird I know, but she pretty much stays in her room and it is more peaceful that way. Maybe I am a poor parent for allowing that to be true, but it does help alleviate the stress level we both were under. I have had to weigh that out over the years - what does constant confrontation do to a child? I know what it did to me. Seemed like a TV in her room was worth giving her some peace at home.
 

Marcie Mac

Just Plain Ole Tired
When the boys were younger, each had their own TV in their room briefly - and I realized one day that everyone was watching the same progam in three different rooms. They would get their dinner and sort of disappear back into the back. I would never see anyone till they came out to get a drink or a snack. Dex loved it because he was left alone and it was quite peaceful.

I hated it and took all of the TV's to the garage, leaving only one in the den. When we had one computer, it was in the den. Game systems were in the den. They had to interact with the rest of the family and it was hard for a while.

Now that they are 23 and 24, they have become compartmentalized again - each having their own TVs and game systems in their room

Marcie
 

hearts and roses

Mind Reader
Both dds had to wait until they were 16 to have a small 13" color tv with a DVD player in it in their room. If their behavior was poor, the tv could easily be taken away. Ironically, we only had to remove easy child's tv a couple of times because she was using it as background noise, falling asleep and it would be on all night.

Computers in the bedrooms? Never in a million years.

Just last year we allowed Nintendo 64 to be allowed in bedrooms when difficult child turned 17, mostly because no one could figure out how to hook it up in any other tv except the living room!! lol.

Thankfully, difficult child has never been a big tv/video game person. She watches DVD's of Law & Order and Buffy and an occasional movie with a friend. The computer is more her thing.

I think each kid is different and you know what is the right setting for him/her. I would not be swayed by what other parents do or allow.
 
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