TV In a Child's Room?

I don't think that MY child needs a TV in her room. She, unfortunately, likes TV way too much & we are actually in the process of severely lessening her TV time. I am ok with TV in the living room, but in my kid's bedroom? I don't think so. We've made it 5.5 years without one & I'm hoping to keep it that way for as long as possible. Families are already so disconnected because of technology, (and various other things) and I don't want her thinking it's the norm or a possibility, to have a TV in her room. She is an only child, so I already feel bad about her being "lonely", but, alone in her room, watching TV? No thank you.

My son has had a tv in his room since he was around 2...I know what horrible parents he must have! NO he doesnt sit and watch it everyday all day, he only watches it at night to help him calm down.

My son was 3 when he got a TV. I didnt want him to have it till he was at least 13 but I have a brother that tells the kids what mommy doesnt allow uncle is going to buy. I yelled at my brother when he did it. He got him one of the Cars tv's with the built in dvd player. Needless to say he watched his movies that whole Christmas break and then it wore off. He barely watched it after that and after a couple years it is no longer in his room.

I have four kids, three of which are grown. I never allowed them to have a 1) TV 2)Computer or 3) Phone in their rooms. I think it is too easy for a child to get into the habit of going to their room and disappearing. We wanted our kids with us, in our room WITH us watching t.v. and hanging out.

The result? All of our kids, even now, like to come to our room to watch t.v. We all pile on the bed/floor and hang together, as a family. I love that about us!

My kids are 4, 6, and 8. They all have flat screen TV's in their rooms, with satellite boxes and DVD players.

Shocker that they are all amazing sleepers, don't use the TV's often at all, and know that 9:00 is lights and TV out, if not, they lose both.

The world is technology today. It is what it is. We have a TV in our room as well. We watch movies sometimes, footall, news in the morning, etc. But again, it's not on all the time.

Hubby and I talked about it last night that our kids really watch 30 minutes of TV per day..the 30 minutes they have in their rooms before they go to sleep.

TV is not the devil. I get the reasons moms are saying no, but in that respect, I don't know ANY of my kids friends who DON'T have TV's. So sometimes the normal answer on here is not the normal in your life answer either.

Our boys are 12 and 15 and they know will never have a TV or computer in their rooms as long as they live with us.

We have one TV in the entire house and that is all we will ever have in this house. I see no reason for a TV in anyone's bedroom including mine. My son is 8. I think a TV in a child's room would result in isolation from the family, be a hassle to enforce rules, and would be a disruption to sleep patterns. Bedrooms in our house are quiet places for sleeping and reading. My son doesn't even play much in his bedroom.

You are right on. Don't do it. It separates the family.

You sound like an awesome parent!

We have a tv in the playroom, one in the living room, and one in the guest room. We don't allow TVs in family bedrooms no matter how young or old. Why can't she wind down and watch kid stuff in the main room with the family? With DVR to see what you want when the time is better, there's no reason in my opinion, for us to start watching our show 20 minutes later so we can have a proper bedtime routine with the kids. The playroom has a TV but honestly we've lived here for 5 months and that one has only been on once in 5 months (when there were several children here and they watched Tarzan while playing, while we had the adults here to watch a UFC fight that evening). Otherwise, it's just never been on.
My reasoning is that I remember my mom in her den watching TV and sewing, dad in the living room watching TV, my brother upstairs in his room watching TV, and me in my room listening to my stereo or sitting in the empty kitchen at dinner time eating alone. That was messed up. And the family fell apart. Does having a personal TV doom you to divorce? No. But why not keep your family together and having family fun, developing relationships, while you still can?

For us, the answer is never. Our kids range in age from 5 - 13. As someone mentioned below, it just serves to further separate and isolate people. For many years, we had only one TV in our house. The kids had to learn to negotiate with each other regarding what to watch, whose turn it was, etc. and it cut down on my DH having the TV on all the time, which is one of his bad habits.

Last year we finished a playroom in our basement and connected an old TV that just plays DVDs and video games, which the older kids use when they have friends over, and added a teeny flat screen to a club house area that my husband built for our younger boys. Yes it's great to have them no longer fighting in my family room, but we also have a much harder time tracking who is watching what or playing what and for how long. As you kids get older, it's harder and harder to pull them away from personal, portable media such as their phones so I think it's wise to keep media usage in public spaces in the home as much as possible.

My daughter has had a tv in her room since she was a toddler. I knew what she was watching and how much she was watching, and made sure that it was within reasonable limits. It also had her video games hooked up to it. Having a tv in her room didn't harm her or impair her ability to learn. She was reading independently at the age of three and was in gifted/talented accelerated classes once she started school.

my son is 5. he is an only child and has never had a tv in his room. it might be different if we were a big family and had to share the family tv with more people, or if the house was noiser/more crowded/busier and he spent more time in there. but since we are such a small closely bonded family, i don't like shoo'ing him off into his room to be by himself and stare at the tv. not to mention the only extra ones we have are the old 400 lb tube style and i wouldn't be able to live with myself if he got hurt somehow. it might change when he gets older as well. i have no problem with a teenager spending SOME time in his room watching tv or playing video games. as long as it's not ALL night EVERY night. the teenage boys i know watch things and play games i don't want anything to do with.

We don't have a TV in our daughter's room (she is 4) because I figure she already has ample opportunity to watch during the day, her bedroom is for reading and sleeping, and the setting needs to be conducive for settling down and going to sleep. The only way I would allow it is if she is old enough to have an after-school job and can save up her money and buy the TV herself! Like others have said, I don't like the idea, as she gets older, of her being constantly holed up in her room, and something like a TV being another possible distraction from school work and studying. And if I were to allow it now, it would be really difficult to get rid of it later if we had to. Better not to allow it at all in the first place. Unless, like I said, she wants to pay for it herself!

Our kids are 15 and 12. They know they will never have tvs in their rooms as long as they're in our house and they're okay with it (mostly). We prefer the family be together. We have a big screen tv in the main floor family room + a second one in the basement so it's not like they don't have the opportunity to watch if they want. Do I end up watching more of the Disney Channel than I would like? Yeah...but so what? I'd rather have them near me than behind a closed door.

We lost power for a few days this fall due to some storms and saw a girl whose back yard touches ours - hadn't seen her in months. She told me that's because she just goes home from school and shuts the door to her room...has a tv, dvd, game system, and computer in there...no reason for her to come out. To me, that's really sad. She's 12 and is isolated.

That's not to say that your child would be isolated simply by having a tv in their room...but I think kids who don't are more likely to interact with their families and friends.

Oh - and mine don't/won't have computers in their rooms either. It's our job as parents to monitor their internet useage and you can't do that very well behind closed doors. They can use the desktop in the family room or use a laptop in an open area. :)

My mother never allowed a t.v. in our bedrooms. I didn't even have a phone installed in mine til I was 18. My son will not have a t.v. in his own bedroom until he can buy it himself. Same goes for video games and other electronics. We have a familiy t.v. and computer. It works for us.

Each family has to make it's own decision & I'm sure you'll choose what's best for you daughter & your family.

Something to think about: right now, she's still young enough that there can be strict rules about TV use in the bedroom. Fast forward to middle school years, then high school. WIll you want the TV on constantly? Will it interfere with her studying? Her sleep? Will it encourage her to stay away from family areas and family interaction? Will it encourage her to expect her own computer in her room, further distancing herself from parental supervision or from just hanging out as a family?

Sorry -- you can probably tell which side of this debate works in our family. With cell phones & texting, and especially smart phones now, it can be challenging enough to keep up with what's going on in your adolescent's life (and, believe me, even the best little kids go through that time as teenagers where temptation in their face overrides what mom & dad have been saying for years). For us, computers & televisions are for family use and are in family (not personal) areas. I try to keep as loose a rein as possible, with only as tight a control as I need to -- and keeping the kids a part of our day-to-day family interactions helps.

Good luck as you figure out what is best for your family!

I'm torn. For many years my husband would not and still does not go to sleep without being in front of the tv. It made it so difficult for me to get rest and the room would feel like I was laying under a strobe light when he would constantly flip through the channels. THEN, he'd land on some stupid channel that would send terrible dreams into my head when the girls, girls, gone wild commercial came on....NOT pretty! He didn't WATCH those commercials. He'd fall asleep leaving the tv on. Then BAM, 3 or 4 am I'm dreaming things I NEVER think of when I'm awake.

So eventually, I started rooming with my daughter, then bought a big enough bed for the two of us, then decorated the room the way we both liked. You get the picture. I don't live with my husband anymore, he's upstairs and I'm downstairs.

They say that people struggle with sleep when they learn to go to sleep with tv. AND YET... When I have a full house of daycare children at night, I settle them down with a video. It's the only way I can get some kind of rest. If I only have 1 or 2 daycare children, they sleep just fine without tv and go to bed at 8:30 or 9 at the latest. But when I have 4 daycare children and my daughter and grandson, there is no way for me to settle then down before 10 or 11 which I can't afford to do and still function when I have to let them out through the night and let the early ones in at 5:30am.

I don't think it's a great idea. BUT, for those parents that have kids that frequently wake up, tv has helped mom and dad get some sleep they otherwise would not get.

My daughter is 15. The only reason she has a TV in her room is because my mother moved and didn't want to take the one she had and gave it to her WITHOUT asking me first.Yup I was pissed, but I let her keep it on a trial basis. So she has a 13 inch TV that was purchased in I think 1983 (yup it's an old one). Honestly I can't believe the thing works at all, which is one of the reasons I let her keep it. She's had it for 3 years and rarely watches it. She does have a DVD player hooked up to it because we don't have cable and I refuse to get it, nor will I let her take the Wii in there to stream Netflix, so really DVD's are her only option. Right now it's being used as a clothes rack. I have no plans to replace it with something more "modern".

When they were 16 they got a tv for their room. Actually, might have even
been older can't remember. I know not before 16.

We have always had a TV in the kids rooms. They watch DVD's or tapes whenever. They have also had cable, only could access 3 channels though, Disney, Nick, and OETA. I had skipped the other channels in the saved option. We could use the remote to go to other channels if something was on but I kept that put up out of reach.

I would rather the kids be able to go and watch their stuff and I watch my stuff on my TV. They have it on a lot but when I walk by their door they are hardly ever sitting and watching it. It like when I am ironing or doing dishes, I keep up with what's on but am not sitting glued to the screen.

My kids do't get TVs i their rooms until they're 16. We don't like the idea of them being cooped up in their rooms no matter how many rules we have in place. We do, however, have a TV in a family room or playroom when we have one of those rooms available with moving so often. All TVs in the house will have parent controls on them so the little kids cannot just jump on the TV and see sex and violence by accident, or MTV or BET with the nasty music videos. Even the TV in my bedroom has parental controls so if one of my triplets needs time alone I can send the in my room to watch a movie or show up there and not have to worry about them seeing something they don't need to. I also record learning shows on the DVR and they will watch those with permission. But no TV of their own until they're 16 because we want them with us as a family. Why be separated?

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

Not for us. Maybe when they are teens??? We have a guest/toyroom right off from the living room and there is a tv in there for the kids to watch if we want to watch something different in the living room.

My kids have one in there room. But I do not have cable on there t.v. So if they want to watch something. It would have to be a Video. Plus my kids ask me if it is ok to watch this movie or that movie. Our Movies are in the office. My daughter's T.v is mounted onto the wall that is up high. She needs to have someone over 5 ft to insert the movie. We just didnt want her to break the t.v. We had a disney t.v with dvd player prior and it got broke as soon as we bought it. Now it's a wall mount. flat screen. Not real big but nice.

we have one in our kid's room(ages 1,4 , 6)got it couple of years ago. It only has the vsr connection. They hardly ever watch it, so no i do not regret it. I do not see what the big deal is.

I'll agree with the others on the issue of isolation. My son has one for the Wii because he plays games that I don't want the younger ones 1yr-9 to see.

No TV in their rooms. One central one but we're getting one upstairs for the "playroom" for my older son who is preteen and has earned a little space. There will be rules around when he can "disappear" with even limits around that. I agree with April C. I think it can cause lots of division if not monitored carefully.

My kids each have a small tv in their rooms with built-in video/dvd players - they were at least 14 when we bought them second hand and do not have a converter box for either one so they can't even watch tv stations. They are only permitted to watch videos we get from the library when they just want some quiet time in their rooms. They are well aware of the rules and have never broken them so no, I have never regretted my decision. You don't say how old your daughter is, but I personally don't think tv's are a good idea for very young children. Good luck!

My hubby got one for my daughter two Christmas's ago and she rarely uses it. It is a flat TV with a built in DVD player. He wanted to get something that she would use for a long while and not grow out of like the princess or hello kitty TV’s. It does come in handy when she wants to watch one of her movies or if she has a friend over. She has the remote and knows how to work it, but chooses to play with her toys over watching it.

My kids are 15, 12 and 9 and none of them have tv's in their rooms (they all have their own room) and they never will. All of our kids go to our ex's every other weekend and they have tvs in their rooms at their houses and thats all they do on those weekends. We have a family and living room so the kids watch tv in one room and hubby and i can be in the other room. we don't have a tv in our bedroom either. We are just not big believers that the kids should be hiding out in their rooms.

Both my kids HAD a TV in their rooms...Both around age 2, started out, I would put a movie in and sit them in there so I could shower etc. Well, slowly they started spending more and more time in their rooms "playing" aka watching TV.

I even woke up one time in the middle of the night, walked downstairs and noticed my then 4 year old daughter awake watching adult swim on cartoon network. Next day, both the tv's got taken away. It was convienent for mommy to shower but not worth the extra hours they snuck watching tv.

They are now 7 and 4 and can't understand why they can't have TV's back in their rooms. We have 1 in the living room and 1 in the playroom that they can watch, no need for bedrooms tv's too!

Both of my kids have one. My 10y son got his when he got an Xbox 2 years ago. It is connected to FIOS because we got a deal, and he doesn't always want to watch the same shows as the 5y girl.

My 5y got a Craigslist TV with built in DVD/VCR (old silver one) for her room. No FIOS. It is so that she can watch her DVDs and tapes when others want to watch something else. I am glad that I it for her. I control what she watches because she can only watch the DVDs that I take to her room.

My oldest only has a tv in her bedroom because it is also the playroom. She doesn't watch regular tv on it (although it is hooked up). We have a VCR/DVD player hooked to it. She watches a show in her room on a rare occasion. For when we all are home and my husband and I can't watch one more cartoon or when we are trying to have a serious conversation about something. VERY rare. It's just a little 13" tv.

We also have a tv in our room. Our room sits just off the living room. We only watch tv on it if one of us wants to watch something different or want to go to bed early and watch tv in bed. VERY rare, but nice to have that option.

I also hope to move my girls together into my youngest daughter's bedroom in the future. It is smaller and would just be used for sleeping. I really hate having all the toys in my oldest's room. But, it is the way it is for right now.

we put a tv in our daughter's room so she could play her atari, our tv won't accomodate it. she doesn't spend anymore time in there than the usual child. she also uses it to wind down at night before going to sleep, she turns it off when she's ready to go to sleep and it's usually only on for about 30 minutes before she's ready. before the tv, she relied on us to lay in her bed with her and now she doesn't, and she sleeps all night. if the tv gets to be a problem, i will not hesitate to remove it, but for now it works for us. every family has their own standards and ideas as to what works for them. by the way, she's 4 and a half

Both of my girls have lcd tvs in their rooms. They are 4 and 10. Both only watch it a little (my little one less) and no, they are not staying up at all hours. Bedtime is 9pm and the tv is turned off way before that, if it's on at all. I record my 4 year old's shows and so we can turn those on (she doesn't work the remote) and we also have a ton of free movies to watch from our Uverse package.

No. I would not permit a TV in a child's room. We do not have on in ours, so I think it would be illogical to let my child have one in theirs. The bedroom is for sleeping and relaxing. The other reason is that I want to know at all times what my child is watching. It's amazing the crazy adverts that appear between supposedly safe children's shows!

My son has a TV in his room for gaming only...it's not hooked up to cable at all. It's in his room because I can't stand seeing and hearing the games. My girls keep asking for TVs in their rooms, but THAT'S not going to happen...ever. Between the 2 other TVs in the house, the 5 laptops, 2 iPads, streaming Netflix, Hulu and Youtube, they're getting WAAAY more than enough screen time. Plus, when we DO watch actual TV, I like to be on the couch with them. So no bedroom TVs for them and the one in my son's room will never be hooked up to cable.

I don't like the idea. We kept the TVs out of the kids' rooms til SS went to college. We don't see much of him when he's watching his own shows, playing video games, etc. The kids have TVs at their mom's house and I hear stories of them being up til 2 AM watching TV. When we vacation and the house has tvs in all the rooms, it's more of the same unless the tv they all want to play a game on is a big screen in the rec room. It's isolating, and if it's hooked up to any outside media, you don't know what in the world she's finding at 2 am. Or if she's up that late. I'm not anti-tv. I just don't think it needs to be a bedroom item.

We have not regretted our decision to make TVs and computers community space items. I don't have a tv in my room, either.

My opinion and the rule in our house...have your own tv in your bedroom...when you have your own house. Period. No debate.

I just don't feel that kids need to have a tv in their room.

I try my best to limit the tv watching to a few hours a week for the kids and the adults in our house. If my husband wouldn't cry...I would not have a tv at all in our house. I just think it is huge waste of time that can suck you in and waste hours of your day.

My kids share a room my son is almost 4 and my daughter is 6, and I do have a TV in their room. Put it in right after my daughter turned 6. But it is not hooked up to cable. I have a dvd player hooked to it, so they can watch dvd's. They occasionally watch them in there. they will never have it hooked up to cable. We do have a TV hooked up to cable but the kids almost never watch TV. Occasionally I think they do at my Mom's house but not at home. They watch dvd's and approved shows on the Wii through netflix. I don't like them watching regular TV with all the commercials. So I would say if you don't want it in there, then don't put it in. If you don't mind, go ahead but IMO cable in a child's room is not a good idea.