I’m beginning to wonder if we are seriously the only parents on earth who do not allow our kids to have televisions in their bedrooms.
Ever since 2nd grade my oldest has asked for a tv, mostly to play video games, all because her best friend (at the time) had a tv in her room. We stuck to our guns and said no, because we all know how kids can be. For sure, she would try to sneak extra tv time or game time after lights out.
We’re still saying no, three years later, because we have an abundance of televisions in our home. There is always one to choose from and I think 11 years old is too young for setting up a bachelor pad in her room.
But did you see Oprah’s show on Thursday with the wasteful families? Every single child on that show had a television in their room! And not just small ones from dad’s old apartment. Big, brand new tvs. One kid even had a plasma screen!
Just wondering if we’re the weird ones or if there are other sticklers out there, who think the kids should be spending time with family rather than holed up in their rooms.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
My kids never had a TV in their rooms until last year when the eldest turned 16 (she’s the only one with a TV). And that was a mistake. Even she agrees. It’s a distraction especially when the task at hand is to read Jane Eyre for a senior essay but the TV is whispering “Turn on Smallville, Turn on Smallville” (my daughter is a big fan of the actor that plays Superman in Smallville).
Christina you’re not weird you’re smart.
April 19th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
None of my children have TV’s in their room, and they won’t until they are 18. Right now – at 9, 7 and 5, I think that there is more then enough time spent glued to the TV already without adding on into their rooms. And once they are older, they still won’t be allowed because if they did, I would have a harder time controling what they are exposed to. For those same reasons, none of my children will have a computer in their rooms until they are 18 as well.
April 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Stand Firm! You are definitely not weird! Course, we don’t even have a tv hooked up in our house (just for DVDs) so we’re probably the weird ones but I would never even think of putting a television in a young child’s room let alone a teenager’s.
Is it any wonder kids are unhealthy, overweight and unmotivated if they spend their free time sitting in front of a screen? And gone are the days of the entire family enjoying an hour program and then turning it off to laugh and talk about it. Now everyone is off on their own with no family interaction at all. Very sad.