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Does your kid have a TV in his/her room?

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Dick Whitman, Dec 9, 2013.

  1. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    I had a TV in my room starting when I was about sixth or seventh grade.
    I will probably allow the same when we have a kid, if a TV is still a relevant thing when that time comes. That's 12-13 years from now at the earliest.
     
  2. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    I have three kids ... the college sophomore (daughter), the high school junior (son) and the sixth-grader (daughter) ... and, yes, they each have a bedroom TV. How that occurred, however, was a very haphazard process.

    The youngest has had a little 13-inch TV in her room since she was an infant. It was there for Mom/me long before she ever was interested in any shows. The middle child, who got into video games when he was about 10, bought his first TV for $5 at a yard-sale a few years ago just so that he could play in his room. My oldest got hers as hand-me-down when she was about 14 or 15.

    I don't feel that the presence of the TVs has had any material effect on the kids' academics. My son is probably the most likely to let it be a distraction, but that's not been the locus of his few slip-ups. That AP reading list for the summer? That assignment that was done -- DONE, believe it or not -- that only needed to be handed in? That make-up opportunity that only needed to be mentioned to the teacher? That's the s**t that gets him into trouble.
     
  3. Dick Whitman

    Dick Whitman Well-Known Member

    I wonder if TVs aren't the real distraction any more.

    "If it keeps him away from the smart phone and iPad ..."
     
  4. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    We don't have kids, yet, but I just have trouble believing a TV or computer or iPad is more of a problem for children now than a TV was when I was young.
    You establish rules governing it's use, and if those rules are broken you take it away.
     
  5. exmediahack

    exmediahack Well-Known Member

    All of ours have the Kindles... these are the "new TVs".

    There isn't too much tension at this point, yet, largely as they're not at the puberty point but getting closer.

    I've treated fatherhood with a simple philosophy: Be on their asses for the first five years, hope they've absorbed how to behave, how to be curious and how to learn. Now I take a less helicopter approach... as long as they get As in school and other adults tell me they're well behaved and respectful, they can pretty much do whatever they want at home. When this doesn't happen, then course correction occurs. We've been fortunate in that they've been excellent kids.
     
  6. StaggerLee

    StaggerLee Well-Known Member

    My boys (10 and 6) share a bedroom and they have a TV in their room. Unfortunately, they've had a TV in their room for as long as I can remember. My oldest got a Mickey Mouse TV and DVD player for his third birthday (from my parents) and they've had a TV ever since. At first, it was just a TV and DVD player, but when we moved it became a TV and satellite, mainly because we were in a two-bedroom apartment and it was the same price to get every room wired.

    Oddly enough, they don't watch a lot of TV in their room. They spend a lot of time playing outside, playing with their toys inside and playing video games in the living room. The only time they really watch the TV in their bedroom is right before bed, and even then I set the sleep timer for 30 minutes and when the TV goes off, they know it's time to go to sleep.

    I didn't get a TV in my room until I was a junior in high school. At the same time, things are a lot different now. It's a lot easier/cheaper to have satellite/cable in every room than it was when I was younger. I don't mind them having a TV in their room.
     
  7. Machine Head

    Machine Head Well-Known Member

    Wait.

    Buck, you need to keep SportsJournalists.com updated on this.
     
  8. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    We'd like to have a kid in the next year or so, so I'm figuring that'll be 12-13 years before he/she is in sixth grade.
    That's around the time I got a hand-me-down TV in my bedroom; that's when my kid can have the same.
     
  9. With ipads and Kindles the concept of a TV in the room is obsolete.

    My three kids (11, 7, and 5) have Kindles (the grandparents bought the machines for the smaller kids). Like Mizzou, the two older ones are top-notch students and good kids.

    They will spend a LOT of time on those machines playing games or watching cartoons.
     
  10. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    My boys are 14 and 12; no way.

    My youngest, when he watches too much TV; he gets lethargic and nasty. He's starting to understand that it makes him no a very nice person to be around.

    Kindles? We love them because they read on them; yes they really do, not games, we caught that on early and they've been very good about that ever since.

    Reading promotes a very strong vocabulary and understanding that there's a bigger world out there; simply no substitute.
     
  11. SpeedTchr

    SpeedTchr Well-Known Member

    Not just no, but hell no. No TV, no electronics at all apart from a radio and a reading lamp.

    Books are great and easy to police. I certainly don't trust my child (or any child) to avoid the temptations that come with electronics/internet.
     
  12. Wenders

    Wenders Well-Known Member

    You say that but my parents used to catch me reading by my night light when I was a kid.

    I got a TV in my room when I was in sixth grade and my grandma died (I got her TV that was in her nursing home room). The place I'm at now is the first since that I haven't had a TV in my room and I kind of like it. I've established that I go into my room at night to settle down, maybe do a few things on my computer and then I read and go to bed. No other distractions.
     
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