I once heard that a tv in the master bedroom is a hindrance to a good marriage. I guess when you go to bed at night if you are watching tv that means you aren't doing married people things! We have always had a tv in our bedroom. Before we had kids we used to sleep in late on Saturday's and lay in bed and watch Lifetime movies. Fun times! That seems like a lifetime ago, but we had great memories of sleeping in before kids!
Now the tv is in our room more for me. When Aaron's on the road it helps me fall asleep to have it on. I don't even have to watch it, but I just like the noise to keep me from hearing other random noises while I drift off to sleep!
These past two weeks that Aaron's been gone I have not gone to sleep with the tv on once. I am so proud of myself and I have decided that when we move we'll not be moving the tv into our bedroom. I want a romantic bedroom with no tv, no office, no workout equipment. Just a bed. That's it. Simple.
We have always said that our kids will never have a tv in their room. Even when they are older, we won't have it. The last thing I need is my teenage boy sneaking off to watch something in his room that wouldn't be appropriate for him, or my teenage daughter so wrapped up in shows that don't model positive self image and body behaviors. Call me old fashion, but I will continue to monitor what my kids watch until they leave my house. I feel it is my motherly duty.
So many families spend the evenings in different rooms so that everyone can watch what they want. I don't want tv to have a handle on our lives that we spend our evenings or days that way. In fact, I would like to have two tv's in the house and that's it. One in the family room, and one in the kitchen. I don't have the kitchen one yet, but would love to be able to watch a morning show in the kitchen. Since most mornings are spent in the kitchen I would love that.
Recently I found this website that listed some staggering statistics about kids with tv's in their rooms. 19% of children 1 and under have tv's in their rooms. WHAT? What 9 month old needs to watch tv while they drift off to sleep?
Anyhow, tell me where your tv's are. Do your kids have tv's in their rooms? Why or why not?
We have three TV’s – one in the living room, one in the kitchen & one in our bedroom. The truth is we rarely use the one in the bedroom. Maybe we should just take it out. I’m with you – we’ll NEVER have TV’s in our kids bedrooms. I think you are just asking for trouble. I don’t want everyone going their own way. I like having us all together. It also helps them learn how to take turns. We limit the amount of TV & what they watch & I also feel it’s my job to do so. My kids actually get along better when we leave the TV off for the whole day.
When we built our house, we didn’t put t.v./cable hookups in the kids bedrooms on purpose. That way, we would never be tempted to put in their rooms as they got older. I do admit, that my children do watch a lot of cartoons, but it is in the living room only. We do have one in our bedroom and one in the playroom, but it is only for DVD’s and movies. I know a lot of friends who have them in their kitchen, but the way our house is set up, our kitchen/living room, is one big open area. It is great.
We have one tv in the “den”. Actually, we have two, but one isn’t plugged in and is facing the wall waiting to be given away. We also do not have cable. #1 it costs too much and #2 we waste enough time watching the few channels we have. My children will never have tvs in their rooms, nor will they have computers with internet access in their rooms.
I grew up without television. My mother now has 4 or five tvs and at least one is on at all times and in the middle of the night, when you sneak in to turn one off so you can sleep, you get in trouble because my mom wants the noise.
We have a TV in the girls’ room and a computer in the boys’ room. The kids’ TV/computer time is extremely limited. One hour per day during the week. On the weekends is the only time that we’re more free with it. Basically things can be on 1:00-5:00 pm (or longer/shorter, depending on the day and what’s going on).
We like this set-up (despite moaning and gnashing of teeth), because every one must learn to share their space. The boys have asked if they can ask for a TV for Christmas – to put in their room. I just smile and say, “Well, that would be silly to ask for something that you can’t actually use – because I wouldn’t let you plug it in! You can watch TV in the girls’ room! But if you want to ask for one and just let it sit there and look pretty, sure. Go ahead.” More moaning and gnashing of teeth.
We have a little chart where the kids put a check mark once they’ve used one of their thirty minutes of alloted time. They each have their own timer, to keep tabs. If they forget to set their timer, or take too long getting off … or show us in any way that they cannot be trusted with this freedom, then – kapoot! It’s gone for the rest of the day (or the next day, or the weekend – whatever the circumstances deem necessary). The Wii, DS’s, and other electronics all count toward computer time. If we ask a question, and the TV or computer keeps you from addressing us appropriately and with respect – GONE! If there is fussing or whining over whose turn it is, or who gets to sit where – GONE!
Yeah. I’m no fun!
We have the occasional movie night, where everyone watches until bedtime. However, I’ve learned that the norm needs to have that sucker shut down WAY before settling down for the night.
We do have a TV in the master bedroom. We watch it sometimes. We have also found it much more effective in covering up “adult play time” than the radio. That would be the downside of NOT have a split floor plan. 😉
We have one TV–in the bonus room where we spend most of our time. We don’t have cable–only local channels–so the boys don’t get to watch much besides Saturday morning cartoons. They have a little bitty travel TV in their playroom so they can play video games and the noise won’t bother daddy when he’s recording in the studio, but it can’t get a picture for watching regular TV. That’s it. People think we’re freaks but a good ninety percent of what’s on TV is not appropriate for them to watch.
I HATE TV!!! I wanted to start with that. We have one in our bedroom that does not work….I guess it needs to be removed. We have one in our living room and we don’t even have cable! We have about 14 channels and rarely watch TV. I agree—we don’t want TV’s or computers in our girls room. I want to monitor everything they watch….including commercials! Those are sometimes worse than the TV show itself. Marlo is a nightmare if she watches too much TV and Brad automatically knows when he walks in the house after work how much TV Marlo has watched b/c she is a different child. She wants nothing to do with him if her mind is full of TV.
Anyway, I could go on and on….but I”ll stop. HA
We are almost done – the girl turns 17 in less than a month – and we never NEVER had a tv in the kids’ rooms. Nor a computer. Computer was/is always in a “public” room. Bedrooms, no. And always monitored. While I am sure my children watched things they shouldn’t, at least they knew where we stood on that. I think it is best. At least it was for our family.
Since we moved into our new home, we have tvs in our living room, kitchen (I am there too much! love the cooking shows while I’m cooking), master bedroom, and upstairs game room. But every evening we are outside – walking dogs, sitting on porch, riding bikes, etc. Just because you have them, doesn’t mean they have to be on all the time. love you, Jamie! Been praying for you while Aaron is away.
We have a television in our living room and one in our bedroom. And we will NOT have a television in our children’s rooms. It’s something my parents did with us and we will continue the “tradition” with our kiddos.
Thank you for today, you are awesome!
Our house in Chile is the first where we’ve had a small family/office room separate from the living room, and that is where our one and only television is located. I love that it is finally not in our living room, so that when guests come over it is not an ugly distraction and when there are no guests, we have a quiet place to read!
We also do not have cable. My husband would like to because he loves sports, but to be perfectly transparent as a teenager I struggled with the availability of what was on cable – no, I did not have a tv in my room and my kids NEVER will, but I stayed up later than my parents – and we have chosen not to have it to avoid those pitfalls. Consequently, there’s not much to see on the four channels we do get, so we really don’t watch much tv! If we want to watch something, we rent a movie (which we try to previously check out on Plugged In for content.)
We have 3 tvs…one in our room, one in the living room and one on our back porch…we live in Florida. I don’t want to put a tv in my daughter’s room….my mom never allowed it and I am thankful. I’ve been following you and Aaron for sometime now…love your blogs. I’ll be praying for traveling mercies for you and the boys and that your vacation together as a family is the best!
Kim P.
http://www.journeytohannah.com
We have 2 tv’s. 1 in the living room and one in our attic upstairs room. We don’t have kids yet….but we do not plan on putting tv’s in their rooms. Like you said–it just gives them more time to hear negative things or view inappropriate shows. When my husband and I got married 3 years ago–we said we would not have a tv in our bedroom. We still have not and it has been so good for us. I mean–sometimes I want to give in and get one but I know we would waste quality time. If we want to watch a dvd, we just bring the computer. I cannot tell how great it is to not have a tv in our room!!! I highly recommend it!
We have one tv in the living room and that’s it. And I actually know of a little girl who has had a flat screen on the wall in her room ever since she was born. Crazy!
alright, guess we’re the ‘bad family’ as we’ve 4 TV’s – 1] our room…it’s sometimes used in the middle of the night if spike can’t sleep 2] living room/the main tv 3] brit’s room 4] kiara/karleigh’s room – keep in mind that tv’s 1, 3 & 4 are almost ONLY used for DVD’s/videos as those are the 3 rooms where the kids lay down during the day – 1/2 the days they’ll take naps & the other 1/2, they’ll get to watch a movie [we have disney] – when we move, we’re not adding tv’s, just space!!
i’m wondering if the survey getting those stats counted the one year olds even if they shared a room wiht an older sibling.
though, we have had a tv for videos (vcr and dvd, no cable or antenna) in my daughters room since she was about 2, because we used to have to resort to videos to get her to sit still and stay calm for the half hour or so it sometimes took to finish breathing treatments for her asthma twice a day and sometimes up to every 2 hours.
we actually still dont have a main tv, just her tv and i have a similar setup in my room that just has a dvd player… neither of which actually gets a tv signal, more just as a monitor for the dvds and vcr.
We have 1 TV in the living room and it is used almost exclusively for my daughter to watch DVD’s twice a day when she does her respiratory therapies(she has Cystic Fibrosis). My husband and I watch almost no TV at all, maybe Antique Roadshow once a month-wow, that sounds so incredibly dorky-and we might watch 2 or 3 movies a month.
No TV in our kids’ rooms EVER. Bleh!
Your blog, family, life, are a such a blessing to me….we are adopting domestically right now, and plan to adopt from Haiti in about 4 years…it’s amazing to read about your beautiful children!
We have one in the living room that doesn’t really work, because I plugged it in and I can never get all the plugs right, and we have one our bedroom where the kids can come in and watch cartoons in the morning. We don’t watch it much at night anymore. It must be the married people things that gets in the way….. or maybe it’s the 3 kids that make us too tired to stay awake.
we only have 1 tv in the family room. the girls will not have tv’s in there rooms and we have never had one in our room! i love watching tv, but i only watch in when the girls are in bed. and when they are older, we will only watch something that we can all agree on (sounds like a plan, right…we will see how that one goes!!).
i will say, if joe traveled a lot, i would probably want a tv in our room for the same reason you do…i am such a chicken and i would want it on while i was falling asleep 🙂
Yeah I totally get this one. Our son has a tv in his room but it’s not hooked up to cable at all. The only thing it’s used for is his play station games. We also don’t have a computer in his room. Granted, he’s now 13 years old, but I still feel the need to KNOW what he’s filling his head with.
My nieces on the other hand, they all three have tv’s and vcr’s in their bedrooms and they are 12, 9 and 5 – eeek.
We also have rules about not sitting in front of the tv all day during the summer months and limits on time for play station. It’s all about boundaries … and learning to life a healthy life if you ask me.
I would love to get rid of the tv altogether. I am strict with it, but the sad truth is that I really rely on it, too. My kids are allowed to watch 2 shows per day. The morning show is how I shower in the morning, and the afternoon show is how I cook dinner. But they may only watch the shows I have pre-selected. That is one reason I love Tivo . . . it allows for more control over content.
There is a tv in my son’s closet but it is not hooked up to cable and only plays VHS. We rarely ever use it – it’s mostly for if we have guests and want to show a movie to the children in a seperate room. We don’t have a tv in our bedroom because I would be so tempted to watch tv instead of talking to my hubby at night!
I would definitely not allow my kids to have a working cable tv or online access in their rooms. These days, YIKES! Way too much junk out there. And the idea of every family member isolated and watching a screen in their own room makes me kind of sad for our society.
Okay, I have heard that tv can hinder a relationship also, but …when you have teenagers and you can’t stay up later than they do….it is GREAT for your marriage. You turn it on and up…and lock the doors!!! It’s a great noise diffuser!
ha im 14 and i have a tv in my room lol
we have tvs in the living room my moms room my room and my brothers room..
i also have a dvd player and gaming system.. a cheap one but i stil have one.. i have a game cube…
blechh….
gosh reading all yals stuff makes me think.. i cant wait till i turn about meh 23 cause thats around the time im probably gonna get married.. after my 4 years in college… … either music or law… witch one do u think??