Television In My Children’s Room

Dear Eya,
I need help with Television in my children’s room. Recently I removed the Tv in the kid’s room to enable them focus more on their studies and this didn’t go down well with their father who argues that
children  learn a lot from watching TV. 

I did not ban them from watching, all I wanted was to restrict their TV time to one or two hours  before bedtime. What used to happen was that after bidding us Goodnight, they enter their rooms to go start watching TV. When the TV is on they hate being called upon to do any chore. 

I am trying my best to convince my husband that these days there is more of fun and entertaining programmes than educative programmes for children. Incase I fail to convince him, I may have to return the TV to their room.  I used to know the TV as a very good tool for children’s education,  not anymore.

Aunty Eya please, I have learnt a lot from your blog and look forward to learning again concerning this matter. Can you help by telling me what you think about keeping Televisions in children’s rooms? Do you think it’s OK?

13 thoughts on “Television In My Children’s Room”

  1. Wow, how old are ur kids? To me a TV in the kids room is so unnecessary. Do you know the kind of things they watch? Even if you put parental control on it, there are a lot of 'kids' shows/movies that require parental guidance. Explain this to your hub.

    Also, children are supposed to have proper sleep (both length and comfort) to enable them function properly especially at school.

    We parents really have to know where to draw the line between giving our children the best and doing what's best for them. I noticed that a lot of kids' creativity are killed at a tender age because of over fixation on television. It does more harm than good.

    Make hubby see these reasons but if he doesn't agree, return the TV but make sure you keep an eye on them. If they refuse to do chores, look for other privileges to seize. When it's bed time or chore time or study time, cease all the cables and chords attached to the tv cos simply putting it off wnt work. Seize the power chord and return it when they have T.V time.

    Make a time table for them and allot one or two hours for t.v. let them play board games instead if they have more play time if you have a big compound, let them play outside. This will help them mentally.

    Also allot family time. In my house, family time is from 7-9pm. Dinner by 7, then we proceed to the living room where we have discussions as a family, talk about our day or challenges we are faces or general gist or watch shows as a family. After that the kids go to bed straight! This will help reduce their 'alone t.v time'.

    So dear, if he doesn't agree, there's a way around it. If he isn't always at home maybe due to long working hours, then better for you. Deal with the kids very well before he comes home. Lolz

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  2. @Ahdaisy u are a tough and correct mummy joor,I like this comment,esp @deal with them well before their saviour daddy comes back'.u said it all!that's the entire solution to ur problem Madam poster!

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  3. Lolz. You dnt preserve meat by fanning it or covering it with a blanket. You either roast it, cook it or put it inside the freezer. That's the way we parents should raise our kids (within reasonable limits though). The rate at which children 'spoil' these days, there's little room for petting. And as usual, if they spoil, people will say “ahn ahn, what kind of MOTHER raised this person?"

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  4. Some salient points to help with convincing the oga @ the top:
    1. Children have a lot to learn from TV (the good, the bad, & the ugly). Difficult to assess the impact of what they watch in their closet… They will learn more good things watching with the entire family… I watch what my children watch and we chat as the program is on. I control what they watch and get them to undertand why certain programs are not good for them at this stage – including some bad cartoon shows. Sure you wouldn't want your children to be having nightmares?
    2. I use to have TVs in all the rooms… In agreement with madam, the only room with a TV is our room. Two TVs are available to all – the children and general parlour. There’s better bonding when the whole family sits together to watch a common program – gives you the opportunity to understand their reasoning pattern.

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  5. If ur hubby insists on letting them keep d Tv, set parental control on as ahdaisy mentioned and have 1hour or 2 for tV time. Set this rule and make it b obeyed, be strict. My son has a lil tv in his room but its for his ps3 only and it only has only 1 cartoon channel and they show mostly babylike cartoons so he hardly ever watches d tv. D only challenge is him n his sister r always fighting over wanting to watch different things on d tv in d front room during tv time so I have to split their tv time into 2, half for him and half for her.

    When he is older I intend to set d tvchannels in his room to only 3 channels by deleting all d stations n setting and selecting child friendly stations so he'll have 3 channels only. No child of mine dares to turn d tv on during bed time, dey kno mummy will seize d ps3 or no tv time for 2whole days so that's wat I tell them if dey try 2 misbehave at all.

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  6. Please, let's be careful about "overpampering" of our children based on our economic advantage. We need to monitor, guide and guard them from the negative influences through the media: mass and social.

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  7. Parents these days all want their kids to be swag. I have a friend who flies her sons tshirts collers and wears their jean low below the waist line. We really have to be careful what we expose them to, cos at the end of the day, it will come back to us. No one parent is perfect but we can do so much in shaping a better future for them. For me, I have TV in my kids rm but it only comes on at weekends from 1pm to 4pm. And during the holliday they are free to watch for 6 hrs. They are only allowed CBB,history, discovery, nat geo, all news channels, and religious channel. All oda channel are locked down They don't like it but am the boss lady and my hubby supports it 110 percent.

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  8. i dunno .. i dont have kids lol

    but i agree with cutting their tv time, please they need sleep! maybe they can get special tv time during holidays or on fridays but erm bye

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  9. TV in the children's room? A big NO imo. I didn't grow up with such, so I'm not introducing such to my children. Even my parents don't have TV in their rooms, how much more we the children.

    Bedroom is for sleeping, resting and meditation.

    Reply

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