<p>We have no TVs, computers or telephones in the kids’ bedrooms. They only seem to go to their rooms if they want to read quietly. We have no rules about doors being open/shut.</p>
<p>The American Pediatric Society (Association?) came out strongly against tv’s in kids’ bedrooms about l0 years ago.</p>
<p>I don’t know if the basis was psychological/social or neurological development of the brain. Curious, I asked my classroom of First Graders (poverty school) “how many have tv’s in the bedroom?” and only one kid did NOT. Generally the parents put them to sleep with VCR movies, cartoons, etc.</p>
<p>I worry about the brain development, with all the loud sounds and flashes into a child’s eyes during sleep cycles. How can that be good, neurologically? I don’t think the human race is evolved enough…we’ve only had electricity for less than 200 years. </p>
<p>Instead, I’d encourage him to read himself to sleep, if he’s college bound; and then come join others to watch tv in a more public room.</p>
<p>Then, if you decide to allow him to close his door, you don’t have to worry quite so much, IMHO. I would think he’d appreciate his privacy option.</p>
<p>Another vote against TV’s and internet access /gaming in kids rooms. Closed doors are OK.</p>
<p>as he has made the bed after a week or more of not making it).</p>
<p>this is shocking!
I was just thinking- my kids don’t even know * how* to make beds with blankets and a bedspread- they have always had comforters and covers & I am just happy that my older one has a place to lay down ( Im assuming she does, as she told me that her roommates dog prefers her bed to sleep on)
( I always think of that Mrs Piggle Wiggle story- D has a nest, rather than a bed- her sister is the only organized one in the family. When she was about 3, she would climb up on older Ds bed & clean it off, by shoving everything to the floor!)</p>
<p>She is now graduated from college and living with two college friends- one recently announced he * washed* his sheets!
It worries me a little that it was worthy of an announcement.
:p</p>
<p>But my younger daughter does her homework in the living room, she has trouble sleeping and it helps to save your bedroom for “re****l” activity, to improve sleeping habits.
We aren’t real big on tv anyway- it is too addicting- and we have enough things we hyperfocus on.
ITs why we don’t have cable- we probably would never turn it off!</p>
<p>You would think that whoever wrote the code to catch naughty words and acronyms could have also written in a lexicon of simple, common words that happen to have a possibly offending cluster of letters in them. Like the word for “full of rest”.</p>
<p>In a million years, we would never have thought to allow TVs in our kids’ rooms. But then my wife (without thinking about it) bought them computers with built-in DVD players, and my son took some birthday money from his grandparents and bought a wireless router. We might as well have given them each TVs.</p>
<p>After reading this thread, you’d think watching TV was the 8th deadly sin or something. My kids have TVs and computers in their rooms, and have no door restrictions, even if girlfriends are over. </p>
<p>I also have a TV in my bedroom, the family room, the kitchen and the rec room. I would love to have a TV in my bathroom. My oldest had a TV in his room at his college last year, and ended up with a 3.8 gpa. </p>
<p>My kids’ pc-ish private school had a “no TV” week during middle school and I told the kids to watch more TV that week.</p>
<p>I also have a TV in my bedroom, the family room, the kitchen and the rec room. I would love to have a TV in my bathroom.</p>
<p>um what would you watch in the bathroom?</p>
<p>Heidi- I get it that you like TV- but thats why you only have 109 posts and I have over ** 5,000!**
:D</p>
<p>“um, what would you watch in the bathroom?”<br>
A continuation of whatever I was watching before I walked in there! </p>
<p>“… that’s why you have only 109 posts and I have over 5,000!”
LOL! I realized I couldn’t ever move to Italy or some coastal region in South America some day because I’d miss Top Chef and Project Runway too much!</p>
<p>My school had a no-TV week and I wrote a scathing letter saying I’d be happy to observe it when they solved their addiction to TV. (The librarian used to play Reading Rainbow instead of reading and they had TV for recess any time the weather was slightly inclement.) We have one TV in the house, no cable, and at the time all my kids watched was a half hour of Pokemon a day.</p>
<p>My kids do have computers in their rooms, I thought about not having them there, but we have a small house and didn’t really have a good alternative. They are allowed to shut their doors, I generally knock before entering.</p>
<p>No tv’s or computers in our kids rooms either. Actually, I wouldn’t care if the college kids put them in but they don’t own their own tv’s and we’re not going to buy them. We have three computers in the basement (finished) and the boys play computer games down there much more then they watch tv. I don’t mind shut doors at all but absolutely not locked at night. </p>
<p>My daughter is the only one that hangs out in her room for any period of time when she’s home, so it seems like a moot point anyway. BTW, I only heard of adult swim last night when my college son was channel surfing and paused there for a minute. We only got cable last year.</p>
<p>k, I am just curious, why was the child only allowed to close door when he was changing at age 12…what did mom think he was going to be doing that she needed to see?</p>
<p>I had no rules about closing doors. Kids (like me) are poor sleepers. Even crack of light will wake any of us up. Kids had cell phones and eventually lap tops (cheap, off e-bay, used) and could go anywhere. I just never thought about it. Both elected to spend all their time in family room together right off kitchen near me.</p>
<p>We love movies, have cable, and watch TV together (probably a lot by standards of this thread). kids are also great readers (D currently reading Brothers Karamazov, S Gravity’s Rainbow) and both credit West Wing for help in answering AP Gov’t. questions. Both also won the English Dept. award at senior awards night.</p>
<p>I didn’t have rules for food either beyond nourishment before junk and both ate thin, fit and healthy. I guess I am a bit of a free spirit, but I felt the fewer rules the better. Worked for us.</p>
<p>Heidi, I don’t view TV as a deadly sin but its effect is certainly pernicious. We had a “no TV until the homework is done” rule and as a result the TV was often off, except for watching movies on DVD (when homework was done), sporting events, or news programs for weeks at a time. I don’t see that my D has suffered terribly from this and I do see the benefits.</p>
<p>Hi. I’m Mythmom’s son. What she said about me is true and also I was on my school’s academic team (trivia questions ranging from math to movie trivia) and I was able to answer so many government, politics an dhistory questions from watching West Wing and many medical questions from watching House. I think reading is important, but someone who experiences all aspects of society will be better able to function and connect with the world.</p>
<p>I an extremely dubious that having a working knowledge of “American Idol,” “The Sopranos”, “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Desperate Housewives,” MTV, or 98 percent of commercial TV programming is of any benefit beyond grist for water-cooler chat.</p>
<p>“West Wing” is indeed an outstanding tutorial and–for many of the seasons, a well-written drama/soap opera–and is one of the rare exceptions. Based on input from a friend, we watched a couple of episodes on DVD and then acquired the whole seven-season set and are currently plodding through the “down” Season 5.</p>
<p>Each to his or her own. I noticed that “West Wing” was also considered acceptable by the pc crowd at my kids’ high school. It was a delightfully liberal show. </p>
<p>You anti-tv luddites 
have anything against the history channel? The Discovery channel? CNBC? The Golf channel? Sci-fi? The food network? How about the movie channels? Do movies offend you? How about the independent movie channel? What about CNN? Do you think it’s “wrong” to get your news from the news channels? Is all reading good and all Tv bad?</p>
<p>It’s a leap to say that someone who doesn’t watch or doesn’t own a TV is “anti.” I have no desire to convince someone else that their pasttimes are more or less worthy than my own. For the record, I don’t golf either.</p>
<p>I would argue that it was not a leap to say that most posters on this thread seemed to be “anti-TV.” Note thedad’s “tv is pernicious” comment. [How about sports? Do you all think it’s bad to watch sports on TV?] </p>
<p>I will concede that you aren’t anti-Tv , if that makes you feel better. :-)</p>
<p>Actually, it’s the ads I can’t stand. We now watch all TV shows on DVD. We are down to the last episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (One a day.) So I don’t think I’m exactly anti-TV. But I do find the sort of history or science you get on TV to be generally somewhat unsatisfying. I can usually get the same information quicker from *Scientific American *or a book - where I can skim past the stuff I already know.</p>
<p>I love the History Channel - but like mathmom, I skip commercials on the DVR and also get to choose when to watch things. I’m still addicted to West Wing and am currently re-watching the DVDs.</p>
<p>However, I still don’t want a TV or a computer in a bedroom. (Or food for that matter.)</p>
<p>Raising my son we avoided all network news after we saw my, then 1 year old, son alert to the sound of a gunshot during a news segment. We restricted him to PBS until he was in elementary school and added kids channels (Disney, Nickelodeon, etc) until junior high. There were exceptions - like the Olympics, watched with Mom or Dad.</p>
<p>I found my son did not differentiate commercials from shows for many years. He also did not understand what was real in commercials. He was really disappointed that we couldn’t buy a working Star Trek transporter when he saw a commercial for a toy that showed characters disappearing.</p>