Should I put a TV in my Child’s Bedroom?

Should I put a TV in my Child’s Bedroom? is a paid collaborative post with Reliant. Recent research by Relient shows that 75% of children want a TV in their room and that this request starts happening in Infant school. So let’s take on this debate about whether a child or adolesant should have a TV in their bedroom and if so what age is the best. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of having a TV in a child’s bedroom and then some tips for keeping control if you do decide to.

Putting a TV or screen in my children’s bedrooms was one of those things that we thought long and hard about. We knew that a TV screen would be a gateway to the internet, tablets and other devices. also, my boys are a year apart in age and we had to do what we thought was best for both of them. Neither I nor my husband grew up in the age of having a TV in our bedrooms as children of the 70’s, phones has wires and ipads were not even something you could dream of. But even then there was the fear that kids would get “square eyes” from too much time in front of a screen. Our boys were teens before they got TV’s in their bedrooms and we had strict rules.

Pros of putting a TV in your kid’s bedroom

A TV is much more than just a device for watching TV shows now. Something like Samsung the frame TV is perfect for a bedroom as it looks like a picture and is a smart TV, so can be used for video chatting, accessing the streaming shows and attaching to a video console. It gives you control over what your child sees and when.

One of the things we learned during lockdown is that we all have very different viewing habits and sometimes agreeing on what to watch and when was hard. Having a TV in a bedroom stops that, but for us the introduction of TV into bedrooms came with screen time limits, boundaries and rules. We have a family media use plan and the boys know if they want to keep the TV in their room that they must follow the rules.

Having a TV in their rooms has been a godsend when it came for the need for isolation allowing them to spend time comfortably in their rooms and to enjoy playing video games with their mates.

Cons of Putting a TV in your Child’s room

Did you know that The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for children younger than 2 and no more than two hours of high-quality programming for older kids? Now this was back in 2009 and a lot of things have changed since then, but it really does give you food for thought as to whether young children with developing brains should be overly exposed to a TV.

However, there is also more recent research from 2018 that suggests there are negative health outcomes associated with Televisions in children’s bedrooms. This research showed that preschoolers who had a TV screen in the bedroom (children aged 4) were likely to have unhealthier eating habits than children without, higher levels of obesity, less physical activity, and were more likely to show physically aggressive behaviors.

It can be much harder to control what children consume when they are watching TV in their bedroom and it ensures that they are only watching age-appropriate content and that includes advertising/commercials too.

Not only is it hard to control what children watch, but it can also be more difficult to ensure how much screen time happens, especially as kids’ TV is designed as entertainment to be bright, and engaging and hold their attention for as long as possible.

At what age should a kid have a tv in their room?

The research suggests that there isn’t a right age to put a TV in to a child room or an adults bedroom, however, we know that we don’t live in a perfect world.

Talking to people it seems 12 years of age is is the age that a lot of parents make the decision to allow a TV in the bedroom but with lots of conditions attached such as homework must be completed before any screen time Suypprisnlyit seems that TV is part of a bedtime routine for a lot of parents and younger children, However, we had rules about no screen time for an hour before sleep time.

A lot of children already have smartphones at this age (Again my children got one their first year of senior school), so they can access a lot of things on that which they could on TV,

The cold hard fact is that as the caregiver and gardian, the choice is yours. You may make the decision to have a TV in the bedroom from toddler stage and that is your choice.

The post Should I put a TV in my Child’s Bedroom? appeared first on Mum In The Madhouse.