A never-ending fight for TV-time

Here's a way to limit his TV time: take it out of his bedroom.

Agreed

+1

Couldn't agree more:

For my oldest kid - I allowed a TV and PC in his room when I thought he was old enough. Big Mistake; was a good student but it was a constant battle over managing his time

10 yrs later and we did NOT make this mistake with my youngest. He is now in High School (still no TV or PC in his room) and he is an Excellent student, No time managment battles at all and great study habits.

Take the TV out of the childs room!

+5 !

Our kids are young now. 4 and 6, but we have no intent on putting a TV in their rooms. Heck we don't have a TV in our bedroom. The laptops being portable can be brought to our rooms. But for the kids their computer and the TVs are in a central location.

The problem with that, quite simply, is that doing homework on paper is not going to prepare you for college. While it might pain most english teachers to hear it, the ability to spell is now significantly less useful than the ability to type forty words a minute, and efficient usage of office tools (including the automated outline formatting in Office) can cut the time required by many tasks in half.

I'm in college, and am completely dependent on my laptop. I sometimes get funny looks for it, but my GPA is high enough that I don't really care.

my daughter is 6. no TV in her room (at either parent's residence). whatever she wants to watch, i watch with her. that way, i know for certain how much time she's spending, if it's appropriate for her age, and i'm there to answer any questions.

she wants her own PC, and I'm going to build her one, but it'll be on a KVM switch with the main house PC, again, so I know what she's doing, how long she's doing it, etc.

kids are always testing you, seeing what they can get away with. rather than come up with a high-tech killswitch to control her screen time, i prefer to stay involved. As a result, I can only watch my shows or use my PC when she's not around, but that's the sacrifice I've chosen and accepted.

Not a problem at all, still no PC in the bedroom, My son uses the PC in the "public" part of my house.

Forsight counts

Once you install a TV in a kid's room, removing it creates a sense of deprivation and you can expect a fight to the finish. Kid gets hurt. You get hurt worse.

I grew up in a household without TV. Dad refused to buy a TV: he said it was a door that allowed salesmen into your house. Never missed it. Enjoyed reading. Enjoyed making model airplanes. Enjoyed playing on school varsity team; enjoyed getting top grades.

In an interview, Madonna said she had no TV in her house. She thought that's how you make sure your kids get homework done.

On the other hand, my wife grew up as a TV kid. She completed high school, went on to college. TVj kid graduated college and went on to medical school; graduated with Doctor of Medicine.

I very rarely watch TV and we limit the kids to 60 minutes a day of "screen time" (combined TV, computer, Wii, etc.) with no more than 30 minutes of recreational computer time.

The computer is self regulating since everyone has their own login and we use Parental Controls on our Mac. Once their time is used up for the day, the computer logs them out. If they are working on school stuff, it is easy to give them extra time. Plus, with Parental Controls, the computer manages when they can use the computer. That did away with the waking up wicked early in the morning or staying up late to play.

Managing the TV was a little tougher until I was helping a buddy haul away a 27" set with a broken power button. It had broken before and he didn't want to get it fixed again. The light bulb went on and I asked if I could have it. Now I have a TV with a broken power button that can only be turned on with the remote. The kids come and borrow the remote and have to bring it back when they are done. If it gets left laying around, the remote gets put up on the shelf for a day.

My kids love to use the computer and their TV time, but there is no weeping, wailing, or gnashing of teeth when their time is up. That just means that it is time to go out and play, read, or do a something else.

If I ever replace my TV, I am going to seriously consider "fixing" the power button on the new one.

It's hard to limit TV time at home If your child is watching more than two hours of television per day, you'll want to spend some time working on a plan to reduce his screen time.If you have TiVo or a DVR, record a few of your child's favorite shows and allow him to view them at specific times during the week. Once they've been watched, delete them from the recording device.