I am not going to lie, with children in different decades, my personal thoughts on when is the right time for kids to have a TV in their room have changed.
With my first child I didn’t want her to ever have a TV in her bedroom at all. For me it was all about good quality mattress like the ones from Simba and blackout blinds. However, I relented when she was about 7 and slightly older for having a tablet.
My boys who are now 11 and 6 both had a TV in their bedrooms from the age of around 4-5 and tablets from much earlier. However, most schools and nurseries now use TVs and tablets as standard for work nowadays and there are some fabulous apps you can use on smart equipment like tablets and TVs like Zap Zap Maths we reviewed a while back. Technology has come a long way with what TVs and equipment you can now purchase too like the stunning oled 4k tv that are on offer that we have been hankering after for a while. My daughters first TV was the size of a small car and barely had 5 channels.
In a world where everything now revolves around technology and screens, we decided to embrace technology with the boys and use it to our advantage and instead implement very strong ground rules for using TVs in their bedrooms instead of basing them on the advice we were given HERE:
- No TV’s in bedrooms on a school night as a school night routine is really important. TV’s only on weekends – But on school holidays they can use them during the day.
- No tablets after 7pm both upstairs and down!
- We implement parental controls on all bedroom TVs and Tablets
- We only download channels and apps we are comfortable with the boys watching.
- Emails are sent to us if the boys try to download something that hasn’t been pre-approved.
- Review tablets and TV regularly, especially the settings for things like youtube or games.
Although not infallible we are as parents more aware of the need to remain vigilant on what the kids are doing with their TVs and tech as they are now all smart devices that can help keep you connected but also not used correctly can cause issues. For help setting up a smart TV we liked this article here.
Knowing your child might want a TV in their bedroom can make some parents quite anxious and I think it’s normal to be worried. It’s a good thing to realise you are not alone according to this infographic parents all have their own thoughts on when the best time is to put a TV in a child’s bedroom.!
So no matter what decision you make on when the right time is for your child to have a TV in their bedroom. Remeber not one person has it right, there is no set age for children to have them and only you will know when its right to allow this kind of technology in their sleeping and playing space.
Used wisely they can enhance a childs growth and learning experiance but you do have to invest some time yourself as a parent in researching channels, apps and content and you have to be vigilent with regular check ins to see if parental control filters or levels are still where you need them to be.
Good luck on your new tech journey.
*Collaborative post*
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