Should Your Child Have A TV In Their Own Room?

Parents have differing philosophies on how a child should be raised.  Making true the old adage, it takes all sorts to make the world go round.  Some parents feel that their job is to guide their children and to influence their thinking and their values, while others feel that they should feed, clothe and nurture their children but let their children be whatever they want to be.  Philosophies are great and we should all have some, the bottom line however with raising children is that someone or something is influencing your child.  If it is not you then it is definitely someone or something else.

Television is without any doubt a very, powerful medium.  When you consider the fact that advertisers can choose any target group they desire, teenagers for example or people in their 30s, create an advertisement and gear it specifically to influence that particular group to buy a product, then prove the success of their strategy through actual increased sales of that product, it is very clear that television is extremely powerful.   Results like these are measured by marketing companies and they are real.  Directors, producers and even news reporters know how to use media to influence the thinking of viewers.

One of the great things that the invention of the television did for families in the early days was to give them a united form of entertainment.  In the days of one-television households, families would sit together and watch TV.  In a situation like this, if by chance something controversial came on TV parents were right beside their children and had a chance to explain to the child what they were seeing or to help them to understand what they were seeing.  Today, parents may not always know what has confronted their children while watching TV because many children watch TV alone.  This can cause us to miss out on some great opportunities to parent and guide our children’s values.

When your child watches television unsupervised, or when you as a parent do not know what your child is watching, there is no way for you to influence your child or even to protect them from inappropriate material.  Placing a TV in your child’s bedroom for them to watch freely is in many ways similar to letting your child go out for the day with strangers or with people you do not know anything about, on a regular basis.  Disturbingly, while alone in their bedroom, a child can potentially be exposed to violence, gore, and other forms of adult programming that the television networks and TV accountability groups deem inappropriate for children.  This is why such programs are schedule as late night programming.

In our modern, fast-paced world where many families have lost the art of spending time together, it is very important for the sake of your family and your child’s development that you set time aside for your family. Your family needs time together if it is to stay together. Since most families these days are very busy, it makes sense to use any and all opportunities you have to spend family time. Meal times and television time are ideal, large chunks of time where families can spend daily time together rather than apart in different rooms. So instead of letting your children eat meals alone in their rooms watching TV, think about instituting family meal times and family TV time. If your children are used to being alone in their rooms a lot, you may experience some reluctance at first to this idea. If you go ahead anyway, it will not be long before your children love and look forward to these special, family moments.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, also check out the links for some further discussions on the topic.