Tv in nursery?

sarahjanisse · December 2013

I am torn....I ended up with an extra 32" tv from Black Friday....my first instinct was to take it back ....Now my husband is (strongly) suggesting we just keep it for baby's room....I know it would be useful when the baby is older....but is it even healthy to use it before toddler years?? Torn....

mrsbtobe20122 · December 2013

No way would I have a TV in my nursery. It's sad seeing so many kiddos attached to video games, iPads, TVs.... It will be limited in our house for sure. That's just me.

TheBeeCharmer · December 2013

I wouldn't. We are against t.v.s in bedrooms (we don't have one either). Since kids are supposed to get only an hour or two a day after the age of two, having one in our kids' rooms constantly seemed like a bad idea. They also say infants shouldn't be exposed to constant t.v. in the background. I did like to watch t.v. when I nursed, but I just used our t.v. out in our family room.

jntaylor11 · December 2013

I wouldn't. I'm just not a fan of kids having tvs in their rooms. It's too easy for them to be antisocial &/or having it be used as a baby sitter & not spending time with your kids. Just my opinion.

busterbeagle · December 2013

I'm very anti-TVs in bedrooms, even though my toddler does get some screen time on our family TV. I would take it back and buy something else I wanted for the baby personally. Probably something fun and frivolous since the money would otherwise be tied up in something unneeded.

RedInLove · December 2013

We don't have plans to put tv's in the bedrooms. We will someday have a tv in the playroom.

MissLadyTay · December 2013

Absolutely not.

pistolpackinmomma · December 2013

We will have one in our own room but kids won't get tvs for quite some time in our house!! I might put one in the basement which is where the bulk of toys will be kept.

Junebug060609 · December 2013

I will buck the trend. I had a tv in the nursery when DS was tiny. That and my phone helped keep me awake for MOTN feedings. He doesn't have one now (age 2).

hatrats · December 2013

DH suggested a few times that we leave the TV in the room (turning guest room into baby room) for feedings and stuff. I said definitely no, and that if we want to watch TV while we feed it, we can come into the living room. I just don't think it's necessary when we could walk down the hall to watch TV, and the room is already tiny so there really won't be space anyway once we get baby furniture.

typeset · December 2013

deanna1313 · December 2013

I was thinking about it for nursing and all those nightly feedings, but I decided against it because I don't want the baby to get used to the tv background noise and need that sound to fall back to sleep. To each their own on when you put tv's in kids rooms, but I'm not putting one in our kids rooms until they are pretty old.

Nmooney1 · December 2013

smittysmiles said:
I would actually consider keeping it for middle of the night feelings but ditch it when LO gets older. When we moved DD to her new room (that was the guest room) she kept asking for the tv that we left in there to be turned on. It was a hassle and not worth the fight.

I say it's too much stimulation for night time feeding (lights and sounds). My night time feedinga consisted of a quick diaper change done by the closet light with the closet door barely cracked....feeding and right back to the crib.

ebox322 · December 2013

I love my tv, but definitely not in baby's room. It's just....no, just no.

dollface777 · December 2013

We are very anti TV in the bedrooms. Actually, we don't allow any gadgets in bedrooms. Phones are plugged in downstairs at night and laptops never go upstairs (where the bedrooms are). We have one TV in the family room and all gadgets stay in the family room. This world needs more family time away from screens and we treasure ours.

Allibob · December 2013

I'm with Nmooney on this. For middle of the night feedings, I want baby & me to go quickly back to sleep. For us that means low lights & as little stimulation as possible. I found when I used my phone for night feedings I had a hard time going back to sleep.

I don't do TVs in bedrooms anyways, but especially not for baby's room.

peachysweet4 · December 2013

No, that would have been way to much stimulation for night feedings for my DS. I couldn't even use my phone most times.

elizabe519 · December 2013

You guys are making me feel bad. Baby will be in our bedroom for awhile and I have a tv on all night in the bedroom addiction that has been around for like 15yrs at least. I really don't know how I'm going to handle this.

danagmauro · December 2013

It's a personal choice don't make yourself crazy do whatever works for you and your family

Storrmys · December 2013

My daughter is 21 and a well adjusted adult who is not anti social and had a tv in her room from toddler on up .. I regulated when and what she watched (mostly Barney videos)... However everyone is different I don't know about one in the nursery though since all I wanted to do was go back to sleep and tv would have just woke me up even more ....

alphalyrae · December 2013

Absolutely not. We don't even have one in our bedroom.

talkthewholetime · December 2013

I'm team "no tv in the bedroom" even ours.

runningyogimama · December 2013

Definitely no. My DH wanted a TV in the nursery for MOTN feedings when DD was brand new and up eating all the time, and I said no way. Too much stimulation. A phone or his iPad were just fine.

Empireceo · December 2013

dollface777 said:

We are very anti TV in the bedrooms. Actually, we don't allow any gadgets in bedrooms. Phones are plugged in downstairs at night and laptops never go upstairs (where the bedrooms are). We have one TV in the family room and all gadgets stay in the family room. This world needs more family time away from screens and we treasure ours.

This is us too.

MrsT2008 · December 2013

I say no. I know it sounds nice in theory, for you in the middle of the night, but trust me, you'll want to keep those MOTN feedings as quiet as possible. The less light and noise a baby deals with, the easier it tends to be to get them back to sleep.

Mrsgattis11 · December 2013

We have an extra tv that will be in the baby's room for me. I'm going to use it while up in the night breast feeding tv helps wake me up and then once the baby hits 2 or so it will probably be left in there but disconnected so if we need it for guest or something we have it but the baby can't just watch it all the time.

Richelpedersen · December 2013

typeset said:

This.

kristine526 · December 2013

No way. I banned the tv from our bedroom when we moved in together. No way in hell I'm putting one in the nursery.

Mittens14 · December 2013

Do you have a play room in your home, or plan to have one? If so, then I'd hold onto it and use it in the play room. We added one to the play room when DS turned 3, strictly for his DVD's (we don't have a cable box for it, just DVD player). It's nice to be able to have his movies on while he's playing instead of him just sitting staring at the TV. I would not put it in the nursery though, no matter how strongly DH insists.

laurblum · December 2013

I think everyone is a little too high strung about the TV issue. Technology is unavoidable these days. Let's check back in with all of these moms in say 4 years when your child desperately wants an Nintendo DS and see who didn't give in. I say if it was cheap and you don't need the money for something else, keep it! You're the parent. You control when it's on and off. Regardless of if it's in their room or not you can still regulate when and if they get to watch. And if they throw a tantrum because they want to watch TV in their room, guess what? You're still the parent!! You get to decide to give in or not. And after enough not giving in, I'm sure they will come to learn that just because it's there doesn't mean it has to be on. It's up to you to teach your child that other activities are better than being a couch potato. That being said, I'm sure having their own TV will be nice on days when you've heard enough Elmo or you'd like to watch something else. There's no shame in that.

Christinaruth74 · December 2013

bleh. I don't think I could ever. DH and I don't even have cable, so we rarely have the TV on in general, unless we are watching a movie.

There are just wayyy better things to do with our time, and we would like to pass that along to our child.

I think starting with a TV in the room right off the bat, you're setting your child up for a lifelong dependency which will definitely get harder to tackle as they get older.

I totally agree with PPs who said return it and use the money toward something more beneficial for baby. DH and I would like to invest in an iPad at some point to introduce various learning apps (in moderation). If you wanted to stick to something tech-related that could be something to consider.

dragossoul84 · December 2013

There have been studies that show tv's in bedrooms are a bad idea for any age but in reality it seems like an unneeded hazard we have to have our tv in the living room bolted to the wall because my son tries to pull it off. Honestly I'd sell the extra tv or take it back.

Christinaruth74 · December 2013

elizabe519 said:

You guys are making me feel bad. Baby will be in our bedroom for awhile and I have a tv on all night in the bedroom addiction that has been around for like 15yrs at least. I really don't know how I'm going to handle this.

i wish i saw this before i posted. this is what i was talking about with dependency. i wouldn't want to set my kid up for that.

danagmauro · December 2013

There's worse things to be "addicted to" let's all relax a little you'd swear she was thinking about hiding baggies of heroin in the nursery

typeset · December 2013

laurblum said:

I think everyone is a little too high strung about the TV issue. Technology is unavoidable these days. Let's check back in with all of these moms in say 4 years when your child desperately wants an Nintendo DS and see who didn't give in.

You do what you have to do; if the kid is hanging off your leg and you're trying to make dinner and retain a scrap of sanity at the end of the day, "Sesame Street" is not going to damage your child. Elmo's creepy, but little Jayden/Aiden/Brayden is not going to suffer. A television in the bedroom is a different beast. A quick Googling will turn up plenty on that subject. Screens screw with sleep--baby sleep, kid sleep, adult sleep.

I'm in the extreme minority from my son's cohort. Very few people made it to two per the AAP's recommendation with zero screen time. We did, and he's still strictly limited at three, but there are extenuating circumstances in our case which mean television and iPad time are not good for my child. Television even as background noise interferes with his auditory processing. People speak fewer words per hour when a television is on in a room, even if they aren't actively watching. Does having a television on preclude you from talking to your kiddo? Absolutely not. When we're talking about tiny sponges soaking up language? The words add up. We fought like hell to get him to pay attention to us in the first place. I'm not yielding that to a screen any time soon. He has his whole life to be plugged in.

ABColeslaw · December 2013

laurblum said:

I think everyone is a little too high strung about the TV issue. Technology is unavoidable these days. Let's check back in with all of these moms in say 4 years when your child desperately wants an Nintendo DS and see who didn't give in. I say if it was cheap and you don't need the money for something else, keep it! You're the parent. You control when it's on and off. Regardless of if it's in their room or not you can still regulate when and if they get to watch. And if they throw a tantrum because they want to watch TV in their room, guess what? You're still the parent!! You get to decide to give in or not. And after enough not giving in, I'm sure they will come to learn that just because it's there doesn't mean it has to be on. It's up to you to teach your child that other activities are better than being a couch potato. That being said, I'm sure having their own TV will be nice on days when you've heard enough Elmo or you'd like to watch something else. There's no shame in that.

My son desperately wants Nintendo DS. I said no. NO. He also wants to play "Mario" all fucking day long. He has played once with the babysitter. Hell no. We took the Wii out of the living room and put it away, even though it means I can't use the wii fit. Oh well, some of us are capable of saying no 4 years later.

ABColeslaw · December 2013

danagmauro said:

There's worse things to be "addicted to" let's all relax a little you'd swear she was thinking about hiding baggies of heroin in the nursery

Eh she asked a question and is getting honest answers. OP no I wouldn't put a tv in a nursery, I would return that TV for the money and spend it on something else, or put it back into savings. I do have a tv in my room and I have a hard time sleeping without it on, I do not want to do that to my children.

typeset · December 2013

Caillou, however, will seriously fuck up your kid.

ABColeslaw · December 2013

typeset said:

Caillou, however, will seriously fuck up your kid.

Ahhhh I CANNOT stand Caillou!

AngelaAmy · December 2013

I don't think it's that big of a deal. Just because it's there it doesn't mean it has to be on all the time. As somebody else said, you can still control how often it gets used. We have a tv in our bedroom as does my 6yo DS and both are rarely used. I said I would not have one in my child's room at a young age but he ended up with one shortly after he turned 2. The reason was that we had recently moved and he had transitioned to a real bed and he went through a phase where he would not go to sleep at night. My husband was usually not home (sports 3-4 nights a week around bedtime or shortly after) and I was spending 2-3 hours a night trying to get him to sleep. He would get up over and over and I tried everything but he would not settle until 10-11pm (which was strange because he was always good at bedtime). I was a full time student at the time and that was my study time so I did not have hours to spend fighting over bedtime every night. We ended up putting a tv in his room and allowed one show to fall asleep to and it worked wonders. Within a couple of months he was past that phase and although we never removed the tv it rarely ever got used. This was my experience but you obviously have to do what you feel is right for you and your family.

ksyknelvr73 · December 2013

Nope, not in the baby's room. When DS was little and we had MOTN feedings, I went into our "sports room" and watched TV while he was feeding. I actually got to watch the royal wedding live b/c of that. Pretty cool. But anyway, no TV in the actual kids' rooms.

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