I've been fighting this battle with my husband now for months and would love to get your opinions on this issue. We are converting our den/office/guest room to a nursery and we have a television hooked up to cable in there now. I said we should get rid of the tv (it's our oldest one and honestly is almost NEVER used and we don't have any other room to relocate it to... and we have two other TVs) but he's adamantly opposed to that. We will still have a pull out couch in the baby's room and if we ever do have an overnight guest, he argues that the guest would like to have a TV in the room plus he plans to use it when he's up with the baby in the middle of the night. Plus he says it's a complete waste to get rid of a perfectly good TV.
My argument is that he shouldn't be watching TV when he's up with the baby in the middle of the night because it will be bad for the baby's sleep ("I'm not going to watch it on high volume!") and it's an eyesore in the nursery and we're wasting money on the cable bill in there when it's seldom, if ever, used.
Any experience with something like this or opinions on how to handle the issue? Should I just let it go?
Re: Opinions Needed: TV in nursery
This article from Harvard Medical School summarizes the current research on light and sleep pretty precisely.
Also worth mentioning, I always found it really difficult to fall back asleep after I had used my phone to read during a feeding. When you're getting sleep in 2-4 hour spurts you need every second you can get, and I would find myself wide awake until the next feeding and then miserable.
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No way. This would be me if my H made that argument.
Also, who will be up with the child the most? If MH has a job by then (fingers crossed), I've agreed to take all overnight baby duty until I go back to work after FMLA, since he'd be the one having to get up early in the morning and I'd theoretically get more opportunity to sleep.
@PYLWhammy, I think I'm going to take this approach, just let it be for now as long as he agrees not to have the TV on in the middle of the night, and then when it's time to baby proof (we aren't doing it ahead of time... maybe this should go on the FFFC thread) I'm going to advocate to get rid of the TV again. I have to pick my battles, and there are many.
@proudparent2b, unfortunately there really isn't anywhere else to store it in the apartment... but his parents' house two states away seems like a good choice to me!
In some ways we have a similar situation. Our nursery is currently the office and it has a small flat screen tv mounted to the wall. This office/sunroom/nursery is right off of the dining room, kitchen, living room areas. We will only use this room as a nursery for a couple years because we are planning a house addition and then the twins will have a 'real' bedroom. I also am 'anti-tv' in bedrooms, esp kids bedrooms (we have two older kids already) but this office tv isn't an eye-sore and DH said he didn't feel like dismounting it (patching the wall, etc). Trust me, we have SO many other things and projects to keep us busy! So, the tv is staying. I imagine I'll watch it sometimes when I'm nursing during the day in the nursery. It's no different than nursing in the living room and watching tv during the day.
So, that's our situation. If it was a big clunky eye-sore of a tv and I didn't have a lot of extra space I would want it gone (we have one of these types of tvs in the house too! It's in the basement w/only a dvd player - no cable).
GL. I agree, pick your battles. It's not like your future 9 month old baby can choose to turn on the tv and veg out with a bowl of chips. Maybe after a year or so the tv can disappear...
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