TV & MVP in kids room (6 & 4). Good idea or not?

[IVB]

We have a somewhat small house. (1650 sqft).

Ever since Celebrity Apprentice and some other god awful shows have begun, my wife insists on watching in the FamilyRoom/HomeTheater room. I have a hard time being in that room while the trash TV is on.

Our Den/office is tiny, not very comfortable. So I typically go to the MBR to chill on the laptop. But, our only other TV is in there, it has an MVP. Many times, my kids will hassle me to watch TV in there, and seriously, I don't think I can even listen to Maya&Miguel any more.

I'm tempted to put a small (ie, 17") TV in their room, along with the MVP as i'll be getting an HDExtender whenever they come back into stock.

But they're only 6 & 4. I didn't have a TV in my own room until, well, I graduated college and bought one. They are really good kids, don't yell or throw tantrums, don't ask for 101 things when we go shopping, share well with others, play nice with each other. I don't think of them as "dream kids" until their friends come over, who are just greedy, loud, selfish little monsters.

So the question is: Am I spoiling them if I do this? Am I spoiling myself if I do this?

I don't think this is a bad thing, I know they'll listen to me and turn the TV off if I say "one show only". But, I would like to hear from any other parents who've been there/done that.

[Apap]

As long as they follow the rules laid out by you and your wife it should be ok.
You will be a Techno-God to them(at first) and it can be used as another tool in the behavior modification arsenal.

That being said I still dont have a tv or computer in my 9 yr old daughters room. She has enough other places to watch TV though.

[BFisher]

I have a TV in the kids (6 and 7) play area (not their bedrooms)... but they are not allowed to use it themselves. I know they are technically capable, but I want the control over it...

[BBCritical]

The main problem that I had with this with my kids (as well as whenever I had a tv in my room when I was growing up) was them turning it off when it was time to go to bed. Another concern is telling them to press STOP so livetv does not continually record all day. You may also run into issues of setting up dynamic menus so they dont get into imported videos they shouldnt since parental controls may not apply there. My suggestion would be to have it in a room other than their bedroom.

BTW.. be prepared for more sources of complaint if the sage server goes down (hardware malfunction, beta version crapping out, etc.)

Just my 2 cents....

[mayamaniac]

You can still control when they watch it, so I don't see the big deal putting a TV in their room so you can get some peace of mind. Just keep the MVP remote away when you don't want them watching TV.

[sainswor99]

If you have the room, put the TV in a play area. We reserve the bedrooms for sleeping and studying. While I agree that you as a parent can control their behavior, it takes away a temptation.

Of course, every kid is different, and some kids are better at handling responsibilities & privileges than others.

Stu

[matt91]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

You can still control when they watch it, so I don't see the big deal putting a TV in their room so you can get some peace of mind. Just keep the MVP remote away when you don't want them watching TV.

That's an interesting idea (and one I'll have to remember in a couple of years) - a flat screen monitor + MVP without a remote control doesn't do a whole lot of good. Or even a regular TV, I guess, without cable/antenna hooked up. You have the MVP remote control, you have power.

Matt

[btrcp2000]

The playroom mvp was one of the first reaons I had to get a sage setup. I can easily control how long they watch, because they only get one commercial free show at a time. They can't veg in front of it for hours at a time (like i did back in the day).

if you use comskip they don't ask for every last litle toy and thing that comes on tv. Showanalyzer has been acting up on me lately so I shut it off for now, but that means I have to discuss Bratz dolls and why they will never enter our household.

[IVB]

Thanks for the responses.

Unfortunately, we do not have the extra room. Although it's 1650sqft, it's a very badly laid out 1650. There is no other space for a 3rd TV to go. And, my kids are already used to complaining about SageTV anytime there's an issue ("daddy, did you break the TV again?").

I already have CQC monitoring all clients & MVP. I guess I could implement a "big brother" setup, where I make a note of every show that is played back and how long it's watched, so I could check that when I get home/etc. And, if it exceeds (x) mins/day or in "I said don't watch TV" mode, it automatically send a shutoff command to the MVP every time PlayMode gets set to Play. That feels so draconian though.

Thing is, by the time I was 10, I knew where my dads XXX stash was, and where he typically disconnected the cable line (in the suspended ceiling just above his desk in the basement, right at the drop). I would reconnect it, watch what I wanted, then disconnect it the second I saw his headlights in the driveway. Hence, he thought he had the power, when he really had squat.

Part of me wants to let them have the remote, not do anything silly with auto-shutoff, so they learn how to deal with temptation. They're only 6 & 4, but they gotta learn sometime.

The other part of me thinks the first part of me is a raving lunatic with giving them all that. I think that's the part of me I get from my dad

Oy, I seriously wish i hadn't left the instruction manual for the kids at the hospital!

[toricred]

I have 3 kids (13 today, 8 and 4) and there is a TV in the oldest one's room they all use. It's been a bear to get them limited to what we allow, but they really push the envelope and the oldest is a genius at finding a way around any form of parental control. I'm currently using the FCL import and after installing the new version on their MVP tonight my oldest for the first time had to admit he had no way around it. It took a lot of work to find a solution (and I only expect it to work for months or weeks), but it makes my wife and I much happier to have them with their own TV.

My situation is different though because my kids are anything but angels and really know how to push buttons on most adults.

[ybrew]

Originally Posted by btrcp2000

The playroom mvp was one of the first reaons I had to get a sage setup. I can easily control how long they watch, because they only get one commercial free show at a time. They can't veg in front of it for hours at a time (like i did back in the day).

if you use comskip they don't ask for every last litle toy and thing that comes on tv. Showanalyzer has been acting up on me lately so I shut it off for now, but that means I have to discuss Bratz dolls and why they will never enter our household.

I can't remember the last time my 5 year old son saw commercials. I don't run comskip during primetime (I may change that though - need to play with it), but on the offchance he's watching something non-cs'd, he fast forwards the show on his own. It's nice not having to deal with all the stuff they see on commercials.

[malbec]

I have read the other posts, the issues they raise are good ones, but why wouldn't you do this? I say this as I have found the following to be true

1) I have much, much more control over the content they watch. If it is a worthwhile show, it gets recorded and then when there is time to watch something, they always have a worthwhile show to watch rather than "whatever is on."
2) I have saved a ton of space as well as some memory cells by having all of their DVDs ripped to the hard drive. No more time spent trying to find where the disc went, finding the discs decorated with crayons and markers, finding the discs used as "ninja stars" when their friends are over, etc.
3) And, frankly, I have found that they watch less TV. If they want to watch something, it is always there and always will be, so they will play more games, do jig saw puzzles and the like.

[IVB]

all great points, i'm also ripping their DVDs. Plus, i'm learning SageStudio to see if there's some way I can "hardcode" only the "children" category for both TV & DVDs, so they don't see all the other stuff.

I esp like your #3 thought; my theory is that, given that they're generally good kids with the beginnings of self-discipline, I feel that I should fan those flames, put temptation in front of them, so they can learn to defer it. Their friends are positively psychotic little spoiled brats, (and I don't mean from wealthy families who shower them with crap). They were over 2 days ago, next thing I know the closed box of yogurt-tube-thingeys is GONE as 3 of them had 3 each, even though I specifically said "fine, have 1, but that's it". They simply could not resist, indeed even snuck them, as they weren't used to free rein in the fridge like my kids do. My kids had one, didn't even ask for a 2nd as they knew the answer.

I do think I will log the show played/start&stop times of the MVP in a database, it's that whole "Trust but Verify" concept :-)

[lovingHDTV]

I don't put TVs or computers in bedrooms, but that's just me. I feel the "apparent" privacy this provides tend to lead toward inappropriate behavior.

[flavius]

We have a playroom in the basement with all kinds of stuff, but my kids are older, 13, 11 and 7, still, we are monitoring (but not electronically) what they are doing.

My kids know that I can easily flip a switch on their router. However, kids at the age of yours are harder to control, and it's even more tempting to misuse those things as a babysitter.

[IVB]

Both true, keep in mind that i'm not looking to implement a babysitter, but rather a good "build & test their self-discipline and independent thinking" opportunity.

Based on this thread, I already setup CQC so that it logs every single show started on either MVP or SageClient, along with stop times, into a database. I'm in the midst of setting up an emailer, so that it sends me a page when this happens with the show title. If I wanted to go psycho, I have an RFID setup, I could have it page me only if i'm not home and something is turned on.

But I'm still internally conflicted about this. I feel like there's two evils I need to choose between, and i'll be a drama queen for the purposes of this example:
1) Shelter my kids excessively, train them that an external entity knows better than they do about what's good for them, and self-control really isn't needed as someone else will make their choices for them. But, the second i'm not around, they'll spend all their time in front of the TV like I did. I watched hours of TV per day growing up; i always got straight A-minuses in every class, was in all AP, but I could have easily done much better if I had any self-discipline.

2) Deploy a "Big Brother" type system like above, train my kids that it's ok for your every action be monitored, and when they're voting age they'll think the Patriot Act was written by a bunch of wusses who didn't nearly go far enough.

Of course, either point is extreme, but trying to decide which side of the line to fall on is what i'm still unsure of.

[flavius]

Your kids already know you're the Almighty So there's not much of a point in proving it yet again.

Your kids maybe too young to play be the rules consistently enough. Could be that you're creating yourself a new source of constant grieve for everybody.

[Jesse]

Not sure what your floor plan is like, but how about the kitchen?

We have a small lcd panel in the kitchen and it gets used quite a lot.

Jesse

[IVB]

kitchen won't work due to the layout, plus it's typically either freezing or burning in there.

I am pretty torn about the below statement, I either agree completely or disagree completely, based on what minute it is. When do I cross the line from "protecting" to "coddling". Then again, I have that fight with my wife on a damn near weekly basis :-)

Your kids maybe too young to play be the rules consistently enough. Could be that you're creating yourself a new source of constant grief for everybody.

[mattdcknsn]

What about reworking the auto time off STVi so that its an auto time on? It counts up the minutes an MVP is in use and after a set amount of time is shuts off the MVP until the next day?