Do you limit your teen

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Registered: 01-21-2004
Do you limit your teen
4
Thu, 08-17-2006 - 6:10pm

on the TV and the computer? If so, how old are they and how much time a day do you give them on each? During the summer? During the school year? Just trying to find a balance here.

Lisa


*HUGS* TOTAL!

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Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 12:44am

no - i don't limit
probably should but she's a great kid who has always excelled... she's finally developed a social life this summer so she's not watching t.v or on the computer as much as she used to be

rachel

Avatar for heartsandroses2002
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Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 10:32am

We do not have 'set' limitations unless dd16 is failing a class or neglecting her other responsibilities. We do have a set time that the computer is turned off each night, almost without exception (10:30PM) - summer or during the school year.

Since they were small we've always tried to balance tv, and eventually the computer when that was introduced to our home, by simply giving them opportunities to do other things such as read or recreational activities. When they were little, there were times on a Saturday when I'd go into the living room and just flip off the tv because it was apparent that they'd lie around all day glued to it - they just needed someone to turn it off and break the spell!

And we never allowed tv's in the bedrooms when they were little. They each received a little one that has a DVD player on thier 16th b'days and those are in thier rooms. DD16 would rather listen to music and in fact, the only time her tv is on is when she has a friend over and they watch a movie together.

18dd, OTOH, is kind of a tv addict - she doesn't so much watch it as just have it on for background noise. But even with that I will stick my head in and suggest she turn it off and go do something else instead. Usually, she will listen and get moving.

We're not real big tv people. We all read, or keep busy with other things so there isn't much time for too much tv. I guess if I HAD to limit the time spent on computer or tv each day it'd be about an hour each. IMO, that's enough time.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2005
Fri, 08-18-2006 - 2:46pm

We have a family limit of one hour of purely entertainment television per week. That is strictly for family viewing as no on in our home just sits in front of the tv. Beyond that we rent a family movie twice a month and do not include watching the news in our weekly television viewing time. Occasionally an exception will be made for a sporting event, but again it's family viewing.

Computer time is limited to when all homework and chores are completed. Unless it's being used for homework. We require that the computer be turned off before 8 pm every night though. Age does not and will not come into play here. IM'ing is limited to Friday afternoons and Saturdays before five pm only.

stacy

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Registered: 11-28-1999
Mon, 08-21-2006 - 1:43pm

I haven't had to limit my 17 yo DD's computer or TV time because she is pretty busy. Actually she doesn't watch that much TV except for sports. I have noticed that this summer she has watched less baseball cause she is busy going out w/ her friends more. In school, she is in all honors classes and got all A's and B's so I guess I would only be worried about limiting that if she was not doing well in school and it was evident that her homework was suffering. She also has a part-time job and was involved in school activities. The most of the time she is doing her homework and IMing also. I might mention sometimes that it would take her less time to do her homework if she just concentrated on that, but a lot of times, she might be discussing the hw w/ some classmates too. Then they also have to use the computer to do HW (even my 4th grader last year). I don't know what families do who don't have a computer at home.

With my 16 yo SD, though, I think she is too addicted to the TV & computer because basically she has nothing else to do. She just sat around all summer. I suggested a few times that she should get a job but nothing came of it. If she were my DD, I would have made her get a job, but even though her father says he agrees w/ me about it, he really didn't push it, but that's another issue.

My 11 yo son will watch a lot of TV, but on the other hand, he is a great reader also. They had to read 3 books for school and he had them done in the first couple of weeks of summer vacation. Then he read more, including a couple of books that weren't even for kids that were over 200 pages long.