TV Tokens

[Robin Hood]

My sister has a question for you ladies. We went to SWB conference 2 summers ago where she talked about earning tokens and buying screen time with them. Sis has just gotten around to getting some tokens but now that she wants to start, she is realizing that they are a one TV family and it located in the living room. Her question.....how does one buy screen time and watch in the main room (their kitchen, dining and living room are a great room) when others haven't earned or bought the time?

She always comes up with great solutions but hasn't yet for this.

Also a question from me. I have wanted to do this, but I want cool tokens. Where does one buy them? I checked online quickly once and only found casinos.

[Robin Hood]

lol....my sister's pc was down yesterday so she asked me to ask you ladies this question. She usually frequents TOG forum because that what she is using, but she couldn't go there. Knowing you ladies, I said that I doubt I'd get any answers to her question. I am not good at being clear, but still, I didn't think I'd get any answers. I don't post much, I'll probably always remain a worker bee, but I feel like I've gotten to know ya. I am not a writer so expressing my opinions and ideas in print comes hard for me. I usually just keep my posts simple and non confrontational. I enjoy what ya'll have to say weather I agree or not. Once something has been said, I see no reason to jump on bandwagons and keep repeating the same thing. I bang my head on the keyboard when I do respond sometimes because I misread the OP (I'm not alone in that.). I'll probably always be quiet and in the background.....but I daresay, I've gotten to know ya! I think that's what keeps me coming back everytime I talk myself into breaking the board habit.

Off I go now since I need to add voting to the days events.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Does she have a "quiet time" at her house? We have one from about 2 pm - 3 pm. It is my time to put my feet up, nap, read or call a friend. My dc must do something quiet in their own rooms. I have used this time for my older one to watch a video/dvd that the younger one would have found scarey (like the original Star Trek show!)

[Robin Hood]

That's a good question. Her dd are 13, 14, 16 & 18 and all share the huge upstairs bedroom, so quiet time in their room lacks privacy. The layout of their house could be useful information in this post. Before they purchased it, it was a second home to someone else and used as a skiing get away. Many homes near ski resorts have big rooms with large shared sleeping quarters and great gathering rooms. My sis and her dh have chosen to go without cable tv and they are a very engaged family in their smaller than mine community. It would be very hard to send those girls on private time while someone else has tv time in the main room. Besides that, it could probably be heard anywhere in the house as it is quite open. However, your mention of time is a good thing to think about. The purchaser of screen time probably needs her timing of the viewing evaluated.

[Tammy]

They may think they are being treated as babies, LOL!

TV isn't a big deal in my house....my kids would rather play on the computer. They have 1 or 2 shows they watch....but I don't see the big deal in watching TV....since they really don't watch that much.

Are they fighting over the TV....or what? How much do they really watch TV?

Tammy

[Beth S]

At our house, each child gets 30 minutes of TV per afternoon (or 10 minutes of computer game time). Kids are aged 5 to 16.

I like to encourage group watching, to make it easier to supervise. Therefore, if 2 or more children are watching the same TV program, they automatically get to watch 60 minutes together.

I find I have to check on them regularly, as it is very tempting to sneak-a-peek at what the other child is watching. The consequence (for repeated peeking) would be to lose that day's TV time (or you could penalize by taking away tokens).

If there is only one older child watching a "scary" movie, they use headphones.

My desire is to reward sibling agreement--it's hard to decide how strictly to enforce it all. (Our overarching goal is to "encourage" them to have other hobbies besides TV/computer.)

Best wishes!

[Robin Hood]

OK..I'm still sitting here when I need to be gone.


I think that is a little old to 'earn' TV time...

They may think they are being treated as babies, LOL!



I don't think they're are too big for this. If a tv is present in a room, people are just drawn to it when it is on. No matter how old some people are, discipline in tv viewing is a struggle.

Their is no fighting. They watch very little tv. But when it's on, it's a magnet. Much like my own house. I fatigue in telling both my dd no on their persistant asking to watch tv, but I do. I can't put mine in the attick like SWB, nor can my sis. We don't have the space for a tv room.