phone time/TV time

First, it depends on the ages. Under 13: cartoon channel, Nick, Nick Jr., etc. Under 13, in bed by 9. My 16 yo stays up later but he gets up for school and has a B average. Phone: under 13: depends on who's talking. My 3 younger haven't talked much; more asking a friend to come over. No gaming on school nights for under 13.

I solve the TV issues by not having one in the house. Really. We can watch DVDs, occasionally, on the computer. In part it's due to brain research... won't take time to type it all in, and a friend who wrote a paper on same years ago. I would highly limit the TV time in the beginning, so the family could play board games, go to parks, do things that actually have people interacting with each other.

We don't allow TV in the mornings or on school nights after 4PM. (this allows for littles not in school yet to watch some during the day, if we have time, or for some on early release days) Games are the same. All tv shows must be appropriate for the youngest child in the room. Fighting over TV or games means I turn it off and no one gets to use it. Occasionally when it really is one kid causing all the issues I will send that child to go find something else to do. Phone has only been an issue with one kid so far and we limited calls to the gf (she lived out of town) to 30 minutes between 9-9:30 each night. They were both in high school and involved in extra curricular activities. Anytime either kids grades would drop we would suspend the calls until the grades were up. It worked well for almost three years, then they broke up. None of my kids are really phone talkers. We did put parental controls on cell phones so there can be no calls or texting except to us during school hours or late at night.

In our home currently we have only a 7 year old. We do not have TV's in the bedrooms at all. We have a large screen TV in the Family room and another large TV that is used for Wii. I was just trying to get ideas for when the family grows. We do not have a land line phone but with tweens in the home we may consider it. Thanks for your input.