Do you let your teen/preteen keep their phone in their bedroom at night?

[Anonymous]

14yo DD - No way!

16yo DS - No way!

No electronics in their room at all - at night. I gave them both old iPod shuffles for music so there is no excuse. They have no tv's and can only use laptop for HW and phone in room until 9pm. After that main floor only until 10pm (makes them hang out with us.) abad plugged in for the night after that.

Some of DD's friends will text her until midnight, 1am in the morning. It is insane.

[Anonymous]

No, no, no. Devices are recharging, turned off, the moment the child enters our house. No exceptions! No computers in bedrooms at any time. One child is at dining room table, another on the couch, doing homework, both with laptops, which are never allowed upstairs.
Like you, OP, I made the mistake of allowing devices in their rooms, but I amended that policy. There was lots of complaining and limited compliance, lots of excuses at first. I told them the devices live downstairs or they dissappear. Compliance improved, but parental vigilance is always necessary.
BTW I am not a commanding person, so this is hard for me. But necessary. Do it without guilt or regret, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:14yo DD - No way!

16yo DS - No way!

No electronics in their room at all - at night. I gave them both old iPod shuffles for music so there is no excuse. They have no tv's and can only use laptop for HW and phone in room until 9pm. After that main floor only until 10pm (makes them hang out with us.) abad plugged in for the night after that.

Some of DD's friends will text her until midnight, 1am in the morning. It is insane.

This.
Texting, instagram, snapchat etc can go on all night. My kids and yours need sleep. Most parents have no clue this is going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pediatrician here - all devices should be out of the bedroom at night - only way for any teen to get a good nights sleep. What possible reason would he/she need a device in the room at night anyway? Alarm clocks still do exist

My child has her iPad in the room. She falls asleep to Learning Ally, which is audio books for dyslexic people. I see it as the same as reading until she falls asleep. It has nothing to do with an alarm clock.

[Anonymous]

Nope.

[Anonymous]

Data controls on your phone provider will allow you to turn off social sites and data and program it for specific hours. Our teenager uses it for audio books (also dyslexic) and music at night, as well as an alarm to wake by in the morning. No problems if you control the data times

[Anonymous]

Data controls on your phone provider will allow you to turn off social sites and data and program it for specific hours. Our teenager uses it for audio books (also dyslexic) and music at night, as well as an alarm to wake by in the morning. No problems if you control the data times

Smart!

In our house, phones have to "go to bed" in the kitchen when my DDs head up to their bedrooms in the evening. (DD#1 is 11, DD#2 is 8 - she has an ipod, not a phone, with safari disabled).

[Anonymous]

One shared kid phone, plugged in on parent's desk

Four kids' laptops, used primarily for readtheory, khanacademy, one or two computer games per week, and any additional training (lifeguard, CPR, etc): unplugged on desk, plugged in while in use (limits where they can be used!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If not, what is the reason?

My 13 y.o. DS is not happy about not having his phone at night. He was allowed to have it before, but that was a mistake on my part.
I want his phone charging in the kitchen at night, but he gives me a hard time about it. Asks for a reason, tells me he needs it for alarm clock, etc.
I really want to stick with the no phone at night routine, but I realize I made it complicated at the beginning when I let him have it.
How do I turn it around?

NO! No electronics even allowed upstairs! The way to turn it around is to set expecations of a rule change in advance to get him used to it. Tell him it was a mistake. Summer is coming. Say when summer starts, no more electronics in the room. He can have an alarm clock (get the Phillips Wake-Up light; awesome).

[Anonymous]

Here's our dilemma with this. 16yo ds is required to have a laptop for school and there's no way to effectively do homework without it. (I've seen that this is true) However, he also doesn't want to do homework in public areas of house for legitimate reasons (sibling noise, distractions, etc)

I'm certain that texting, surfing and other distractions are happening with homework. But I can't find a better solution than homework in his room, with the door open, with periodic check ins.