Free children’s TV rules for you to print today

We have something a little different today; a set of TV rules for you to fill out and print for your children, to helpfully reduce the TV-related arguments in your house.

We realise that screens generally, and the internet can cause a little consternation in most household, so we have already put together an internet safety contract for you. BUT, in our experience, screen time not only includes the use of mobile devices, but also TV time. So how can you manage that and still keep a little peace in the house?

This is a collaborative post.

Three key recommendations before establishing your TV rules

We have put together a few basic rules for use of the TV in the house, and we hope that these are going to go some way to preventing the television from being a flash point. There are also some basic recommendations around the TV that are worth discussing with your kids too:

TV is one of many ways to be entertained as a family

The television is a great way to be entertained as a family – it can be lovely to all sit down and watch a show together. However, it isn’t necessarily the default – there are lots of other ideas too such as playing board games together, doing some of our printables, making a board game such as Monopoly or Royal Game of Ur, baking, or even just having a good old chat.

By default the TV needs to be off

Your television shouldn’t be the focus of family life, even if you have an awesome 8k TV in your life 😂. It can be all to easy to switch it on when you come home, keep it on all the time, and then everyone defaults to watching it. Keep it’s standard position as OFF, and then people default to talking to each other instead! It is particularly important to have the TV off in specific situations as well, such as when you have guests, or when you are sitting down to eat a meal. Though, of course, you might have the TV on if, for example, all the family aren’t there, or its a film night. Don’t forget to print our popcorn holders if you do have a movie night!

Rules apply to everyone not just the kids

Fairness is absolutely paramount when you are 7. It is also critical if you have a child with ADHD or special needs. You have to make sure that you are also following the rules, and being consistent. You cannot have one rule for them, and another rule for the adults in the house. Model the behaviour that you want your kids to display.

What have we included within our rules?

We have kept it was simple as possible with just a few rules to stick to. We also have a blank sheet for you to fill out your own just in case!

• I am able to watch up to ___ a day,
• I must do my homework and jobs first,
• Renegotiation may happen if grades drop,
• If I get worried, I’ll chat to you or an adult (this is worried about any of the shows seen, or scared or confused, or anything really!),
• No shows rated higher than ___ ,
• TV is part of our family entertainment, not all of it. Just as we say above, TV isn’t everything in the home!

As you can see – we have provided a simple, but we hope effective place to start with some rules for the TV in your home.

What else do you think that there should be included – do let us know

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We do have other articles on the site around screen time, so do check these out as well:

Here are some more ideas for you too, from other sites:

Thanks as always for stopping by, and we hope that you will drop in and see us again soon.

Take care,

Helen

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