I had a telephone in my room but my Mom could hear the rotary dial from downstairs.
Now get off my lawn ya creepy kid
and pull up dem pants

gsnfl: rotary dial

LOL! Oh, man.
/that old to remember

In 1979 I was sent to my room, and told to not use my computer while I was in there. I think I win.

Here it is

Remember when the internet didn't exist, the only color TV was in the living room, the only phone was in the kitchen, and we played "records" on our "turntable" if we wanted entertainment?

ummm... no?

And the phone was a party line you shared with the next door neighbors and your aunt down the road?

Zipster: Remember when the internet didn't exist


I had a VCR the size of a microwave in my room, so I was very cool with my friends.

Gecko Gingrich: All I had was a set of The Peanuts

Oh hey, my neighbor had those, and whenever I was over there I'd sit and read them.

My parents tripped the breaker to my brother's room a few times for that reason.

Nowadays he'd probably use a laptop and mooch wireless off the neighbors. You'd have to confiscate that and the cellphone.

The worst part was having to sit on your hands.

I had 4 or 5 bookshelves full of books in my room as a kid...

...and about eleventy bazillion Legos. Sent to my room was never a big deal. :)

40below: "Don't peak too early, kids, the rest is a letdown. Now get the hell off my lawn."

I really don't get people's nostalgia for those days.

I've got more megabits than I had kilobits, more gigs than I had megs, my computer doesn't crash randomly and it can do more than one thing at once, etc. Also Google.

Nostalgia my ass; that Atari 400 had a TAPE CASSETTE storage medium, and it took 15 minutes to load 1 program, to use it.

I actually had no electronics in my room as a kid. Didn't get a cd player until I was 12, didn't get a phone until I was 15. our first computer was in the kitchen and we got that when I was 12, the video games (there was never been a year where we have not had any kind of video game console in our house, and with the exception of the PS2 we had for 2 years, we've always had Nintendo consoles) were always in the kitchen. When I was sent to my room I just reread one of the eighty bazillion books I had.

I had to walk 20 miles in the snow, up hill, both ways, backwards to my room and when I got there I was beaten within an inch of my life with an Atari controller.

Mom and Dad would just send me to their room.

*shudder*

Jkay
Nostalgia my ass; that Atari 400 had a TAPE CASSETTE storage medium, and it took 15 minutes to load 1 program, to use it.

I remember that. It was boring as hell to wait for it to load too. Then your reward was some stupid game where you're running for your life through Egypt or something.

When I was a teenager the nintendo and computer were in the living room, and if I were ballsy enough to use them while grounded my mom would put five across my eyes.

What they DIDN'T count on was my book collection in my room. Muahahahaha.

playboys......

I never had any computer, TV, or video games in my room as a kid (80s). And I think its really helped me in the long run. That being said, I just bought my first video game system ever recently (Xbox), modded it, and now I can't stop playing. I need to seek help (so that I can do some multiplayer action!).

its NOT called legos, its called lego bricks!!!

I got sent to my room in the pre-computer days (early 70s). But I had saved my allowance and bought a Sears 9" BW TV for my room. Since we lived in Chicago, we could get five channels!

/now get off my lawn
//still have the TV out in the garage

Back in the day, I wasn't a vampire.


/get it? Har har!

BBC Microcomputer Model B

/c'est tout

Hmm...let me think. I'm getting old, so this is going to take some mental gymnastics.

Clock radio, portable tape player and a ton of books in my room. Course I was a goody two-shoes growing up, so I didn't get sent to my room for being bad.

Growing up, we actually had a Beta VCR with a wired remote.

Didn't get a CD until college, I've never owned a portable CD player. I got a CD player just before getting married at 24, and finally got a computer to connect to the Internet right after that.

I do listen to music on a Rio MP3 player...that's as technologically advanced as I've gotten.

When my girlfriends older brother was left in charge, he would make her go and sit in the bathroom if she acted up, which according to her was alot.

This is why every parent should have a spanking machine.
Sending kids to their rooms doesnt teach them anything. If it did, there wouldn't be so many bratty annoying kids running around.

\spank them all.
\\even when they're not in trouble.

My imagination killed my parents. They could send me into a white room with a pencil and two paperclips and I would have the time of my life. Once my dad actually called my mom and asked "How do you punish this kid?"

/when your young and always getting in trouble, having ADD is fun.

Of course, we had it rough...

you ever talk to a cute 21-24 year-old lately?

it's like they are shocked that someone is actually paying them attention who is actually a real person; they eat that right up.

it's weird how just saying "Hi" to some kids makes them all confused that a RealLife(tm) human being just talked to them.

kinda makes sense if you've ever read allot of sci-fi from the classics.

dux4bux

Unless they start to like it.

We had a "guest room" at our house with nothing more than a bed, an empty closet and a dresser in it. Maybe there was a bedside table with a lamp, too.

That was where I was sent for misbehaving. My own room was full of fun stuff to do--the guest room was like torture.

Looking back, like many things they did, this was sheer brilliance on the part of my parents.

My father lived by the motto, "No bluffing." If he said he was going to stop the car and make us get out, by God, he stopped that damned car and made us get out and walk.

JerkStore's Guide to Armchair Parenting:

1) Unified front. Don't let kids go to the other parent and get a different answer. On anything.

2) As mentioned, no bluffing. If you make a threat, carry it out every time without fail. The kids will quickly figure out who is in charge.

3) Ignore tantrums, screaming, threats from kids. Ignore, not punish. They'll realize that this is not an effective strategy for getting what they want.

4) Talk to your kids as if they are adults. Don't talk down to them--they can hear it and will discount what you say.

Easy, right?

/doesn't have nor want kids

I had a stack of nudie books this high.

Or you could just act like a civilized human being and not worry about anything...

Yeah my mom threatened to "take away my computer" a few times. First computer I got was in 1982, I was 6. I feel uber-old.

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

I didn't get sent to my room. I did get monster whippings with a Hot Wheels track from time to time.

/good times
//not really
///my dad sucks

hmm, a business solution comes to mind, lets call it total lockdown. you come into a house, and set up the internet network to be able to shut it down in the flick of a switch, set up jammers to block wifi and cellular signals, or alternatively wrap the bedroom in some sort of.. tinfoil(teehee). im sure there are plenty of christian farknuts who would gladly give you their tithe to be able to keep the great satan that is popular culture away from their precious genetic squirts.

Talk about dredging up the past..

There was more than one occasion where I was sent OUT of my room as punishment. Had to hang out in the living room (didn't have a TV there.. That was in the Den..) or some such.

I was never sent to my room, it was too interesting, too many books and the like. I was sent to the damn LAUNDRY room or to sit on the stairs and stare at the wall. It was horrible. I blame that punishment for the panic attacks I get when faced with boredom. /So/ much more effective (for me) than getting my butt whooped.

I remember buying a new-fangled 28.8 modem and then being unable to find anywhere that would accept a connection at that speed.

Got you all beat! My record collection was MONO, not stereo. 'N I remember the first portable transistor radio for sale at Marshall Field's. It was the size of a brick and the battery lasted about an hour. No AC cord.Hitachi.

Still, wouldn't go back there for all the bongs in the Haight. Either your on the bus or your off the buss, said Wavy Gravy. I'm on the bus. Couldn't live without my Dell and my Nokia (and the DSL line at work. shhh...)

/old farks, indeed!
//whippersnappers!!

I did get monster whippings with a Hot Wheels track from time to time.

Man, that's crap. It's not enough you have to get the whipping, but he had to screw up Hot Wheels for you the rest of your life.