Bedtimes?

So the girls are 9 and I make them go lay down at 9. They were complaining bc their classmates have a 10 or 11pm bedtime. So I was wondering what bedtime you place on your kids?

 

My 8yo is in bed at 8:00 on school nights, and usually 9:30 or so on weekends. I think 11 sounds pretty late for a 9yo.

 

My ideal time is 7:30, but it usually is closer to 8 and sometimes 8:30. I can not imagine that I will ever let my kids stay up past 9...ever. I had a 9 pm bedtime all the way up until high school. Unless it is an activity that forces them to stay up past 9, it's not happening.

 

My girls are 6.5 and have a 9pm bedtime. But their bus doesn't come until 8:50am, so we do not have early morning requirements. They push to try to get a 9:30 bedtime, but we stick to 9pm during the week, and sometimes later on the weekend.

 

My 10 yr old goes to bed at 9 most nights, very rarely we'll let him stay up a bit later to finish a tv show. Weekends is 10pm.

My 6 yr old, we try to get her into bed at 8 but it's usually closer to 8:30. My hubby doesn't get home until 7pm and we always eat supper as a family.

 

My girls are 11 and their bedtime is 8pm. Its been 8 for a couple of years now, before that it was 7pm. Granted they have to be up at 5:30am, but Cassie NEEDS sleep. Often Holly will read or watch videos online for a while before going to sleep, but on those days I can tell the next morning because she is exhausted.

I have been called all kinds of names for sticking to a strict bedtime for my kids, but for me its important. My sister used to laugh at me for insisting my kids go to bed at the same time EVERY night, school or no school. At the time she had one child not yet in school. Now she has three boys, two in school and they fight her EVERY night about bedtime. All I have to do is say, 'bedtime' and off they go, and this has been the case since they were about 4.

 

my guys are normally in bed reading at 8 lights out at 8:15-8:30 unless they have been bears and then lights out is 8. but, they are not asleep. They are 8.

 

Mine are 7 and have a 7:30/8 bedtime.


It is likely they will have to wake at 6:30 into the far future, so I dont see that bedtime changing to past 8:30 anytime soon. We keep the same hours year round.


I would just state "In our house we do X. Some houses do Y. There is no wrong way, but for our family X is what works best because______(they get up early, school starts, they go to before school care, Mom and Dad time is at night, etc)."

We often run in to families that do things differently than we do, at time we get complaints. But really-- there is enough variation between friends in bedtimes, allowed TV time, kinds of toys they own, vacations they have taken, afterschool activities, etc that they accept the differences pretty readily. I am sure that will change-- but for now the above explanation has worked for a lot of situations.

We know kids that go to bed between 7 and 9 at my DDs age.

I also think, personally, a lot of kids do not get enough sleep. Not all-- but a lot.

Our school starts at 8 am and sometimes the kids (especially the 4/5th graders) fall asleep at school becuase they think they can go to bed at 9/10 and then get up at 6 to go to school. Most 9/10/11 yr olds need more sleep than 7/8 hours!

Same at the middle schools-- the kids stay up later and MS starts at 7:30 so those kids are getting up at 6am.

Later starting elementary schools around here start at 9, so a later bedtime would work better for those kiddos.


It is not so much what TIME the kids go to bed, but rather how many hours of sleep they get.

 

My two are on the younger side (5) of this spectrum and they go to bed at 8. They have to get up at 6:30 for school. Some days they don't even make it to 8. Yesterday we sent Alice upstairs to change into her pajamas at 7 and she never came back down.

I feel bad, I know they need more sleep, but there just isn't any way, we don't get home from school until almost 6 most days and they have to be up at 6:30 and they won't normally take a nap on the weekends anymore. Sometimes one or the other will, but not normally. So we definitely stick to the 8 pm bedtime on weekends, just because they are normally bears by then.

 

My boys are 10, and we try for no later than 9, and I will start sending them to bed by 8:30. Sometimes it gets stretched as cub scouts sometimes runs late, and now that they are starting basketball, those games can run until 7 or 8, and some times we have a 45 min ride home! This year, we have started letting them stay up a bit later on non school nights.

 

10 year olds, both need to be in bed with lights out by 8:30, anything longer and they can't get up in the morning, which is between 6 and 6:15

 

My kids are 6 and 8 and we shoot for a bedtime of 8:00, although they are usually not asleep until around 9:00. They always wake up on their own anywhere between 6 and 7. School doesn't start until 8:30. Bedtimes on the weekends is around 9, summer is anything goes.

I can say from experience as a teacher, kids exaggerate A LOT! The friends that are saying their bedtime is 10 or 11 are likely exagerrating. Kids generally have such a poor sense of time and will say things like that to get a reaction and attention.

Now that it is dark at 4:30, my kids really seem to think they are going to bed "in the middle of the night", when in fact our bedtime hasn't changed at all. I'd love to be a fly on the wall for them if this conversation comes up between them and friends/teachers.

 

4 & 7 year old in bed between 8-8:30. The 12 year olds are in bed by 9, lights out at 9:30. And I STILL have to wake them at 7:30 every morning. I know each child is different, but if you have to wake them up still in the morning (meaning, they aren't waking up on their own), then they need to go bed earlier.

 

Theoretically I do agree, and I know how important sleep is....but I know for us, bedtime for my 6 yr old at 8 is as early as I can go. Hubby gets home at 6:50 from work, and eating supper as a family is very very important to me. Supper is cooked and we eat as soon as he gets changed. I shower Kaelyn before he gets home so all she has to do is brush teeth and take her allergy meds before getting into bed.

 

My girls go to bed at 9 and get up at 7(they are 7) so they are getting 10 hours a night. If we are up past this they ask when we are going to bed!

 

10 or 11 for a NINE year old? :woah: Uh, no. I don't have 9 year olds yet but I KNOW we will not allow that. Mine are only 6 so I can't compare. They go to bed at 7:30. I have 11 and 13 year old nieces who are in bed at 9.

 

During the week my 12 year old goes to bed at 9:00pm and my 6.5 year olds go to bed at 8:00. On the weekends, it's more like 8:30pm for the twins and 9:30 maybe 10:00 for my oldest DD.

 

9 year olds here too bedtime is 8/8.30 weekends might be 9pm

 

Thank you ladies, I knew I was not the big mean mom. I cannot imagine the attitudes my girls would have if I let them stay up that late.

 

YIKES!! mine go to bed at 8:15-8:30 during the week at usually 9 or 9:30 on the weekends....sometimes 10 but that's only if we're out...

 

Not a mean mom at all! I send all kids upstairs at 8:30pm. I let the 10 year old read in bed till 9, and the 13 year old gets to be awake in her room till 9:30. However, we homeschool and do not have early mornings. They do have some nights where they stay up later, but those are an exception not a rule.

 

We have lights out at 8:30. The kids go upstairs around 7:30-7:45 for showers, brushing teeth, and stories and that process takes 45-60 minutes.

 

I agree with the statement that it's not the bedtime that matters but the number of hours asleep and the child. Even kids the same age will need a different amount of sleep to function well. My younger kids miss out on activities because sleep is more important to me. The 7 and 8 yr olds go to bed at 7:30 on school nights and are awake on their own for the most part by 6:30 (latest they can get up to be ready on time is 6:45). They can stay up til 8 on the weekends. Up to this point we've maintained the same schedule year round but I think next summer we may try letting them stay up later if they want to. We'll see how it goes! The 12 yr old goes to bed at 9 every night and naturally wakes up between 6:30 (weekdays) and 7:30 (weekends) although some weekdays we have to wake him. The 15 yr old goes to bed at 10 on school nights and 11 on weekends unless she has an activity that keeps her up later. She'd be able to go to bed later and sleep in except the rest of the house is up and moving by 8 and rarely is she able to sleep through all the noise.

 

Man was I a stickler with sleep until number 3 showed up. My boys are five-and still nap when no school(90 minutes-2 hours). They go to school four days a week, in the afternoon. They wake around 7:30 every morning, sometimes a bit later.

If we are home, I aim for 8 pm. Twice a week we are having dinner with grandparents. N does soccer twice a week(in the fall), Anthony has Tae Kwon do twice a week, and Dh is in class twice a week. Some nights, it's long after 9 pm when all three(Annabella is 3-and still napping two hours) finally get to bed(last night 10-went to movies).

Tonight, dinner won't be ready til 7. We were out doing errands and grocery shopping. Right now the late times are not an issue(no need to be out the door by 8 am/no attitude/behavior issues). But I know it's something we need to work on. And if we are home, I do make a huge effort to get them upstairs by 7:30.

 

Yikes! I was in high school before I was allowed to stay up past 9:30! I plan to stay at 8:00 for a long time. After they go to bed is my time to relax.

 

My boys are five and go to bed between 6:30 pm and 7. They NEED their sleep and so do I!! I have always been a strict bedtime person because I know how essential that sleep is for them. I really cannot imagine a nine year old staying up that late. To do what? In the future, I will not have a bedtime for my kids that is any later than 9 pm. There's no need for it.