Set Bedtimes Best for Childhood Brain Development (pills, toddlers, playing)
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I never, 'forced', my kids to go to bed. But, they had time in their room, to organize their plans for the next day, pick out their clothes for school, make sure their backpack was packed, read a book, whatever they wanted to do, in their room. Downtime for them. I found this reduced my stress in the morning. They were not, locked in, they could do stuff, but it was quiet time. No computer, no TV. And also, opportunity to organize their room and stuff. I expected an organized room on Saturday morning.
Thats not really what I think of 'bedtime' as. When I was a kid 'bedtime' meant being in my bed, lights out, no more reading or anything. Hated it as I had insomnia so would just lie awake for hours bored, thats probably why I'm reluctant to enforce bedtime (in my view of it) but time in the room reading and tidying up sounds good.
I've known too many folks who let their kids fall asleep on the floor in front of the TV and then they carry them to bed. How sad for everybody concerned. We let our girls stay up till 9 this summer (they are 11) but most of the time they put themselves to bed around 8:30. they have pretty full days so they are tired. but when they were little it was 7 year round and they never much balked.
While I would never advocate letting kids fall asleep on the floor in front of the TV, one of my kids always fought going to bed, even when she was exhausted. Sometimes it's a matter of luck, which you seem to have with these girls.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aliss2
5-5:30am for both. 6am on the days my husband doesn't work (we live in a small house and he always wakes them getting ready for work).
I think I'd put them to bed a little later, myself! I get having the whole evening kid-free, but I appreciate a little more shut-eye in the morning, too. That's just me, I guess.
While I would never advocate letting kids fall asleep on the floor in front of the TV, one of my kids always fought going to bed, even when she was exhausted. Sometimes it's a matter of luck, which you seem to have with these girls.
I think I'd put them to bed a little later, myself! I get having the whole evening kid-free, but I appreciate a little more shut-eye in the morning, too. That's just me, I guess.
If you look at arliss's OP where she mentions 5 to 5:30 she is talking about when they get up. she was asked that question in the previous post. I had prepared some snarky response to putting a kid to bed at 5-5:30 when I took the time to look back and see she had a.m. and not p.m. Makes a big difference doesn't it? I don't think even infants go to bed at 5- 5:30 p.m.
I think I'd put them to bed a little later, myself! I get having the whole evening kid-free, but I appreciate a little more shut-eye in the morning, too. That's just me, I guess.
We're up at that time anyways, so it works for us.
We got both our kids on a schedule from 2-3 months old. My oldest is 9 and his bedtime is 8 with some exceptions especially in summertime. We know we can't force him to fall asleep but he's in his room at that time. Our youngest is 2 and she's in bed at 7.
We have loose guidelines, but the kids never had an actual "set" bedtime. We would do the whole bedtime routine when they were little, complete with stories and songs. My son would often fall asleep afterwards (and at 12, is almost always asleep by 10 even without an enforced bedtime), but my daughter has NEVER been a good sleeper, not even when she was an infant. Now at 10, she has to be in her room by 9:00, but there are many nights that she's still awake in there at 11 or even midnight. She might be reading, drawing, just laying in the dark. My husband says that he was just like that as a kid, couldn't fall asleep well and would just be awake long after his parents went to bed. She seems to be well-rested, though, and typically still gets 8 hours of sleep (though I feel like a 10-year-old should be getting more than that). She's also not as strong of a student as my son, though, so I wonder if it's a matter of causation or correlation or coincidence...
My son always had a bed time. I know he needs sleep to function correctly. I worked at a school with waaaaay too many grouchy kids who clearly ruled the roost at home.
I cannot believe families that have no set bed time for kids, and no bed time routine. The kids run around doing whatever, until they drop, in front of the TV. No story time, bath time, crazy.
I didn't have set bed times. That doesn't mean kids ran around doing whatever. Sometimes it's about kids cuddling with parents watching a movie on the tv, sometimes a bed time story, even in their bed but they weren't tired so got back up to sit quietly. Or talking about this and that.
If they weren't tired, I wasn't going to force them to lay in their beds.
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