Children bedtimes

[Forrest747]

Growing up bedtime was sacred. from about 12 years old i could stay up till 11pm so i could watch MASH but then it was off to sleep. but before 12 bedtime was 9:30.
Lisa would have the kids in bed at 8pm on school nights and 9pm on weekends.
There is a girl I was seeing that her kids bedtimes were all over the map. 1am sometimes on weekends, even as late as midnight on school nights. I thought it just a little odd, yet she wondered why her kids were cranky or late for school.
So what is a normal kids bedtimes.
I have the twins at 12 and girl at 10 and another girl at 8. I say 11pm for the boys on weekend and 10pm for the girls. yet on school nights it 9pm for everyone. your thoughts or am I being to stringent.

[Shadow Catcher]

Being married to a teacher we know the consequences of too little sleep. Our routine was that there was no TV after dinner and I would give the kids their bath till they were old enough and then would read them a bed time story and they would have a half hour for quite activity reading etc. and bed. This gave me time with them and the final ritual was that I would give them a hug pat kiss rub squeeze.

School-Age Children and Preteens

School-age kids need 10 to 12 hours of sleep a night. Bedtime difficulties can arise at this age for a variety of reasons. Homework, sports and after-school activities, TVs, computers, and video games, as well as hectic family schedules might contribute to kids not getting enough sleep.

Lack of sleep can cause irritable or hyper types of behavior and may make it difficult for kids to pay attention in school. It is important to have a consistent bedtime, especially on school nights. Be sure to leave enough time before bed to allow your child to unwind before lights out.
Teens

Adolescents need about 8½ to 9½ hours of sleep per night, but many don't get it. Because of early school start times on top of schedules packed with school, homework, friends, and activities, they're typically chronically sleep deprived.

And sleep deprivation adds up over time, so an hour less per night is like a full night without sleep by the end of the week. Among other things, an insufficient amount of sleep can lead to:

decreased attentiveness
decreased short-term memory
inconsistent performance
delayed response time

These can cause bad tempers, problems in school, stimulant use, and driving accidents (more than half of "asleep-at-the-wheel" car accidents are caused by teens).

Teens also experience a change in their sleep patterns — their bodies want to stay up late and wake up later, which often leads to them trying to catch up on sleep during the weekend. This sleep schedule irregularity can actually aggravate the problems and make getting to sleep at a reasonable hour during the week even harder.

Ideally, a teen should try to go to bed at the same time every night and wake up at the same time every morning, allowing for at least 8 to 9 hours of sleep.

[gregp136]

My children are all up and out now, but we never had bedtimes for them. As they grew, they learned how much sleep they needed and all went to bed when was right for them. On the other hand, we would address issues of crankiness, or getting up late for school, or church. It was rare for any of the three to be up past 10 PM on school nights.

For me it seemed to take away one of the power struggles, and they learned to be responsible with how much sleep they needed.

It worked for us.

Greg(and Laurie)

[dreadcptflint]

We shoot for a bedtime of 8:00 pm bedtime with our little dude who is four. My wife reads to him every night so when she closes she doesn't get off work until 8:00 he stays up a little. He has also been known to fall asleep on the couch around 6:30 when he has had a long day of play.

[Miriam C.]

All kids younger than 10 to bed at 8:30, 9pm for those under 15yrs. I have a 15 year old granddaughter and she chooses to go to bed at 9:30. Her grades are great and she is rarely tired after school, and is never late. She wakes herself up too. Hailey at 5yrs should be asleep at 8:30 but is slow to sleep. Mike reads to her for 15 min and then she talks a few more. She wakes up at 8am every morning. This fall that will be an issue since school starts at 8 am.... Gonna have to go to 8 pm bed times.

[Corwin C]

The 13 year old @ 9 and the 10 year old @ 8:30. They pretty much set their own bedtime because if it takes me or their mother more than once to wake them up, they go to bed 1/2 hour earlier the next night. BTW ... reveille is at 6:30.

[Wimperdink]

reveille

Shudder! sorry flashback of banging trash can lids and yelling. "Reveille Reveille, All hands on deck!"

My youngins all go to bed at 9 p.m. but thats because I'd rather sleep till at least 8:30am That will change when they get closer to school age and need to get up earlier.

[Mightydog]

When I was a kid, bed time was 8:30. As I got older, it was moved to 10:00, but was quickly dialed back if I gave mom a hard time when she tried to wake me up.

It all changed my junior of high school when I would work from six to midnight at the local radio station. I'd be home by 12:45 AM then would be up by six in the morning to catch a ride with dad at 7:00. I did homework while I was on the air. I could keep the job as long as my GPA was 3.0 or higher.

[Corwin C]

Shudder! sorry flashback of banging trash can lids and yelling. "Reveille Reveille, All hands on deck!"

Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up harsh memories ...

Nothing so dramatic (wouldn't want to end up in jail for child abuse ). Firm rap on the bedroom door and "Time to get up!!" ... I usually get an immediate answer.

[Wimperdink]

Shudder! sorry flashback of banging trash can lids and yelling. "Reveille Reveille, All hands on deck!"

Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up harsh memories ...

Nothing so dramatic (wouldn't want to end up in jail for child abuse ). Firm rap on the bedroom door and "Time to get up!!" ... I usually get an immediate answer.

Boot camp!

[campinwi]

When my kids were ,younger, I would do bedtime at 8:00. Around 6th grade they got to stay up till 9:00. Then, all lights out no matter what they were doing. High school was 10:00. Even when my daughter was a senior, bedtime was 10:00 on weeknights and weekends when we had to work. We figured we needed our sleep, and I could not go to sleep until I knew they were in bed.

Funny thing, when my daughter went off to college, she still never stayed up too late, she new the importance of sleep and how cranky she got if she did not sleep at least 8 hours.

Last night I told my daughter and her boyfriend (he seems to have moved in with us now that school is out) @ 10:15, they needed to be quite so we could sleep as we had to go to work. She said "I know, it's bedtime for all of us). She then asked if they could watch tv for an hour in our basement. I of course told her it was ok as long as they were quiet. I do not know of many almost 20 year old who ask their parents permission to stay up past 10:30! Somehow, with my fourth one, I got lucky!

[eamarquardt]

reveille

Shudder! sorry flashback of banging trash can lids and yelling. "Reveille Reveille, All hands on deck!"

You guys had it nice. They used only the trash can lids!? Where I went to "school" it was the whole trash can banging down the center of the squad bay with the greeting: "Get up, get up, get out of the rack".

And I was having such a beautiful dream.

Actually, after the first morning we were expected get ourselves up w/o any prompting from our "instructors".

Cheers,

Gus

[atahoekid]

For us, bedtime has always been 8:30 to 9 pm. When the kids were young, my wife worked 12 hour shifts and on the days she worked she didn't get home till about 8 pm and she was gone to work by 6:30 am. So we made sure they always got a good midday nap so they could stay up late to see mom for a little while. During the grade school years, the rule was in bed by 9, middle school was 9:30. During the high school days, they were in bed by 10 or 10:30 and up by 6:00, they were really self reliant and rarely did we "put" them to bed. Now that they're adults, 2 of the 3 kids still live at home but they still go to bed by 11 - 11:30. They're still in school or have to be at work bright and early. Their weekends or days off however are a totally different matter. I think there's almost someone awake at some point in every 24 hour period! Oh! to be young again

[dh]

Its a mirical anybody makes it through higher education, I believe my Jr. year I ran on 24 hrs sleep per week, at least 10 of which were alcohal induced.

[len19070]

I have what some people say is 2 only Children.....11 years apart.

We never set a bed time for either because they both set there own! And those times were both what I consider "the Norm".

When they were in elementary school at about 8:30-8:45 they would announce that they were going to bed, get up and go to bed.

When they were in High School same thing at 9:30-10:00.

They were always allowed to stay up later and on rare occasions would, the end of a ball game, a movie they were watching, an unfinished project etc. but very seldom did.

Weekends they were allowed to stay up later but never forced to go to bed.

They would do it on there own. And at a decent hour.

Then they went to College and both turned Nocturnal! .....18 years each , Shot to Hell!

Happy Trails

Len