About Me

My photo
Northern Indiana, United States
I am, among many other things, wife to Gil Jr., mom to Samuel-9 and Evelyn-6. Homeschooler. Also an avid reader, music enthusiast, and wanna be green thumb.

Friday, June 10, 2011

How Do You Handle Summer Bedtimes?

I pose this question to all the moms and dads.  I ask because I battle with this every Summer.  During the school year we struggle almost every night to get to bed at 8:00 PM for my 5 year old, and 8:30 PM for the 8 year old.   I am informed that this is a really "unfair" bedtime by my 8 year old son.  He says most of his friends get to stay up until at least 9:00 or 10:00 PM on school nights which, actually, explains a lot. 
The last 3 years I have been a helper in the kids lunchroom at school, I was surprised how many kids would complain about being exhausted on a daily basis.  We are pretty well into a routine around here during the school year.  Home from school, we start homework, & I start dinner.  We eat dinner when my husband returns home.  After dinner, baths, then stories followed by lights out.  We try to stick to this.  Then baseball begins and throws a wrench in everything. 
When school is winding down, baseball season is usually in full swing.  I'm lucky if they are in bed by 9:30 most of these nights, and if there is a 7:45 game forget it.  But then school lets out and we get into the later games.  When baseball season is over mid June, we are beyond repair.  Most nights I demand they be in bed by 9:00 PM- both of them, just so that we don't have total anarchy.  My daughter, the 5 year old, cries and complains every night, even thought she knows she's tired and NEEDS to go to bed.  My 8 year old son, on the other hand, NEVER wants to go to bed.  He could stay up until midnight and wake at 7 AM and be fine.  I would let him stay up later, but somehow I always give him the short end of the stick and make him suffer to spare her temper tantrum. 
I guess my question is, what time do you put your children to bed?  Is there an appropriate time for each age, or do you tailor it more to your child's personality or needs?  Do the "older" children have much later bedtimes?  What does your routine consist of?   Please share your wisdom with me, I am in dire need of it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

my son is 22 months and he doesn't get to bed until about 10:30 or 11. he wakes up at around 10/10:30am. I'd rather have a quiet morning than a quiet evening.

once we have a second child..i'll have to change the schedule. not sure how that'll be.

my son loves bedtime. all I prayed for when I was pregnant was "please god let my boy be a good sleeper!!"

at bedtime i just say "sleepy night night" and he runs in there singing, "ni ni ni ni"

haha!!