Bedtime for Kids

I would like to say it is always by 8 pm, but sometimes my 3yo DS is up until 10 or later. It is my fault, as sometimes we are still out (grocery store, grandparent's house, out to dinner, etc) and can't get home and bathed and in bed until after 8 pm. He does so much better if he is in bed early. If he skips a nap, I try to back it up as early as 7 pm. It is harder in summer months because it stays lighter later than in the winter. I remember that from childhood - I would try to stay up until dark, not understanding it is dark at 6 pm in winter and 9 pm in summer!

Sleep is definitely important for brain and memory development.

My twins (boy/girl) are 20 months (almost 2) and by 9pm, I put them in their cribs, sometimes they fuss but not for long (less than 5 minutes). I also put them down for naps, a must, by around 1pm. Kids have to have a routine, they need lots of sleep for developement and energy. Staying up late is not good. Sometimes my kids will sleep earlier.

I would think it would depend on whether or not you stay at home or have to drop them off at day care in the morning. Both my kids (2.5 and 9 months) go to bed about 8. The little one is sometimes in bed about 7:30-45 while the older one may be up until 8:30, but we're pretty consistent with that time. We don't have anywhere to be in the mornings however, so it works for us, but if we had to be up earlier, they'd be going to bed earlier too!

If it works for you, let her stay up late....if it doesn't....don't. I am a firm believer in mommy and daddy time and if we don't get it we both get grumpy!

I'm pretty strict on bedtime unless we have something special going on so around here it is 8 pm. Our son just turned 5 & our daughter is 2.5. Our son doesn't take naps though and is up around 7-7:30 every morning & our daughter loves her sleep & still takes about a 2 hour nap during the day. Each family is a little different though so as long as they are getting enough sleep you should be good :-)

My 3 year old goes to bed around 8:00-8:30 and my 15 months is sleeping by 7:30

Our 3 1/2 year old goes to bed between 7:00 - 7:30. Our 8 month old son goes to be between 5:45 - 6:45, depending on when he starts showing signs of being tired.

As toddlers it was 7:30pm. Beginning school age it was 7:30-8:00pm. Now they are 9 & 12 - it is 9:00pm. Although, my 12 year old is staying up later the older he gets, but 10:00 is the latest he can be in the living room/study - he has to be in his room by 10pm. Weekends, holidays and summer, it's a free for all unless we have something planned.

We have never really had a set schedule for our kids. Honestly, I'm not a morning person so I let my kids stay up a little later at night so they will sleep later in the morning. It works for us and until they start school, I don't see anything wrong with that. As long as the child is getting enough sleep, it shouldn't really matter what time the clock says. My grandparents, however, disagree :)

I have the same problem you do, except my daughter is 4 1/2. She will stay up to 10 or 11 at night most nights! We may put her in bed, but she won't go to sleep until late. She takes 30-45 min naps at school most days, but at home on weekends she doesn't take a nap. Never seems to make a difference at night! She's been doing this for the past couple years or so I think.

Actually just made her go back to bed just a minute ago, and now she's asking for another kiss & hug.... haha

Kids that age need 11-12 hours of sleep at night, so it depends on what time he gets up in the morning. If he goes to bed at 9pm, that's fine if he gets up at 8am. But if he's getting up at 6am, then that's too late.

I have a 2.5 and a 5.5 year old and we don't eat dinner til 8:00 most evenings because of our work schedules! Then after clean up and a little play time with Daddy (who gets home around 7:30) it's bathtime, books, and bed. So it's not til about 9:30 or 10:00 that they get in bed...My little one wakes up around 7:30-8:00 (and takes a 2-2.5 hour nap everyday) and my older one will sleep til about 8:30. She starts Kinder in the fall, though, so I know I need to get her on an earlier schedule...it is just so hard because I really like sitting down as a family to dinner.

my kids are 4 and 6, and they have gone to bed at 8 since birth. during the summer we sometimes stretch it till 9, but once school starts we are back to 8.

At that age, my kids were going to bed no later than 8pm. In fact, I think my youngest was going to bed at 6:30pm at that age, and sleeping until 7am. Of course, she had stopped any daytime napping by then...Now she goes to bed at 8 during the school year and 9 during the summer (she's 7). My 9yr old goes to bed at 8:30 during school and 9 during vacation. My 12yr old son has a 9pm bedtime during school (which will most likely move to 9:30 in the fall) and 10pm right now during vacation. I found that lack of sleep is directly tied to how cranky/unproductive they are during the day. Some kids are just fine with less sleep (like my niece who's been a terrible sleeper since birth, but is one of the smartest, most active, most mature 3yr olds I know), but MY kids *need* their sleep - or they'll be too difficult to deal with the next day. Plus I like the evenings to be quiet and kid-free for some one-on-one time with my DH.

i work until 11:30 pm, and I NEED my kids to sleep in as late as possible, so we let them stay up late as well. They are 4 and 5 and they go to bed anywhere from 9pm (rare) to 11pm! usually somewhere in between! the other day, i got home at midnight, and they were both up!

They've been on this schedule their entire lives, but it works for us. My older daughter got PM kindergarden for this upcoming schoolyear, so we have one more year before we need to worry about shifting them to an earlier schedule. :)

My daughter is almost 4 years old... bedtime is around 8:30pm. On rare occasions she stays up later like 10pm-midnight but those are for special events such as holidays, weddings, visiting family. We make sure to let her know when she gets to stay up late and say it is a special treat to stay up past bedtime.

My daughter would stay up later, and without a problem, if we let her but then the next day she is cranky unless she can sleep in. Sleeping past 8am is not an option most days due to school, church, play dates, work and so on; so it is an 8:30pm bedtime, she usually is asleep by 9pm and we have never had an issue of getting up and wanting to stay up since she knows it is not an option.

Do what works for your family and as long as your child is getting enough sleep, able to get up in a timely manner for whatever is going on the next day and is in a good mood then a later bedtime might work... BUT if the future when school does roll around it might be a fight if you have not established bedtime rules already, unless you are planning on homeschooling where you make own school hours.

My husband works late just about every night. So the girls usually stayed up until he got home and often went to bed late. However, I have always been strict about time to get up. I don't care what time they go to bed, they get up and started their homeschooling on time in the am.

I had to be strict about time to get up because I usually turn in as soon as the daycare children are asleep and my day starts rediculously early. My husband knows he and the girls have to be quiet and they've usually been quiet enough for the daycare and I to be asleep. BUT, I refuse to let them lay around all morning. I don't personally think anything beyond 8 hours is absolutely necessary for most people regardless of their age. But, I'm big on nap time. So they do get the sleep anyway.

When my husband can't come home until 10 or 11pm, the girls have either gone to sleep or stayed up and watched a movie while I dozed on the other end of the couch.

My 4yr old son goes to bed at 8pm. I'm a single mom and when i went back to work when he was 3months old we were on my schedule. Leave at 7am to take him to child care, pick him up at 4pm go home, eat dinner, play a little take warm hot bath I give him a little bit of milk and we lay on the couch and watch a little tv and before i know it he is knocked out!! We do this everyday!!! Routine.... this works for me,

I have three at home. My 15 year old goes to bed on his own, but because we have to get up early (5am), he has to be quiet after 9pm. The 10 year old goes to bed around 9, usually without being told. The 3 year old is in bed between 8 and 8:30. If she is in bed at 8, she gets a book read to her, anytime after that no book. She likes routine at bedtime. She gets a vitamin and "magic water" (just water), then a book and hugs and kisses. I can usually tell she is tired when she asks for her vitamin on her own.

I have a 3 year old son that also likes to stay up late. He would never go to bed if he had it his way :).... I try to have him asleep by 8:30 but during the summer it hasn't been working too well. He usually falls asleep between 9 and 9:30 and I let him stay up later on the weekends...like 10 or so...

We've had different bedtimes for different situations:

- Before preschool started it was around 10pm-11pm in the summer. After preschool started it was around 7pm (aka I was shooting for 12-13 hours of sleep time).

- When kiddo started school... he didn't come home until 430 (ugh) so to have any real time with him at all I bumped bedtime to 9pm (1 hour of transport from school & to and from activity, 1 hour at the activity, 1 hour for dinner and 1 hour for bedtime routing -stories, bath, teeth, etc only left us 30 minutes for playtime... which shortened his sleep to 11-12 hours... but having that "freetime" as short as it was, was very important to me.

- When in Rome, his bedtime is between midnight & 2am. In Rome we nap for a few hours in the afternoon (along with everyone else), and don't have dinner until 10pm. If we're playing in the piazzas with other kids for an hour we make it home around midnight. Do chores, bathtime, and bedtime.

- Homeschooling kiddo is in bed typically between 9 & 10. Exclusions = in the winter when we're in bed around 6pm-7pm... because we get up at 5am to be on the mountian... and anytime we have a latenight activity. We do a lot of theatre/opera/observatories/dinners that have kiddo to bed around midnight. Also, any time he's tired early he goes to bed early, or if we have an early appointment.

The THEME with all of these is that it's "what works". HE gets his 11-12 hours, and *I* get my personal time after he's in bed.

8:30 is a good time for a 3 year old that stays up later.

When my kids where that age they would wake up/or I would wake them up around 7-8am, then nap time would be about 1-2pm until about 3-4pm. Bedtime was always at 7-7:30pm and this was so they would sleep through the night atleast 12 hours. My oldest is 12 and bedtime is 9:30pm the latest (she wakes up at 6:30pm to get ready for school, but during the summer she sleeps until 7:30-8:30am).

when they were little my kids went to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 and they would wake up between 8 and 8:30.

I shoot for 7:30 for my 3 year old. With my older kids - they had to be in their rooms with the door closed by 8 but, depending on their age, they could read, watch a movie or play a game until bedtime. That way I had quiet time at the end of the day.

My 2 yr old goes to bed at 7:30 and my 7 yr old goes to bed at 8:30 during the summer and 8pm during the school year. Of course most kids would love to stay up late - its up to you to set the schedule and enforce it. :)