What age did you stop enforcing bed time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am feeling like a micromanager here, but I completely monitor my kids going to sleep. they are 10 and12 and I really aim for complete lights out by 9:20 during year and 9:45/ 10 pm in summer, although of course this slips due to outings etc. maybe I should let them self-regulate, but I think they would stay up forever reading!

My twelve-year-old has an even earlier bedtime! He is naturally an early riser and gets overtired as the evening wears on. He doesn't fight bedtime, because he knows he's tired, but if we don't stay on top of things, he falls apart and then has trouble falling asleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am feeling like a micromanager here, but I completely monitor my kids going to sleep. they are 10 and12 and I really aim for complete lights out by 9:20 during year and 9:45/ 10 pm in summer, although of course this slips due to outings etc. maybe I should let them self-regulate, but I think they would stay up forever reading!

Life long reader here, some of my favorite memories were of reading late into the evening in summers when I didn't have anything else required of me. If your kids are reading, I'd let them stay up as late as they want. TV, not so much.

I would have stayed up all night at least once a week, and been exhausted for school. I am so glad that I wasn't allowed to do that!

[Anonymous]

Bed time is enforced until 16 years old. After that it's curfew and when people are sleeping in the house everyone needs to be quiet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am feeling like a micromanager here, but I completely monitor my kids going to sleep. they are 10 and12 and I really aim for complete lights out by 9:20 during year and 9:45/ 10 pm in summer, although of course this slips due to outings etc. maybe I should let them self-regulate, but I think they would stay up forever reading!

Life long reader here, some of my favorite memories were of reading late into the evening in summers when I didn't have anything else required of me. If your kids are reading, I'd let them stay up as late as they want. TV, not so much.

I have to disagree, at least from my experience. DD was a 6th grader (11) at the time. I woke up at 4 AM to go to the bathroom, and found her light on...went to turn it off; she was still reading. And it was a school night. That was excessive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am feeling like a micromanager here, but I completely monitor my kids going to sleep. they are 10 and12 and I really aim for complete lights out by 9:20 during year and 9:45/ 10 pm in summer, although of course this slips due to outings etc. maybe I should let them self-regulate, but I think they would stay up forever reading!

My twelve-year-old has an even earlier bedtime! He is naturally an early riser and gets overtired as the evening wears on. He doesn't fight bedtime, because he knows he's tired, but if we don't stay on top of things, he falls apart and then has trouble falling asleep.

Mine is like that too. I tell people she turns into a pumpkin at 9:00. If we're home, she tells me she's going to bed by 9:05 usually. I can tell it's around 9:00 by the tone in her voice between 8:50-9:10. No clock needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had to be in bed with lights out by 9:30 until I graduated high school (not all that long ago). Which meant that I snuck headphones into bed and listened to late night talk radio until midnight when I actually fell asleep.

PP, I know right?! I had a 9pm bedtime all during high school! I must be younger than you b/c I didn't have headphones, but I did sneak listening to Gloria Estefan's "Conga" on my cassette clock radio!

[Anonymous]

Everyone in my family is a night owl and I don't think my kids ever had a 9:00 or earlier bedtime. I aimed for asleep by 10:00 throughout elementary (they were able to get up at 8) and gave up after that. We both work, so that gave us a decent amount of time in the evening to spend together. I still suggest that my teens go to sleep by 10:30 during the school year, but that rarely happens. Afternoon naps happen occasionally and there is a lot of sleeping on the weekend.

I know some parents would put their kids to bed at 7:30 or 8 during elementary, but they would wake up at 5:30 and have 3+ hours to wait for the school bus. No one wants to spend time with me or DH at 5:30 in the morning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp how many kids do you have? You read aloud to your teens? I couldn't follow your post.

24/7 nanny for 7 kids, ages 3 to 15. And reading aloud every evening is one of the first things that I instituted. The youngest 3 choose the first book, the other 4 choose the second book. The oldest kids are 13 and 15 yo girls who like spending time with their younger siblings and I, but they don't have much time during the day to do so, and this gives them an excuse.

What do the 'parents' do?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp how many kids do you have? You read aloud to your teens? I couldn't follow your post.

I know, wtf. I think Michelle Duggar or her kin may be posting

Reading books together is wtf worthy? Really? I think it's nice for as long as everyone is enjoying it. PP's post wasn't that hard to follow.

New poster. I also could not follow 12:28 post... seemed a bit garbled. Makes some effort people! We're not mind readers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pp how many kids do you have? You read aloud to your teens? I couldn't follow your post.

24/7 nanny for 7 kids, ages 3 to 15. And reading aloud every evening is one of the first things that I instituted. The youngest 3 choose the first book, the other 4 choose the second book. The oldest kids are 13 and 15 yo girls who like spending time with their younger siblings and I, but they don't have much time during the day to do so, and this gives them an excuse.

What do the 'parents' do?

Single parent household. DB works on call and can be gone for more than a week at a time, so I'm the consistent presence.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I enforce curfew, when they will be in their rooms and when the lights will be off. I read one chapter from one book, then a chapter from another book. By the time the second chapter is over, they only kids still awake are tweens and teens who then head towards their rooms. Eventually they will sleep, but their bodies are trying to tell them to stay up later, so we compromise. As long as they get a chance to unwind and so do I, we all are happy, and they may sleep until the bathroom is available (ie. after the younger rascals are out of the way).

To clarify for those who think this was garbled:

3 younger kids choose one chapter book. 4 older kids choose another chapter book.

I read one chapter from the first book. The two youngest fall asleep, possibly the third youngest.

I read the chapter from the second book. The three, possibly four, youngest are asleep by the time I'm done. The older kids talk with me until it's time for lights out.

I don't see how that was difficult to understand, but nbd.