When can kids stay up later?

[Anonymous]

My two year old has consistently gone to bed around 7pm since he was 3 months or so (he sleeps 7-7). Don't get me wrong, I'm happy about this, but if we try to go out and keep him up until 8pm, he's a cranky, overtired mess (understandably). Just wondering when kids can start to stay up later? Maybe 4 or 5 years old?

[cuzimawesome]

It really all depends on when your child starts to get sleepy. If he's happy going to bed at 7, just keep it that way for now. If he starts having more trouble falling asleep at 7, then maybe it's time to move the bedtime. But start in increments. Move it to 7:15 for a few days... then 7:30 and so on.

My daughter went to sleep at 6:30 in the evening until she was 3. I know that's super early, but that's when she was tired. And she would sleep all night until 7AM. Man, those were the days. I eventually moved her bedtime over the course of a few years. When she was four, it was 7PM. When she was five, it was 7:30. And now at six years old, she goes to bed at 8.

Just do what works best for him... and you!

[Anonymous]

my daughter's 2.5 and she's always been pretty flexible when it came to bedtime. Occasionally (every few weeks, usually) I keep her up past her 8:00 bedtime and it's no biggie. I think it really depends on the kid, though. some of my friends' kids need a much more rigid schedule than my daughter. (i've never needed much sleep, or needed sleep at a given time.)

[Anonymous]

Depends on the kids.

My kids have never been morning people. They never went to bed before 8-8:30pm as infants/toddlers..and even a little later now as a 3 year old and 5.5 year old...and the younger one gets up after 9AM..the older one around 8:15am. I WAH so I can embrace this later schedule...esp because it means we can sleep in on the weekends (if they stay up later on the weekends they sleep in even later..10ish). Next year the older one starts K but it starts at 9am and we are less than a mile away. The little one sleeps between 11-13 hours at night and the older one around 11 hours.

My kids never get cranky cues.

[Anonymous]

I think it completely depends on the child. At two, we started to put our daughter to bed at around 8:00, and she was fine with that. In fact, she always wanted to stay up later and so we sometimes let her stay up later. At three, we started trying to be more strict, and we put her down at 8:00, but she always procrastinated us leaving her room until around 9. She is fine if she stays up later too, but if she stays up later than 9 for more than a couple nights in a row, she will get cranky during the day (but at night she will still rally!), so we try to be consistent. Her best friend is two weeks older and has always thrown big fits if she doesn't go to bed much earlier - even now, at almost four, she will throw a huge fit if she isn't asleep by 8:30. Sadly, these personality/sleep differences are preventing sleepovers (aka free babysitting) that we all would like - my child keeps the other one awake, and the other one does not like it one bit.