If you have a 7 and a 10 year old please talk to me about bed time

[sunnysideupplease]

Because mine really is not working at the moment. I feel I have been too soft and now bed time is usually pretty stressful. I want to get back into a nice relaxing routine. Please help!

[Lovage]

Mine are only 8 and 6, but the thing that really, really helps is that, if they have done everything else before their set bedtimes, they get to read in bed last thing. Younger one usually gets to read for about 10 minutes, older one for about half an hour. They both like reading, and framing it as a treat that only happens if all the previous stages have happened in a reasonably timely fashion helps with earlier too. May not work if yours don't like reading though! Although sometimes mine draw instead. Any quiet non-screen activity that they do on their own seems to work okay - anything they do together is a total disaster area, as they just egg each other on.

Good luck!

[Haroldplaystheharmonica]

I have two boys (7 and 10) who share a bedroom. After having a wash and getting jimmied up, they come downstairs for supper and tv. The 7 yr old goes up at 7.45ish and the 10 yr old is allowed to stay up for longer, usually til 8.30pm.

They're used to this and apart from the odd night where they go up together (and wind each other up far too much) it all works well. What's so stressful about bedtime in your house?

[OliviaBlue]

Well, son is 7 and my daughter is 8. I don't let them have different bedtimes because they're only a year apart. I think a lot of it can also be part of their own personalities. Like our daughter is never any problem at bedtime, but our son always tries (unsuccessfully) to trick me into letting him stay up later. But at the same time, I find that our daughter seems to prefer more sleep to our son.

I usually have them in bed by around 9pm, but occasionally 10pm. It never gets later than 10pm, though. I personally find that 8pm is too early and they get restless and/or wake up too early.

I find that having them doing lots of activity during the day tires them out. My daughter is in a modern dance group, takes part in volleyball and gymnastics in school and my son goes to Taekwondo and takes part in an athletics group at school and plays basketball. So between class and their extracurricular activities, they are usually pretty tired out. It's just the weekends when they want to stay up later usually.

Tire them out!

[lecherrs]

I have a 7 and 10 year old and we aim for an 8.30 weeknights and 8pm weekend bedtimes for both.

Both girls do extensive sports - DD1 trains almost 20 hours a week and DD2, almost 10. On DD1s nights, they get home about 8:45 and go to bed. DD2s nights home at 7:45 and straight to bed.

Hobbies are both at 9am sat and sun so no late nights at the weekend - usually early nights for us!

[Magicpinkshadow]

I have 4 dc my dd age 3 goes up at 6.20pm she has her own room and my 3 ds share so ds3 age 6 goes up at 7pm, ds2 age 7 at 7.30pm and ds1 11 goes at 8pm. I have an alarm set on my phone for each one so they know when it is there time. If they haven't fallen asleep before the next one goes up and they decide to mess around they get the joyous punishment of sweeping the floors/ loading the dishwasher or any thing else that needs doing! I find they soon get tired and would rather sleep!!!

[pantone363]

4, 7, 9 yr old who all go up together at 7.30. 4 yorks goose straight to sleep the other two read for an hr

[pantone363]

4 yorks goose? 4 year old goes

[rocketjam]

biscuit and milk at 7, watch TV, go up at 7:30-45 for p-j, brush teeth, we read to them for 15 minutes or they read on their own, lights out at 8 onweekdays and 8:30 at weekends. They are sometimes not tired and we let them read or play quietly in their bedrooms for an extra 15miutes. Then, we (still) sing them a few songs, bigcuddle and kisses. They are both usually asleep by 8:15 on a week day.

[NellyTheElephant]

My three are 9 (rising 10), 7 and 5. I'd like to send them up earlier as 5yr old gets v tired, but what with work etc that doesn't happen. So - usually 5 & 7 yr old go upstairs around 7.30 straight after their supper - 7 yr old takes charge of running bath (she's well practised now and trusted re temperature checking etc) and I keep a vague eye / ear out for safety's sake but don't get massively involved in their process of getting ready for bed. 9 yr old will use the 20 mins or so while they get ready to do some homework or do some piano practice or something, then when they are ready she and I will join them, we usually all get in my bed and I read a chapter of whichever book I'm reading to them (10 / 15 mins), by which time it is generally a bit after 8pm. 5 yr old straight to bed lights off and drops straight to sleep. 7 yr old is allowed to keep her lights on and read until 8.30 (supposedly), 9 yr old will have her bath and can then keep her lights on until 9pm, reading or doing homework in her room (again - supposedly, I am aware they can be quite naughty about lights back on when they think I'm downstairs and don't know, but if they are reading quietly in bed I don't make too much of a fuss about an extra half hour or so)

[holmessweetholmes]

Mine are 6 and 9. They go and start getting ready for bed at 7:30 ish. They whinge a bit when I tell them to go up, but not for long as they know they won't get a story / reading time if they don't get ready fairly quickly.
The thing I have trouble with is getting them to tidy toys away, put clothes in the laundry basket etc. I think I achieve a quick and hassle-free bed time, but at the expense of a tidy house!

[NerdyBird]

6 and 9 year old DSDs go to bed at 7.30 and 8pm. No reading in bed etc at the moment. They tend to mess about so we send them to get ready for bed separately which helps. We stick to bedtimes in the week then they are both allowed up later on Friday and Saturday. 6 year old is normally fast asleep by the time her sister goes up.

[CaptainAnkles]

12yo goes at 10, 7yo at 8.30.