Young kids out late

If we know we’re going to be out later say 8.30-9ish we let 18 month old have a late danger nap and then take some pj’s and a bottle out with us - get him changed before we leave the venue and give him his bottle and then straight into bed after falling asleep on the car ride home.

This depends on the kids! Dd2 can happily stay up late, keep bouncing away and sleep in until late morning. Dd1 has an internal clock, always up at 6.30/7am latest and is grumpy and unhappy if bedtime goes too far past 8.30pm. Despite being older she’s always naturally gone to sleep earlier! She needs more rest sleep too, always had long naps as a baby etc.

I forgot the smiley face sorry as it was meant to be lighthearted! And you can't edit on the app annoyingly.

"Big emotions"? What does that mean (not being snarky I genuinely don't understand!) sounds like some sort of code for tantrums

My DS is 2 and is usually in bed by 7:30, but he’s fine staying up late on the odd occasion, without a meltdown. When he’ll be having a late nap I try giving him a late or longer nap than usual. He wouldn’t be able to handle that for more than a couple nights though.

Dd1 had to have a strict routine or she’d be a nightmare. Dtds were totally flexible. Depends on the dc ime.

Some people are just on a different schedule. I know a mum who has a 5 year old and toddler, they go to bed 9:30-10pm every night and need waking up every morning. Not for me!

Some DC are naturally night owls. Mine have always stayed up for New Years Eve til midnight since toddlers. They just sleep in the next day.

We generally have the younger ones in bed for 7.30/8 (5,3 &1). We also have two slightly older kids who are almost 8 and 10- they go to bed about 8.30.

We do deviate from it though- birthday meals out, cinema trips etc, when we are holiday etc.

During regular time (school, etc) mine also goes to bed early - by 8. We are on holiday now and has been going to bed 10:30 with no issues. I find during the winter he sleeps longer and goes to bed much earlier than in the summer

My 2.5 year old goes to bed about 8.30 most nights. We work and he has older siblings who do sports most nights. We couldn’t get him to bed any earlier.
Once a week it’s about 10. Not ideal but he copes really well.
He sleeps til 7 most days (so normally 10.5 hours night sleep) and has a 1.5 hour nap. I think he generally gets enough sleep.
To add, when my older kids were toddlers they went to bed at 7! No way was I keeping them up any later (but I also had no reason to).

Actually, I've come to the conclusion that it's all these bloody early meals that drive all these super early bed times and wake ups. The entire rythm of the day is brought forward when you're insisting on breakfast at 6:30, snack at 9:30, unch at 11, snack at 14:30 and dinner at 17:00. I mean, no wonder children wake up early if they've had nothing to eat for 14 hours.

I always suspect that all those people who say their children are awake no matter what, might see a change if they actually put effort into shifting the entire routine, and not just bedtime.

My almost 2yo bedtime is 7pm but we do bath and wind down from 6. So we very, very rarely do dinner out. But it also means that my sleep trained baby will be put in her room at 7 and put herself off to sleep. We have our free time from 7pm so I would rather have that than a dinner out.

Our childminder does lunch at 11:30. It sounds ridiculous. We have it much later at home on the weekend and our 4 year old doesn't perish. We have breakfast later too

It could be cultural, we live in France and my 5 and 3 year old can easily stay out till 9/10pm. Not every night but on holiday or the odd weekend or special event in the week.

So going out in the evening wasn't a problem. although we only did it occasionally.

My child used to go to bed around 9.15 as a 2/3 year old, which was the same time as his older sibling. They used to play around together in the evening and have fun so I thought it was nice. But he only went to nursery in the afternoon so I can see why it might not work for some people.

My 2 year old goes to bed at 10:30/11pm and wakes up at 9ish, which suits me fine.

We get lots of family time after work, and can do nice things in the evenings that most of his little friends would be asleep/too tired for.

It’ll change when he starts school, but for now I wouldn’t consider doing things any other way

Lunch at 1130 sounds so depressing. I don't understand how people can bear the nursery lifestyle.

Oh yes, the later lunch. My god, when my DC were smaller I used to fairly often get surprisingly horrified responses because my children didn't eat their lunch at 11:30. It was so weird. They weren't starving or complaining, had usually only had breakfast at 8 or whatever, and it was completely fine.

I'd say that sort of slightly odd censorship has only stopped in the last year or so... and DD is 9 now. We once had a play date where the child was coming over at around 14:00 and as they arrived I breezily said something like, "ooh, DD has just finished her lunch, excellent timing" and the mother was completely horrified. Exacerbated when I pointed out that DD had only had breakfast at 10 or something as we'd all had a lie in!

Yes it's cultural.

European kids don't wake at the crack of dawn. They have a good nap (if still infant age), later lunch, spend a he second half of the day outside and half dinner around 8 then bed later.

The day is very much in two halves in Europe in a way that it's not in the Uk

My 3YO usually goes to bed at 7 but has no issue staying up until 8/8.30 if we go out to dinner at the weekend. If we’re lucky he might have a lie in the next day too.

Yes, this. I have no problem with the cultural preference for kids to go to bed earlier in the UK, but I'm always a bit puzzled by the view that it's damaging to children if they don't. And even more so, the judgement if your children sleep in! My word - I've had a few raised eye brows when I've declined to meet up on a weekend at 9 am because we'll all still be in bed!

I grew up in South Africa and we actually did have early bed times. But again, that was cultural - things tend to start early there. My school day started at 8:15 and at university first lecture was at 7:45. But then, no activity ever ended past 5:30 either.

So go to bed early fine, but it's not some biological imperative or a sign of degenerate lifestyles if you go to bed late and sleep in late.

Mine are early risers no matter what time they go to bed. It's either go to bed early and not be a wreck the next day but up early or a complete wreck that evening staying up later aswell as the next day and still up at the crack of dawn!

My 6 year old is SEN and goes to bed at 5pm he cannot make any later without it seriously impacting him for ages. We stick to routine religiously the times we havent for holidays or different events are rarely worth it.

My 9 year old goes to bed at 7/7.30 wakes up at 6/7 so just needs sleep I does make getting ready for school very relaxed as we have so much time.

Whatever works for you child we are all different I'm a natural night owl. Blessed with early risers 😴 I do however love that we get a evening I can't imagine them being up at 9pm 10 pm I wouldn't ever feel like we got to switch off from being parents.

Before the routine of school, my eldest had a later bedtime and a later wake up. I was a SAHM so it suited me to have her out a bit later and then home for bath and bed. I remember my parents commenting on it being too late to have the baby out and about. But she was warm and content in her buggy going around M&S. She didn't know it was 8pm rather than 3pm. I'm naturally a late to bed, late riser and I was her main caregiver and was breastfeeding so it made sense for her to fit in with me.

We adjusted when #2 came along and preschool started.