AIBU to enforce lights out for my 7 year old bookworm?

My 8 year old would read until midnight if I let her! I agree with you!

My 7 year old boy is the same. We allow him to read until 8.30am and then have to remember to go back up to tell him to go to sleep at that time. If we don’t, he just keeps reading. I don’t think he is old enough to understand that he feels so tired because he needs to go to sleep earlier. If we left him, he would constantly be going to bed late and be tired the next day.

I have similar with my newly 7yo boy - I'll ask him to switch lights out in x mins after I leave to go downstairs (usually around 15/20) and will specify time on the clock....but he will often appear downstairs around an hour/90mins later saying that hes only just turned lights out and can't sleep.

I think that is my failing as I should have gone up to check. I can't expect him to have extracted himself from book to check time, and I think same for your son. Reading can be very addictive...just one more page/chapter can mean time flies by and I think he's much too little at 7 to override that. I agree with you.

I'm 33 and can barely regulate myself if reading a good book 😂 Absolutely no way a 7 year old should have to learn those boundaries.

Perhaps the compromise is that he could perhaps stay up a little later on weekends?

Your husband's a moron.

Anyone who reads avidly as an adult knows how addictive it can be to read just one more chapter. Expecting a 7 year old to have better self control than an adult is just bloody daft and it won't teach him any consequences because he will just continue to read.

He needs guidance and boundaries enforcing on when he needs to stop reading as you've suggested. I would in this instance completely ignore your husband, I suspect from his suggestions he's not a reader.

and if he’s tired the next day, that's the consequence and he'll eventually learn how much sleep he needs

He's 7! He's told how much sleep he needs and thats reinforced by you as parents. Your DH is treating him as a teenager with that approach

You read to him for 40 minutes?! I’m seriously impressed, I barely have the stamina to read out loud for 10!

Maybe he needs to be more active during waking hours to help him sleep.

If he's going up bed to at ,5zpm to read that's a long time for the body to be resting.

What does he do at 6am when he wakes? Is he picking up the book again? If so I'd be tempted to leave the book outside the bedroom so he has no incentive to wake at 6am.

Absolutely it's something your son will have to learn... but there's a time and place. Hes 7 for goodness sake, he's far too young to understand and regulate.

I agree with the 30 minute swing. It's what we have here too. My stepson is 14 and he still has a lights out time of 10pm midweek and 10.30pm weekends (unless some sort of occasion). And I know lots of people will think that's ridiculous at his age but he cannot regulate and he's an absolute horror with no sleep. He's been fighting with his mum every morning and missing the school bus since going back to school as he is too tired to get up in the morning (no curfew at her house). Ee have zero arguments here and he's never missed a bus, is always ready at least 5/10 mins before we need to leave the house.

I think we are all guilty of wanting to watch in more episode, read one more chapter. But we need to parent our kids too and make sure they are getting enough sleep.

Seven is too young to make many decisions without parental in-put, imo. There's nothing wrong with having rules and a bit of structure in place.

For our bookworm we have the compromise of an audiobook to fall asleep to. A story with us and then ten or twenty minutes on the timer for the audiobook. He rarely makes it to the story timing out before he’s snoring!

Of course you should turn out the lights. A 7 year old is not going to equate reading a book for as long as they want with dysregulated behavior due to lack of sleep!

My mum used to have to take the light bulb out to stop me staying up really late reading!

Can you switch the order of the bedtime routine around so he reads on his own first and reading with you is the final bit of the routine and then you say goodnight and the book goes downstairs with you?

I have a 7 year old who would happily read until late. We finally turn the light off around 9.30 but he doesn’t get up until 7.30 or later so that is probably similar overall. I do love it though when he sometimes falls asleep under a book because ai remember doing that myself as a child!

He needs boundaries regarding sleep time. I agree with you.

Dreadful response. The husband is saying that if his son is tired the next day it is a consequence of the late night reading.
I don't agree but calling the Dad a moron with nothing to add puts you in a very bad light.

Same and often go to bed 11 and never thing is 1.16 🙀😂

I see both points of view, but I’m 45 years older than your lad and don’t self regulate my reading.

If my DH doesn’t “encourage” me to switch it off I fall asleep with my kindle in my hand.

Sleep is really important (I’m a terrible hypocrite) so I would gently enforce lights out.

But I would also allow the occasional “read as long as you like” session on holiday - reading through the night is wonderful!

I just can’t! I lose the will after a chapter of any of my 8 year olds books. It’s the reading aloud part, I hate it!