If you put kids to bed at 6pm ...

[ichifanny]

Just out of interest , I keep hearing parents talking about kids getting up at 4am - 5am I have 4 including a baby and apart from the newborn stage it’s never happened to any of mine unless they are ill or otherwise disrupted . Is it not just the case that if you put your kids to bed at 6-7pm then it makes sense they will be up with the larks ? Does it happen often that kids who go to bed about 8.30pm -9pm still get up early ?

I have had so many arguments on this subject, my son is now 8 he goes to bed at 7pm on a school day. He has since he has been a baby getting up at 6.00 to 6.30am. If he goes to bed at 8 or 9 or 10pm he will get up at the same time between 6.ooam and 6.30am. However if he goes to bed at 10pm he will be a nightmare, grumpy, tearful, argumentative.

Only very special occassions he has been allowed to stay up late but as said he is a nightmare next day. I prefer to have my son happy and full of life, not a mess.

We're all quite owlish here. I have periods of insomnia which alternate with periods of needing 9+ hours sleep. I had been putting DC to bed at 7 (when aged 4.5/5) but would be constantly disturbed by claims of not being able to sleep. We have active days and lots of after school clubs, and DC naturally wakes around 7.30am. So bedtime is now 8pm, with lights out by 9. Although it makes my evening longer, it's better in terms of uninterrupted evenings.
However, different things work for different people and some children are naturally early risers. Thankfully mine isn't

Mine go to bed 6.45 and wake at 7am

For those children who usually go to bed at say 7pm but get up at 5.30 am and then grumpy next day if kept up until say 9 one night surely it will work on a cumulative effect. Keep them up late 3 or 4 nights, put up with the grumps then gradually move bedtime forward to the 7 pm mark. They should be tired and should then have adopted a different different sleeping rhythm. That's in theory.

No matter what time I put my children (4 and 6) to bed, they WILL without fail be up at 5-5:30. (very, veeeery occasionally they sleep till 6) Over the weekend we had guests, kids went to bed at 11pm, they were up at 5. Genuinely, it does not matter when they go to bed. So, normally I put them to bed between 6:30 and 7 and I do not feel bad. Bollocks to it.

Same as others on here. My LO is early to bed early to rise, but sleeps a solid 11 hours. He gets up the same time regardless of his bedtime - if it’s late he just gets grumpy!

I firmly believe adults are actually the ones with ‘bad’ sleep habits - it not natural to sleep until 9/10, our bodies want to wake up with the sun. I don’t use blackout blinds for this reason.

I have three children 6,4 and 2

2yo how's at 6pm wakes up anywhere between 5am and 8am... no rhyme or reason for the three hour difference.

4 year old goes at 6:15-6:30. Wakes up around 6am and plays with the 6yo quietly till 7am which is our getting to time.

6yo goes to his bedroom by 6:30 but is allowed to keep his light on till 8pm. He reads or builds Lego. We have a no tech upstairs rule,

If we have been out for the day and don't get home and to bed till 8/9 pm they all still wake up early.

I was also going to say my parents and siblings are all night owls, going to bed after midnight and often 3am. I really struggle to stay up after midnight and would go to bed by 10pm and be up by 6am as a child completely by my own body clock.

at the insistence it’s all about CONSISTENCY (SIC). It doesn’t work. It’s that simple and that complicated. Otherwise, there’d be no children who rise early, who are picky eaters, who bite, who won’t do their homework and so on and so forth. We are all individuals, as are children.

Children have a natural body clock like adults. If they’re in the habit of waking at 5/6am they could spend a week going to bed later but still wake at the same time. I’ve heard colleagues and friends say ‘I need my evenings’ meaning the kids are put to bed earlier than necessary so they can have a glass of wine and unwind. Personally, I find it selfish and I wonder how you can spend so little time with your children each evening.

I agree 100% that every child is different and some are naturally early risers (I was). For some it makes perfect sense but I don’t believe that’s the case for everyone.

I adopted a child aged 2 who was sleeping from about 6.30 or 7 pm to 6 or 7 am. I’m a night owl and wasn’t working, so that didn’t really suit my body clock.

I immediately put them to bed 15 minutes later every fortnight and within a few months they were sleeping from 7.30 pm to 7 or 8 am. For us, at least, the trick was changing the sleeping pattern really, really slowly. (I can’t see suddenly keeping them up till 9pm 6 nights in a row producing anything more than a sulky, screaming, over-tired child....)

That's not a 'trick'. That's good luck and coincidence. Nice it worked out, though!

If I’d put my DC to bed at 6pm at any stage of their life then they’d have treated it as a nap and been up for the night by 11pm let alone 5 am 😆. The majority of people who have the issues you describe do put their kids to bed significantly earlier than i do

Mine only does 12 hours at weekends now we've reached teenagedom. As a baby, usually around nine or ten hours so never put to bed at six, usually 10pm. This has worked from 0-12.

Personally, I find it selfish and I wonder how you can spend so little time with your children each evening.

Surely the point is that if they get the same sleep anyway, you get the time with them in the mornings instead? Or if they do need the extra sleep, then it would be selfish to keep them up.

But hey, don't let me ruin the view from up there on your high horse.

Personally, I find it selfish and I wonder how you can spend so little time with your children each evening

This is actually hilarious!

Surely they're all getting the same amount of sleep still so same amount of time is spent with the children!

Also, a 7pm bed time is handy for us in a way because then we have the evening to do the chores rather than trying to do the chores when the children are around?

We did strike gold though this morning... he woke up at 6.30 instead of 5.30! So I had breakfast and coffee with only the morning news as company. Pure luck though as we did nothing different.

The 2 year old sleeps from 6-6 most nights. She will be stood by stair gate at 6ish, with fave blanket asking to go to bed. 5 and 8 year old go to bed at 8.30pm. 8 year old will wake at 7am and 5 year old will sleep till 9am if allowed. Eldest is severly autistic and doesn't have a need to sleep much, tho he's usually settled by 12/1 am and gets up at 6/7am.

I’m a naturally early riser, and still am. My kids all take after their dad and like to sleep in. I often get up first and make myself a coffee, then have to wake the lot of them up for school/work. My daughter (4) will sleep until 8.30 if I let her. I put her to bed at 7pm, and my oldest at 7.30pm. He gets up at 7am whatever time he goes to bed.

Exactly that luckylorca small adjustments to bring child to your schedule . It has worked on anyone I have seen using it .

Why does it matter to you? Like many people on here, we've tried everything with an aim to sleeping in later than 6/6:30...it hasn't worked, that's just his bodyclock.
It's not really a big deal. He sleeps 11hrs, no waking up. We're happy with that & get our evenings as he's in bed by 7.
Get of your high horse.

'Personally, I find it selfish and I wonder how you can spend so little time with your children each evening'

It must be exhausting being perfect.
I spend time that extra time him in a morning.
Then in the evening the cleaning, tidying, cooking gets done & I get a couple of hours with my husband or doing some studying.

@ichifanny you mean it has worked for everyone apart from the dozens of people on this thread who tried it (and everything else) and found it didn't work?

lol at PP that is unnatural not to wake with the sun. like going to bed a 6 pm(or 5 like someone else upthread!come on its afternoon! let them nap if theyr tired that early!)when the sun is still out is natural. Agree is all about the parents wanting the evening in peace, which is fine but tell it as it is.

@Needadvices I suppose it's natural to go to bed when it's dark, but last night it went dark at 10. I am not ashamed to admit that I simply don't want my children up till 10 after a day at work and early evening spent doing their dinner and bath and tidying up etc. No. No X 1000.