Kids staying up late

[Letsgetreadytorumbleagain]

I keep reading on here 'it's the holidays, kids can stay up later etc', almost laughing at posters who say their children go to bed at 7:30 etc.

If my children go to bed later, even on holiday, they still wake at the same time the next day. At which point they are awful to deal with because they are so tired.

I know not everyone is the same, and I would never complain but I hear other children still playing in their gardens at 8 o'clock at night and I wish my children could cope with that and I wasn't the bad parent putting them to bed 'early'

AIBU to expect others to understand that not all children can stay up late?

You need to work this out with your critical family, OP.

With my older ones they went to bed at the same time every night something they resentfully remind me of when they know dd has always gone to bed later than they ever did. I loved my evenings without them but by the time I got to dd my evenings to myself were lost because they were up and so one more didn't make any difference.
Nowadays I get up at the crack of dawn knowing full well it will be hours before dd gets up.

My youngest is like this, regardless of what time he goes to bed, he will wake between 5:30am and 6am but is very grumpy and cries most of the day.

He goes to bed at 7pm, so can't complain as he's getting a good sleep and we get some quiet time.

He's only coming 2, hopefully he will learn to sleep past 8am. That would be amazing 😂.

Bed by 7:30 here, regardless of the holidays. He has the odd late night for special occassions, but the kid turns into a gremlin at 8 and he's still up at 6.
I worry about mine, others can worry about theirs.
Just do what works for you & sod what other people think.

My son is 5 and although he can manage the odd late night, he is generally tired by 7-7.30pm so we stick roughly to the same routine.

He is a pretty early riser and to be honest, staying up late generally means he wakes earlier not later

He has been going to bed perhaps half an hour later most of the holidays as I am not at work so we can have chilled mornings.

From next week (last week of holidays) we will be slowly getting back to the routine ready for school.

Mine have always been in bed by 7/7.30 at the latest and although my youngest (ds) will generally wake up later when put to bed earlier my eldest (dd) has ruined the holiday we went on recently because of her routine, we went to a kid friendly place with entertainment in the evenings, after dinner DH waited in the entertainment part with a pint and a wine waiting for me for when I returned from walking DS to sleep in his pram. Upon our return dd was miserable as hell, moaning that she wanted to go to bed, to go back to the home, no amount of sitting and cajoling her into the show/ playing worked. We had to go back to the room and it was our fault really, she's just not used to it! 2 family weddings late this year/ early next and I'm dreading them, I'll be stuck in the room with kids in a new environment who are tired but ds won't just sleep anywhere else unless he's walked in his pram!

At 6 I didn't really change their bed times in the holidays. They are 13 and 11 now so it's totally different.

The only posts I have seen about holiday bed times on here were about teenagers and I totally think they should be allowed to stay up later.

Mine are the same, usual bedtime is half 7 and they will be up at half 6 the following morning. It makes no difference what time the go to bed they will still be up by half 6. I’m not to bothered if they stay up a bit later in the holidays but I’m also quite lucky as usually by 8 they want to go to bed anyway.

Never dragged mine in from playing during the holidays. Childhood is too short!

I think your problem is with your critical family OP!
Mine have very strong body clocks. so will wake up at the same time regardless of what time they go to sleep. When the light evenings kicked in, I moved their bedtime an hour later. For a while they still got up at the old waking up time (and got tired) but after 3/4 days their body clocks got the message and they started waking up an hour later.
So we can’t do late nights as a one off, but we can do them if the routine is adjusted.
They currently go to bed at 9.30pm and get up at 7.30pm (primary aged).

As toddlers neither of mine could cope with late night. DS was around 5 when he started staying up later in the school holidays. DD is 4 and she’s started having the odd late night over the summer.

I know what it’s like to have family pressuring you to keep them up even though it’s not in the child’s best interests. Also these family members would never have lifted a finger to help us with a tantrum if toddler but would have been full of negative comments about toddlers behaviour (great support there hey .

You know your children, you know what works for them and you so carry on as you are, but you have my sympathies with people pressuring you.

Depends on the child and their age matters too. Younger children definitely need the routine but the older they get, generally the later they will wake up so a strict bedtime during the holidays isn’t so important.

I hear you. I let my 7yo stay up until midnight for the first time ever last week to see the fireworks at EuroDisney. He still got up at 7am the next day and was so tired for the whole day he actually seemed ill! (He wasn’t.)

I do maybe an extra hour over the summer hols usually but they’re always asleep by 8.30/9 so I can actually have some downtime too!

Mines (7) has been going to bed between 9 and 10 and not getting up till between 9 and 11am 👍