Kids outside too early?

[PinkSparkleUnicorns]

It's 8:20 and I've just let my young kids out to play. Instantly regretting it! They are not screaming and shouting but enough noise to wake the neighbours behind us I think. I just wasn't thinking, is there an unspoken time that's generally acceptable to send kids out to play?

My kids go out in the garden from 8ish. But my neighbours on one side like to have all night parties and the ones on the other side let their kid scream all night so, swings and roundabouts.

@MamaBearLockdown you are posting absolute uninformed horseshit. That's up to you but I'm very glad people are calling you out. Your theories about young children's sleep and your claims to know about the entire rest of the world are wrong.

I live in Germany. School in my area starts at 7:30am. My kids catch the school bus, in normal times, at 6:30am. Our local state kindergarten opens its doors at at 7am and close their doors to arrivals each day at 8am.

Most children here get up between 5:30am and 6am.

My children are older now, but two were up at 5am no matter when they were put to bed until they were old enough to understand the rule not to wake the house until 5:45am (marked on the clock with tape) and later 5:45am in the week and 7am at weekends. They didn't start "sleeping in" past 7am until their ages were in double figures, and only the 14 year old has ever slept til 9, and then only a couple of times despite going to bed when we do at weekends.

As toddlers mine fell asleep on the sofa/ floor if kept up past 7:30pm.

You can't make a baby or toddler sleep in if they're not wired that way, and in some countries you'd be an idiot to want to as you'd have to retrain their sleep/ wake cycle at 3 years old for kindergarten.

In ‘normal’ times, my SIL’s children in Spain start nursery at 8am so she can get to work. So up at 7.

Too early.

I don’t think 8am is reasonable. I tend to let mine out after 9. Pre-children I’d have wanted a lie in until about 10.

Mine tend to be up between 6.30 and 7 and come into our room for some tv time until breakfast at about 8.15. It takes us a while to get sorted so we probably wouldn’t be ready to get outside before 9-9.30 anyway. In normal circs, one has ballet at 9.30 so we’re just trying to get out the door.

Even if I had an early riser, I wouldn’t be out at 8 routinely as it isn’t really fair if the kids are loud. I did today for our Easter egg search but that’s an exception. I know some kids are wired that way (my nephew was a 5am riser for years) and there isn’t anything you can do about it.

It’s been a noisy morning here. 😬 I could hear kids doing egg hunts, laughing and screaming, in their gardens from about 7am. That set some of the neighbours dogs off barking. Our dogs then wanted out and joined in with the barking. I could hear a few neighbours laughing about how noisy it was. I brought our dogs in as soon as they’d had a wee before anyone on here moans.

I don’t usually hear any kids out til about 9am. I think they were just probably extra excited about it being Easter as they haven’t had much to do lately, can’t blame their parents for ‘releasing’ them early this morning. 🤣

anothernotherone
I have lived in Germany with my children .It's a complete lie that MOST children get up between 5:30 and 6am.

We have lived in various countries. It's only in the UK that we have met so many parents complaining about their children being up at 5 or 6am!

It's only in the UK that I also discovered that children were "meant" to go to bed at 6 or 7pm....

But if you say so, my children, their cousins, their friends, they are the aliens who don't wake up until 8 or 9am because they only need 11 or 12h sleep

Interesting that people who are fed up of hearing their own kids making noise inside in the morning think it's fair to inflict the disturbance on the neighbours. They're probably the same people who get annoyed if there's noise from other people's properties at their children's early evening bedtimes.

My DS went to bed at 10pm last night yet was still up before 7am. It doesn't matter what time he goes to bed he will still get up early.

If you expect a huge change in routine because you put your kid to bed a bit later ONCE, you will be a bit disappointed.

Hey, it's your problem, I don't care. As long as my children are not woken up by others ridiculously early and we can all sleep, it makes no difference to my life if you like to be up at 5 or 6.
My kids have manners and are not noisy in the evening anyway, they don't bother the neighbours.

I can't help laughing at parents who "need" an evening and put the kids to bed at 6pm, then moan they are up at 5. I only feel sorry for the kids who miss the best part of the day, or are put in the sun at the worst part of the day for that, but each to their own. British people are funny.

Shut down mumsnet everyone. We have found the perfect mother with perfect children.
All other parenting opinions are now invalid.

MamaBearLockdown I’ve seen a few of your posts across the boards where you seem unable to recognise that other people have different lives and circumstances to you. Must be bizarre living in such a bubble. But hey, each to their own. Some people (of any nationality) are weird.

FlamingoAndJohn

nice goady post, but I am happy not to be a martyr and recognise that I don't like to wake up at dawn when I don't need to. Being a martyr doesn't make you a better parent.

HoffiCoffi13
why are you twisting my posts? It's pretty obvious that people have different lives. I do find the quirkiness of the British people funny.

I don't buy the statement that "all children naturally wake up before sunrise and it's a curse" because it's simply not true. No, all toddlers and young children do not wake up naturally at 5 or 6 am. (nothing to do with my own kids) That's all. 🤷

I’m not twisting your words at all.
As I have said...

I have two children who, if they go to bed later, wake up later. Before having DC3 I would have agreed with you that the later they go to bed, the later they woke up.
I then had DC3, who since the day of his birth has been wide awake from between 5.30am and 6.30am.
We have tried every trick in the book to get him to sleep later. We even paid £250 to a sleep consultant. No joy.
My children are half Spanish.
My SIL’s children are Spanish, living in Spain, and one of her DC doesn’t sleep past 6am either.

So you can carry on saying it’s a choice to wake up early, and we’re being martyrs, and it’s only British people who have this problem. But it wouldn’t be true 🤷🏻‍♀️

Today my 6 and 4 year olds got up at 8.30. They went to bed at 8.30, along with my 1 year old.
My 1 year old woke up at 6am. Like every day.

I read one of these threads when DC1 was little and the consensus seemed to be 9am for Sat and 10am for Sun so I stuck to this "rule" even though she was usually up by 6am and some days I'd be tearing my hair out by 10am or would have been fine all morning and start raining at 10.02.
Then, one weekend, I realised that most of our neighbours were out running, walking dogs or taking kids to activities from 8ish on both days and so must have been up for a bit before that.
I promptly abandoned this MN rule and life has been more relaxed since. I do keep an ear out for the children and make sure they're not screaming or shouting (but then I do that most of the time anyway and bring them in if they do).
You know your neighbours, their working patterns and lives and none of us do.

Far too early. When mine were little I didn't let them out before 10.30.

That's all I was trying to say, it's usually acceptable to let your kids between 10am and 7pm roughly - no need to scream the place down at any time.

It's just also much easier if they are not up for hours before that, and not in bed too early when they could still be out and all their friends are still in the garden or parks 🤷🏻‍♀️

MamaBearLockdown if you've lived in Germany, and by that you don't just mean 18 months in an expat bubble, you'll know that every state in Germany is completely different, as much so as England is from Wales or Wales from Scotland. Ex pat bubbles with international schooling are completely different things. Perhaps you really lived in a state where children don't start school before 8am, but it would be interesting to know which state - if so it's not typical of Germany as a whole.

I have also lived in France, Spain and Italy. There, like here, children were all different.

Thankfully, for the rest of the world, you put the kids to bed later, leaving them to play quietly or read when they are older, wind down a bit later, you have your evening anyway and they don't wake you up at 6.

Lol. Thus speaks someone who doesn't have an early rising child.

Dd1 slept 12 hours at night. if she went to sleep at 6pm, she'd wake at 6am.if she went to bed at midnight, she'd not wake until noon.
DD2 didn't sleep very well at night, often waking 2-3 times, but her best sleep generally was from about 2am to 8:30am.

Then I had ds. Despite being nearly a teenager, ds wakes reliably between 6am and 7am whatever time he's gone to bed-even up to 2am as one point last year. He's done this since he was born. If he's not awake when I get up at 7:30am, then he's almost certainly ill.

So then mamabear how do you suggest I get my DS to sleep later? He doesn't go to bed until 8pm at the very earliest but it's often later and he is up before 7am everyday. He once slept until 8 but that was Christmas and we'd been at a party until 1am......

Or do you think all these early risers are in bed by 6pm????