To ask what your lights out time / bedtime routines are?

[ilkleymoorbartat]

Kids are 6 and 7. Every night it's still bedtime battles.

We currently read for around 30 minutes to them, then say they can read to themselves for 15 minutes. Lights out at 8ish. Every night without fail they're complaining, whinging, tears. Please help!

When I have my 7 year old grandchild to stay we have a set routine that settles them down - but I do concede that it may be more difficult at home. Evening meal around 6. A little bit of television until bathtime. Warm bath with bubbles and chat - about whatever they want to talk about - which can be very rewarding and interesting, then bed and either I read to them, they read to me, or they read to themself for about half an hour. Lights off and sleep! They used to share a bedroom with their elder sibling which really didn't work. I find having a set routine with calmness and relaxation works for us. However we may be lucky and just have an easy child!

Thanks @DilemmaDelilah . I feel like we do have a pretty good pre bed windows routine. They have a snack before bed. Then bath / shower. Reading and lights out. But still they complain!

8pm seems quite late for 6/7 years old to me, though I know children vary.
30mins of you reading to them seems a lot too.
I would be tempted to do you read for 15/20 mins then lights out.

I agree, lights out at 7.30 would be better. And we do read to them for too long too! They not just take so long to go off. So they'd be rolling around and moaning even if we had lights out earlier I suspect.
7 year old is nearly 8 if that makes any difference.

My six year old gets his PJ's on and cleans his teeth at 7 pm then I read him two short stories and it's lights out around 7.30 pm.

Sometimes he'll fall asleep straight away, other times he'll be mucking about in bed with his torch until 9 pm (he doesn't have a bedside lamp and wouldn't get out of bed to put the light on so a torch and a nightlight on his alarm clock is all he has).

If the weather is nice DP will have him out in the garden for an hour after tea playing ball games or jumping on the trampoline, that tends to wear him out for sleep. If the weather is rubbish it's board games which also tire him out mentally.

I think kids just go through phases of pushing boundaries. Your routine doesn't sound bad although I agree perhaps they might be over tired so you could do lights out earlier. Apart from that, all you can do is be consistent and repeat the expectations for bedtime. Hopefully they will eventually work out kicking up a fuss doesn't make a difference. I have a similar issue.

Rather than read for 30 mins which is ages, I would say 2 books or 2 chapters, depending on the books you're reading to them.

My 7 year old does teeth then I read to her for 15 mins from 8pmand she can read until 8:45. We're tried earlier and it leavers her tossing and turning. Alexa tells her when to stop reading, not me, and this seems to result in less wheedling for more time, as she's an innocent bystander!!

She knows that if she doesn't get up nicely the next morning then she will loose reading time the following night - not as a punishment but a natural consequence because she might need more sleep

I have two 9 year olds. They go up at 8pm, brush teeth and read until 8:30. They do a lot of sport so often are very tired and both fall asleep very quickly.