Young kids out late

[Mamabear04]

To be honest I'm just wondering how it's possible for young kids under 5 to stay out late. Every time I go out to a restaurant or even just on the bus I think to myself, "how do OP do it?" I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old and don't think they could handle being out past 6.30pm, I think they would just have a meltdown out of tiredness. Is it a cultural thing? Am I missing something?

Mine never went to bed that early I do be surprised at the bed times wrote on here a lot of times in UK.

YANBU. Mine are 6 and 4 and I take the same approach - my eldest has a body clock that is 'early to bed, early to rise'. He sticks to that religiously, even if I keep them up late on a family holiday.
I can't imagine having mine out late on a regular basis. The tiredness and grumps just wouldn't make it worth it.

I have neighbours who have their 3yo up till after 10pm regularly. I have also wondered why. You can hear her whining away. Needs her bed.

Some people just never change even after having kids i guess, they were always out before so they do it now with the kids cause noone to watch them... up all night sleep all day... but poor kids when they start school...

I didn't let mine stay up on a regular basis or anything but yes she'd be fine if we were out late for some reason

We go out for meals regularly with my 2&4 year old. On the whole they go to bed between 7-7.30pm but if we go out it might be 8-8.30 🤷🏼‍♀️
...if they're at my in-laws it might be 11pm but we'll gloss over that 😂

At 2 DD slept for 9 hours at night and 2 hours in the day, which is within the realms of normal for that age according to the NHS. I preferred to sleep 11-8, so she did too - if I'd put her to bed at 7, she'd have been up at 4, which would have been awful for all of us

It's the early starts some people have that get me. I can't imagine having a child up at 5 or 6 in the morning every day. It would destroy me and the kids. None of us are morning people at our house.

6.30 for a four year old??? Serms crazily early for any and every four year old ive known

6:30pm is barely dinner time. That’s really early for a bedtime.

Not 6.30pm bedtime but by that time they are both tired and prone to big emotions!

Some kids don't get home from the childminder until that time.

My 3 used to go to bed about 8pm and fall asleep about 8.30 from toddler to about year 6.

All 4 of my kids take after me and are night owls. From a very young age they could easily stay up a few hours after bedtime. In fact I don't think any of them have missed seeing the new year in since they were about 2.

Children are all different obviously, I did 12 hour shifts as a single parent from when my 2nd was 2 , obviously we weren't going out for late meals but I didn't finish until 7.30 so he didn't get home until nearly 8

I've never had really good sleepers though so that might have something to do with it

We are all night owls

Yeah same, anything before 7am on a weekday or 8 on a weekend is a no go in our house.

Oh and all my 4 were up at 5 at that age, it wasn't until teen years that they started to sleep in. My youngest is 11 and is still up before 6

Before 8pm and I’d be facing a very bouncy small person at 4:30am. No thanks!

I get home at about 6pm most nights. DS (4) isn't in bed until 8, he sleeps through until the morning and doesn't have a meltdown if we are up a bit later. We stay up a little later at weekends. I'd hate to be awake at the crack of dawn and we have work every day.

Same. I'd be a wreck getting up early every morning.

My dd rarely sleeps, she is awake until midnight sometimes, but is up and raring to go at 5am every day. Even as a baby she didn't need much sleep (unlike younger dd who would sleep until lunchtime every day if I let her).

I agree. I don't want to ever see 4am unless I'm catching a flight!

my older dc were still out at swimming and sports at that time if night when my youngest dc was a baby/toddler so he was rarely in bed at that time. We quite often take the dogs for a big walk after dinner in the summer too so regularly still at the beach or wood having fun at 7pm!

Sounds a lot like all of mine, it's not great being up at the arse crack of down every day but I'm a bit eye rolling at all the posters who go on about really not being able to cope with the early mornings. Of course you would if that's what you had to do 🙄

Definitely a cultural aspect - where I live in Southern Europe kids tend to keep their daytime nap much longer and stay up later than all the kids of my UK friends. My own DD4 is also a night owl who gets more and more silly and funny as she gets tireder - honestly it's a shame to put her to bed sometimes because she's hilarious (but then she'll be awful and grumpy when we have to wake her in the morning so we do have to draw the line!).

Yes indeed. IMO some "sleep problems" is due to putting their kids to bed too early. Their kids may have needed 12 hours of sleep five years ago but they don't now. People really overestimate how much sleep their kids need.

My 9yo rarely falls asleep before 9.30 and my 6yo would stay up till 9 or later if I let him. He's small for his age so he could probably pass for a big 4 year old. They wake anytime from 6.30 onwards so it's not like I have to drag them out of bed to get ready for school. I don't want 5am wake up calls so I'll settle for not having much of an evening. Tbh it's quite handy because we can go out for dinner on holiday or I can let them stay up for special occasions and it's not an issue.