To keep my three nephews up all night?

[Upfiner]

I am having my three nephews over for a sleepover. They’re six, just turned two and five months. The eldest has slept over a few times but not the younger two.

Instead of wrestling them into bed I am planning to let them stay up as late as they like. I’ve always done this with the eldest and he loves it and usually falls asleep at about 10:30pm. I’ll obvious have the baby in his crib but I’ve got a huge corner sofa so I’m going to bring the duvets down and we can just have a slumber party downstairs.

I told my friend who has two sons and she thinks that this will impact their whole week and their schooling and routine and probably exam results and future careers.

I’m not going mad am I? This is fine for one fun evening?

Have you looked after a 5 month old before?

I can see this would be fine for the oldest but I think the 2 yo might spoil things for him by getting bored and cranky. And who knows with the 5 month old as they can all be different but is the baby sleeping through anyway?

Do social services usually investigate aunties letting their nephews fall asleep on the sofa?

You can't be serious...
Leaving their kids with an aunt who plans on treats and TV time? Take those kids into foster care immediately!!

Exam results and future careers, at their age? Now that’s funny! 😂

Go for it, they’ll love the slumber party. 2 yo will be asleep by 7 and the 6 yo by 10.30 anyway. And if not, they’ll go to bed early the next night.

Enjoy. 3 will be hard work btw. Good luck!

It depends on the kid.

My friends daughter seems very tolerant of missing sleep, she seems to only need about 8 hours anyway. My DS (nearly 10) had a late night recently and was awful for 2 days following, he was like a zombie. He needs 10-11 hours a night. Sleeps like a log.

The last time I lied to my eldest nephew that the lamp posts go on at midnight and he was so excited when they came on. He was flat out by 10:30pm but still whispers about when we stayed up till midnight. His mother pretends to be horrified .

Go for it Auntie . You are allowed to be fun Auntie. You sound fab. I had a fabulous Auntie and Uncle who allowed this kind of fun (they were childless) … and I’m 65 and a high court judge …

Honestly it makes me really mad when my family do this. I dont say anything because they are obviously doing me a favour but it is torture being handed back kids that are tired and ratty from not getting enough sleep. In my experience staying up later does absolutely not mean they will lie in later. 🤣 The eldest one yeh maybe but I have a 2 year old and it wouldnt be worth it for anyone involved to just let him stay up until he falls asleep. I'd be happy with a later bedtime but 10.30 would impact the rest of the weekend for my family. Other kids are different though and if the parents seem ok with it then it doesn't matter what anyone else on here say or think!

Jeez! Over reaction much!

I’ll carry them all up to bed when I go up.

Bedtime is gorgeous at that age ? Bath, stories and favourite books, lights out. I’d hate to have overtired children trying to stay awake. But we all do things differently. If parents happy and you’re happy, then all good ?

Because I’m going to watch Toy Story with my nephews? Are you okay?

Yeah, that was not the part of your comment I was referring to. But nice try to cover up!

Any time!

I think you might be overestimating the stamina of a 2yr old. The chances of my 2yr olds staying up late, watching a whole film (no way this would have happened) whilst eating lots of chocolate and it not ending in tears were slim.

Hopefully he’ll fall asleep at a reasonable time and you can have a nice cuddle with the 6yr old before a little bit late but not next day ruining bedtime.

Bedtime doesn’t have to be awful, you use the word ‘wrestle’ but it can be a nice time to wind down and connect, it doesn’t have to be negative. Your evening sounds fun, if it works, but equally there are other ways to be the cool aunty

Love this advice!

I wouldn’t thank you for this, as overtired cranky kiddos aren’t fun. But if it’s what I had to do to get a night out then I’d force myself to.

He’s my third nephew so I think it’s fair to say I’ve looked after five month old before.

The two year old can potter on with his toys if he likes. He’ll fall asleep earlyish anyway.

Why do you think it's made up?

If I was going to make up something I'd personally make up something much more interesting like 'I just won Euromillions AMA' or 'both Chris Hemsworth and Ryan Gosling keep calling me and begging me to go on a date AIBU'

I wasn't concerned about that. You were the one posting a deranged comment. At this point, I am just going to give you the benefit of a doubt and assume you've had a large glass of wine before commenting.

Is this a genuine post?

Could do what we did, put the 2 year to bed, and sibling got into bed as well ( they share here ) and when 2 yo fell asleep the sibling snuck out ?

This has worked for us ( as grandparents ) every time . First grandchild, grandad " went to bed " as well

I find life so much easier getting the toddler to bed at 7:30/8 and letting the older child have an extra hour , then cope with tired stroppy kids and a baby in the morning

Oh behave.

One night of pizza and TV crashing on the sofa won't do any harm at all. Sure they might be a bit mardy the next day but op will had them back to their parents who will be re-energised after a night away from the kids and grateful for the break.

The bar for ss interest never mind involvement is miles lower than this.