Bedtime for 3year old

[HarleyQuinnxx]

My boy has just turned 3. And basically me and my DH are arguing terrible about his bedtime so what time should a 3 year old be in bed going to sleep. I'm giving no times on purpose to see what people say first

At 3 DS1 was going to sleep around 6:30-7pm - no daytime sleep

DS2 was much later 8:30-9:30 as he just needed less sleep - didn’t start winding down til then

Oh I'll add he still naps for about 2 hours in the day late morning early afternoon.

DS in bed for 7pm sleeps all night until 7pm no naps and attends nursery in morning and kept active all afternoon, very seldom naps if he does it’s in car in afternoon I only let him have 30 mins at most so he’ll be asleep for 8pm at latest, I think 2 hours nap during the day is too much for a 3 year old personally, if my little one didn’t sleep say until 9-10pm he’ll wake at 6am and be exhausted the full day as he’s not had enough sleep during the night cause he wakes up to much if he goes to sleep late

7am not 7pm

Mines asleep between 7:30 and 8:00, bedtime starts at 7:00.

Mom knows best is what I think. My son goes down by 8:00
He also maps an hour sometimes two in the afternoon

My 3.5 year old gave up napping over a year ago, and basically never naps now unless there is a car ride involved (actually, most three year olds I know do not nap, or if they do it isn't for more than an hour). He is in bed by 8:30 and wakes up by himself some time between 8:00 and 9:00 every morning.

My DH did want him to have a 7:30 bedtime, and tried to implement it for a while, but for some reason it just didn't seem to work. DS woke up at least once (usually twice, or more) every night, and just never settled quite as readily - lots of dicking about and delaying tactics and refusals to brush teeth. But at 8:30 he is generally pretty compliant about all things bedtime, falls asleep quickly and then typically sleeps like a log all night long. I have no idea why setting bedtime an hour later makes such a stark difference, but it does for us!

I’m a big believer in working with children’s natural sleep patterns, and considering what time they NEED to be up, rather than what we want.

It a child has to be up for 7am for school/nursery then bedtime should probably be 10/12 hours before then. If you don’t have to consider a specific time to get up I say go with whatever works for them and you as a family: better to have a child who wants to go to bed at 8pm than battling to get them in bed at 7pm before they are ready.

My ds1 is 3 in 2 weeks. We aim to have him in bed by 7pm, usually more like 7.15 once he's had his book then read it himself to the baby!
He is usually asleep by 7.30/ 7.45.
He wakes about 6.45 / 7am.
He is in the process of dropping his nap (sob) so he will go 3 or 4 days without one, then have an epic 2-3 hour one in the afternoon after a few days. Bedtime usually unaffected unless he naps a few days back to back

To clarify, he cannot read books by the way. I'm not creating a genius, he just likes to pretend