What do people mean when they say "bedtime"

[saltedcaramelanything]

Random musings of a FTM...but when people say their child's bedtime is, say 7pm - does that mean child is asleep by 7pm? Or that they're going into their room, pjs, teeth, etc at 7pm?

Would already be bathed and in PJ’s so bedtime was teeth, story with a cuddle then leave in bed to (hopefully) sleep.

I think different people mean different things. You might say to a 7yo 'OK it's bedtime now' meaning time to start bedtime routine, or you might mean into bed, or lights out.

Anyway, the actual time for lights out only matters if you also know the wake up time too.

That’s funny how people mean different things, I’m opposite to poster above I say bedtime is 6PM, and that includes going up for a bath, then pyjamas and a book in bed

I use it to mean both I guess? Bed time is 7. On tired days that means getting ready around 6:30 and asleep by 7, on more awake days that means starting to get ready around 7.

I never thought about this!

Bedtime is getting into bed here. Before that we have bath/wash time, pj time and story time. 😆

I say

It's time for bed 🤣

Which means brush your teeth, get ready and I'll read you a story

Teeth only takes a few minutes as does getting in ticked up, so that’s what I’d mean. The actual falling asleep for us can be hours. 😂

Depends on the context

If someone asked me what time do your kids go to bed, or what is your kids’ bedtime, I would give the “lights out” time ie the end of bedtime, time to sleep.

If I say “right kids, bedtime” I mean, time to go upstairs for bath teeth etc.

I would say it's the point at which you start getting ready for bed.

For us that meant: stop reading, go to the loo, clean teeth, change into nightwear, get under duvet, goodnight kiss, light off. However long that all takes, probably ten minutes.

For some people it includes a full bath and a pile of bedtime stories. These people would probably have a second fixed time in their head which is Lights Out Time.

I would say it's the time they are actually in bed with lights out. So if my child's bedtime is 7.30, we start going upstairs and getting ready about 7pm.

When I tell ds bedtime I mean, get in your bed, (he’s already ready for bed at this point, I say get ready for bed when it’s time for pyjamas / teeth etc.)

I read him a quick story and lay him down. He doesn’t go to sleep like. But that’s a whole other thread!

For some people it includes a full bath and a pile of bedtime stories. These people would probably have a second fixed time in their head which is Lights Out Time.
That’s us! Our bedtime ritual takes an hour. DH can get them through faster… I fail. But that includes shower, pjs, teeth, them reading (separately - there are 2 of them) then us reading to then.
So bedtime to me is lights out time - the only part of the palaver above that they are actually in bed for is us reading to them, so it feels wrong to call it bedtime before a bed is involved.

For us we have "bedtime" - the time at which the DC go up to get ready for and get into bed - and "lights out", the time at which we'll turn off their light (obviously) and expect them to at least try to get to sleep.

For DS (7), this is 7.30 for bed and 7.45-8ish for lights out, depending on how tired he seems. For DD (10) it's around 8.15, lights out 8.45-9ish.

In bed at 7pm and falling asleep.

My 5 year old is usually asleep by about 7.03 😂 2 year old takes a bit longer but asleep by about 7.15

Bedtime is the time including getting ready for bed in our house - so getting on pyjamas, brushing teeth, stories and general faffing. So it begins around 7:30 and kids (hopefully!) asleep by 8

Bedtime for me is when they go to bed and hopefully are asleep within a minute or 2. The bedtime on here are always really early! If I'm going in to the office I don't get home until about 6pm so usually we are done with dinner about 7ish then it's bath time and bedtime about 7.45-8pm 4yrs old is 9pm at the moment! Hopefully when she starts school it will be earlier as she'll be so tiered 🤞🏻

Bedtime to me is the time that we head up to bed - around 730/8 depending on the day of the week for 7 and 3 yo. All
they need to do is a quick pee and brush teeth so lights are out 5 minutes after we head upstairs and 7 yo will be asleep almost instantly. 3 yo sometimes talks to himself but wakes up later (7 yo wakes 8am, 3 yo as late as we can allow to get to nursery/school/work).

Anytime between 715/730 I'll have told them to put pjs on so they're "ready for bed" (sometimes earlier at the weekend if we're going to stay up late to watch a movie so they don't need to mess about getting changed had way through the film).

Bedtime for me is when they physically get into bed. So bath, teeth etc all done beforehand. But stories happen after bedtime - they get 3 (ish) each then lights out.