How old were your children when you got to have a lie in?

[Crocodial]

I don't mean the kids coming into your bed with the iPad and you going back to sleep. I'm talking they can go downstairs and fully take care of themselves without setting the house on fire and you could have a peaceful lie in.

Ours are 7&4 and will happily go downstairs until about 10am. The eldest can make them both breakfast but they often don't bother until we're up. They do normally come in to us before they go down but I don't mind that as then I know they're up.

Watching with interest, OP, mine are 5 and 3 and the thought of this miraculous day is keeping me going!

My oldest two get themselves up at the weekend and come downstairs and watch telly or play, they are 4 and 7

My eldest has just started doing this in the last couple of months aged 5. We leave something to eat for them the night before and they come down and watch tv. They only disturb us about 60% of the time :P. It's fantastic, I feel like our relationship has really benefitted from the pillow talk (amongst other things!!).

What a dream 😂 I’d trust my 5 year old to do so to be fair but I’m not sure she’d entertain the idea, she’d be constantly coming back up & asking when we were going to wake up 🙈

We do get a bit of respite these days. My girls are 6am wakers 🥴 but they play together in their rooms for an hour .. the eldest knows not to come in to us until 7am on her clock & they don’t!

We were in a flat when the DC were little so it always felt safer. I think they were about 4 or 5 yes old. We never went to sleep but got the extra time in bed. They were both great sleepers.

@Zolla

What a dream 😂 I’d trust my 5 year old to do so to be fair but I’m not sure she’d entertain the idea, she’d be constantly coming back up & asking when we were going to wake up 🙈

We do get a bit of respite these days. My girls are 6am wakers 🥴 but they play together in their rooms for an hour .. the eldest knows not to come in to us until 7am on her clock & they don’t!

This is the reason it's needed, DC has always been an early riser and moreso on weekends for some reason. 5:30 - 6:30 is the norm. Sometimes there are interruptions, squeaky doors are your friend :D

Mine are ten and having been going down alone since about 6. It's never a relaxing proper sleep though, although I can doze.

They are into cooking, I don't trust them to not try and knock up a fried breakfast or pancakes. Although they're more than capable I do like to keep an ear out in case they set the place on fire!

I’ve had weekly lie ins since my baby was born, every weekend husband and I take it in turns to have a lie in / get up with the baby. Do you have a partner to have a similar set up?

Otherwise I am longing for these days!

I can't remember, tbh. I'd say once the younger one is about 5 or 6 and can go downstairs and put the telly on or pick up the iPad or whatever then you get at least a bit of a lie in. It really depends on the DC though and whether they can be sensible and understand risk. For some DC, that's never!

3,4 and 7. We lived in a bungalow at the time though so I was more comfortable since they were just a couple of rooms away with no stairs to worry about.

On a sunday we lay out a table in front of tv with remote etc and 6yr old makes cereal for her and 3.5yr old while we lie in til 8.30/9. We’ve been doing this for a few months and it’s lovely. There’s usually a bit of food mess involved but that’s a price I’m willing to pay!!

Mine were 7 and 5. The 5 year old still often pops his head around the door to scope the situation but has stopped waking me up to inform me he is going downstairs so I can sleep.... Unfortunately my body clock is so screwed now that I often wake before them
.

I'm liking the 4 and 7 responses - mine are 3 and 6 and I thought we were years off!

Ours are 10 and 6 and I would say it’s been happening for a year or so. Eldest can make tea and toast, but we usually leave out hot cross buns or similar. However what they absolutely cannot seem to do is just go directly downstairs, they have to come in first for a cuddle. I partly love it as I know one day soon it won’t happen but it does mean 7am disturbance every morning for ever for the last ten years, even if we then go back to “sleep”. I’d love to wake naturally about 8-830 occasionally!

Eldest brings me a cup of tea nowadays so it’s actually pretty great!

Mine are 8 & 6 and go down and get cereal themselves, have been for about a year. Of course Ds6 does randomly pop up next to my bed asking just as random questions and as others say it's a dosing on a d off rather than full lie in. I hear them around 6:30, they can go put tablets/ telly on at 7:30am and I'm usually up by 8:30am

Mine are 9, 6 and almost 4. Been having lie in since probably around Xmas time? I leave ipads etc. Around fully charged

About 6 for one child. 4 for the youngest with older siblings around.

well, pretty much from day one, dh would take kids on Saturday morning and I'd lie in. Did't really work until I stopped bf though as I had to feed first and then go back to sleep.

From about 5 they could put TV on and we'd still be asleep.
Unfortunately they tended to come in to say good morning first, and then go down stairs.

and of course it is when the youngest is 5, so that was 10 years after first baby was born...

I've been happy with them going downstairs since about age 4. That's when we got rid of the stair gates.

My 14 year old has SEN and as soon as he's awake (early) it's go time. He's an absolute nightmare before he's had his meds and shares a room with ds2 so we can usually be woken up to a fight which is just lovely.

Our youngest is almost 5 and two 7 and 10. I'm actually not crazy about the idea tbh and I'm not a martyr or overprotective. Just doesn't sit that well with me and anyway I can't sleep as would be concerned re 4 year old. I always remember when being on a training experience in a school , it was like a Pru and the head teacher who was an amazing woman saying she always thought it's a bad sign in a house when the parents aren't up with the kids. It just stuck with me that comment and I'm an early bird!

I’m liking the aged 4 for the youngest sibling responses! I am still BF youngest so haven’t had a lie in for a very long time. At least when I stop BF me and DH will be able to share the wake ups until they are old enough to go down on their own!

Mine is 7 and did that for the first time last weekend. She's an only though. Would probably have been earlier if she had company.

I used to bring DS down from about 2, make him breakfast, check the stairgate to the kitchen was locked and go back up for an hour or two at the weekends, to read or doze. I was very lucky already as he seldom got up before 8 or 8.30 a.m.

He was probably closer to 5 when he was allowed down unsupervised.

He's 19 now and has always been independent, able to go on long train journeys on his own from Newcastle to London from 13 or so.