why do kids go to bed so late in Spain?

[earlycomputers]

I was talking to a friend who is from Spain and she was shocked that I said I put my kids (10 months old and 4 yr old) to bed at 7pm. She said young children dont go to bed before 9pm and older kids not before 10-10.30pm at night. When I asked what time school started she said 9am like in the UK, so then I asked about siestas in the afternoon, thinking how do kids there get enough sleep - but apparently after the age of 5 they are not expected to have a nap in the afternoon. I can understand how to heat may make it difficult to go to bed early, but I thought toddlers needed at least 12 to 13 hours sleep a day (including naps) - so are spanish kids built differently to ours?!

It's just what they are used to.
It does grate rather with our british ideas.
It also grates when you are trying to go to sleep at midnight and the whole Spanish population is just getting ready for a party, which goes on until 4am, so you only get an hour or so's sleep before your british-trained ds gets you up at 5.30am.

But hey, manana and all that. They do have a good work-life balance. And the weather is good. And they have the euro, and that fantastic bread, and churros.

Yum yum.

WHen do the parents get to mumsnet?

They also have Nadal. Grrrrrrr.....

I think in the summer a lot of kids over five have a siesta.

I'm not sure how they manage really. DS is 2.4 and does the whole british 7-7 thing, but it's just what he's always doen, not something I trained him to do. Living in Spain with a child who wants to be in bed by 8pm at the latest does make some things a bit more complex but I quite like having an evening really.

My 4 year old still has a siesta and then is in bed by 9 or 9.30.. they then get up at about 8..

We, on the other hand, can't understand why anybody would want their children getting up at 5.30 in the morning..

From what I could tell siesta's were very much part of the day come winter or summer regardless of age!
I was considered really odd following a 'routine' (Sleepsense not GF by that stage) and popping my son into bed at 6.30 and expecting him to sleep through. I was constantly getting 'helpful' advice like feed him cereal in his milk before bed and keep him up late, even though I kept telling people he slept through, I guess they couldn't quite believe me.
The land of siesta and fiesta, I miss Spain.

Cultural expectations- children fit into their family's life. My half-Italian 5-month-old goes to bed around 9/10pm and sleeps until 6/7am, then having a late morning (11/12), mid-afternoon (3/4ish) and late afternoon (6/7ish) nap. Not something we have imposed on him, that's just when he likes to sleep. He plays with DH when the latter gets home, then has a bath, sits with us while we have dinner (or at least the first course thereof) and then has a last feed and goes to bed. We follow him within the hour.

You could equally ask (and I have done so many times over the years) why the British insist on getting their children into bed in the middle of the afternoon (because that's how 6.30/7pm is perceived by us Southern Europeans!) and then are surprised when said children wake up at 5am...

When I lived in southern Spain, everyone stayed up late and had a rest in the afternoon. Not just the children.

University classes ended at lunchtime and started again at 5pm. Offices and shops closed for a few hours at lunchtime. When we went out for dinner, we booked the table for 11pm.

I only lived there for a few months and it was spring and summer. Perhaps the routine changes slightly in the cooler months.

Also toddlers easily get 12-13 hrs of sleep- I imagine if they go to bed at 9 they don't wake up til 7-8 and then they have a couple of hours nap in the pm.

I'm not in Spain, but since I started putting my 17 mo DD to bed at 9 she sleeps through til 8 and then she has two solid hours nap from 2 to 4. Perfect. I would much rather have a civilised wake-up time and a undisturbed sleep than a couple of hours more child-free in the evening. I never go to bed before midnight anyway, so have enough 'me-time'.

I dont know OP but my DS definately thinks he's Spainish atm. Despite having been up since 5am. He seems to want the best of both worlds...

My dd must be a senorita. She is 7, goes up to bed at 8pm, rarely gets to sleep before 10pm. She potters around in her room reading and colouring and nothing will induce her to sleep. Spanish time would suit her

Well, where I am in the south of Spain at the moment it's DAMN HOT! According to dp, it 50 degrees in the city near me today. And poor me, I'm 34 weeks pregnant and whiny and moany about it, but that's another story

My dd (2.2) is currently going to sleep at 11pm, wakes up at 8-9am and sleeps a 3pm-6pm siesta. So she gets loads of sleep. People of all ages have a siesta. It's a BAD idea to go outside at the moment between 12noon and about 8pm, and as it gets hotter, it'll only really get cool at 10pm, and lots of kids won't go to bed until after midnight over the summer. Everyone here has lunch at 2pm, then most go to bed at 3pmish. Unlike the UK, 3-6pm is the very hottest part of the day. The shops don't open again until 6-7ish. So what would be the point of being awake?

OTOH, many children are in bed by 9-10pm in the winter, and have a shorter siesta after school. My dd went to sleep at 9pm in the winter, and when she starts school and has to get up earlier, I'll be making sure she gets to bed early enough. But 7pm would be madness.

Good explanation, Petisa.. I'm not in the South so not quite so extreme but forecast 35 for today.. why on earth would I be putting the DCs to bed just when they can play out a bit??

Well at 6 years old my Italian nephew used to go to bed at around 9.30pm on weekdays during school time and getting him out of bed at 7.30am (which he had to be as school started at 8.30am) was a real difficulty.

He would literally be asleep sitting up and would take AGES to wake up properly. He really wasn't getting enough sleep. In fact he did quite badly at school despite being bright and I am convinced the lack of sleep played a part.

In the summer Italian children have 3 months off school so they of course stay up late. My niece and nephew rarely went to bed before 11pm in the summer. They never took naps after the age of 4/5years old but they did sleep until 9amish (for my nephew) and nearer 10am (sometimes 11am) for my niece.

The annoying thing about this was the inability to get them out of the house in the morning if you had a trip or day out planned anywhere so the morning would often be wasted. This was more irritating when they cam to the UK than in Italy as we did so much more when they visited us in the UK (which they loved). In Italy a lot more time was spent doing not much really

Sorry mane to say wake him up at 6.30am as he started school at 8am not 8.30am