What time does your child go to sleep on a school night?

[MyChildDoesntNeedSleep]

My son is 9 and apparently the only one in his class who goes to sleep before 10pm on a school night. On weekends 'everybody else' stays up until midnight.

In an ideal world I would like to see him in bed by 8pm on a school night. He takes ages to drop off to sleep (I mean when you tell him he can read for half an hour in bed and forget to go up to turn off his light he's still reading when you go upstairs to go to the loo at 10pm .)Most nights its usually lights off by 8.30pm.

My 6 year old is in bed by 8pm on a good night. Quite often it's 8.15-8.30 as I find it hard juggling the two bed times and he keeps getting out of bed and I basically need to get more organised. Ideally I would like to see him in bed by 7.30.

Could we have a school night bedtime roll call?

Just put your child's age and bedtime.

I want to show my 9 year old this thread so he can believe me that the ones who say they go to bed at 10pm are probably not telling the truth........

DSS1 (12) - Between 10 & 10.30pm (10.30 usually means that he's threated with his Xbox being "disappeared" and/or no pocket money if he doesn't pull his act together). Has been threatened with a 9pm bedtime if he's stroppy.

DSS2 (5) - Between 7.30 & 8pm

This routine is kept pretty much every day of the week that they are with us (they spend 2 or 3 nights a week at their mother's)

anniemac, are you catholic per chance?! !

Eldest son is 13 and has sleep issues -generally goes to sleep somewhere between 9:30 and 10:30.

Daughter is very nearly 8, goes to bed at 8pm.

Youngest son is 6 and goes to bed at 7:30.

We get up at around 6:30am. - so 8 year old has around 10 1/2 hours sleep and 6 year old has 11.

DD (age 6, Yr 2) should be 7.30 but is usually closer to 8

DS (nearly 10, Yr 5)
8pm in bed and then can read til 8.30pm in school term

DC's 6 and 4, both in bed by 7pm usually asleep around 7.30-8pm

anniemac, takes one to know one as they say !

Eldest son 12 - 8.30pm (start yelling threats of hell & damnation about 9.30 which he ignores ... finally asleep around 10pm)
twin sons 10 and a half - 8pm (one asleep very quickly - other worse than his older brother)
youngest son 4 - 7pm (usually asleep 7.30)

'I like their company a lot which is probably slightly sad to admit. Maybe its because I work FT maybe I am too soft who knows probably both I am hardly the best parent in the world.'

Anniemac -- How does liking your children's company make you a bad mother?????? Only in Britain would someone equate this with some sort of unacceptable softness.

Yup -- after all, who remembers sleep?

Am not Mexican but I grew up with lots of Mexican families, and always admire the way they include their children in anything and everything. The idea of "child-free" events is almost anathema in Mexican culture; anywhere you go your kids go, also, the whole family goes to bed about the same time.

For me this ties into the "Are they lying?" thread in AIBU. Because it's only Anglo-Saxon cultures ime that are so desperate to parcel the parenting part of their lives off from other bits, who talk about needing "adult time" in the evenings, etc. Are so keen on "routine", "me time" etc.

Wanting to spend most your time with your children, not sending them to their bedrooms in evening to close the door & not talk again to you until morning is a normal way to raise your kids. The whole prescriptive "Kids must be in bed by X time" thing is predicated on that :( cultural bias against children.

That is an interesting post, Lljkk. I have seen the same thing you mention in Mexican and other hispanic communities in the US, and actually in US society in general. There was a thread here about a recent UNICEF report on the general negative feelings of British children about their lives iirc where the debate came down to 'do British parents give things instead of time?' I think they do and I do not understand the pack them off to bed mentality -- I think it can only be explained as a cultural bias against children, which explained the UNICEF findings actually.