This shocked the unshockable me!

[nightcrawler]

On return to school day, some of the children were very tired by lunchtime. I thought too much chocolate and not enough running around? An experienced person said - no - always after a holiday, a proportion of the children are tired 'cos parents keep them up late during the holiday so M&D get a late lie-in. The children get used to the late nights and late mornings. M&D forget to adjust for going back to school, so the children are knackered on school return. I would have dismissed this as cynical prejudice, except she then said - it will be child J, L, C, D, T, etc, etc - about 2/3 of the class! And she was correct. I thought I was unshockable, but this has left me .

Kept mine up partly so we could have a lie in but mainly so we could also do things as a family. I have no real time with my dd during the week during term time so the holidays are a real treat. It is light so we are often out walking until about 8pm.

We're doing our justified outdoorsy things twinset-we are above a 7pm bedtime! Dd sleeps better if she is exhausted anyway-7.30 bedtime and she will be up 3-9 times a night. 8.30 bedtime (with an hour and a half outside first) and she sleeps through until 8am. Same as an adult really!

We are lucky enough to have open farmland and river walks at the back of out house that we access from our garden. I can sit and mark on my patio and watch dd run about to her hearts delight, it is lovely and she usually sleeps better for it. Not tonight though.

I just think that there is more to life than school, especially when they are at primary age. I say that as a teacher as well.

Exactly-if the resources are there, use them! We spent an hour scuffing up wearing in new school shoes on a scooter and throwing a boomerang around, came in, read, curled up, then dd (and I!) were both sound asleep by 8.45. Also 7pm children are maybe a bit less, um, "full of beans" than dd is-she NEEDS wearing out or I fear for her teacher's sanity the next day!

Daisy your post gave me visions of the nursery rhyme where wee willy winkle runs through the town checking all the children are in bed, lol.

lol @ apostrophe !

Thing is, how does the teacher know its because "M&D get a late lie-in?" It could be because they want to see more of them in the evenings, as many posters have said. how judgy.

And even if its because they want a lie in, does it matter?

Do agree that you need to prepare for going back to school though.

have just read thread now and realise its all been said

I'm shocked at how the 'experienced person' knew the bed time habits of J, L, C, D, T, etc. Who is this person? Wee Willie Winkie?

I think nightcrawler sounds rather sweet

during all school hols my 3 dd's sleep longer and longer each morning and stay up later and later each night, and i couldn't care less what anyone thinks and it has never occurred to me to give it second thought, it's just the natural rhythm of things! a couple of days back into the new term though and everything readjusts back to normal.

Lots of things on MN surprise me but the fact that someone would find this shocking in any way really takes the biscuit~!

I'm still intrigued as to how they know the child has had late nights and is tired because of that or whether the child just struggles to get back into the regimented day of school

I keep my three up late in the hols because its fun to be able to do stuff like watch a movie together or go out for a meal - stuff that's not possible in term time. They deserve a break too from the regimented time table of term time.

It takes a couple of days to adjust back so no big deal.

A point which I have found is that in the school holidays my children jump out of bed at 7am, but on school days I have to be the mother from hell to get them up.

I tend to let my dc have lights off an hour later in the holidays, so at dd1 (8) goes at 9-9:30 and dd2 (5) goes at 8-8:30. I do put them upstairs at 7:30 as normal, because I enjoy my own time in the evenings too much . They are just allowed to play in their rooms, doing drawing or reading for longer. What on earth can be so harmful about that? Yes it can be hard to get them back to an early bedtime.

I can still remember the misery of being put to bed early in the summertime when the sun was blazing through the chinks in the curtains.

we do this, especially summer hols as it's bright and warm so late they love playing outside a bit after dinner.

quite often we'll have been doing stuff all day and won't get until later.

what's the point in having them in bed at 7pm and up again at the crack of dawn when you don't have to go anywhere in the morning and the evenings are so much nicer for playing?

none of us are morning people, the kids have been known to sleep til 11/12 in the morning... even without a late night the night before! so everyone here is happier with a lie in than an early night.

atm they're going to bed late as the job dp is working this monh means he doesn't get in til gone 6, meaning it's gone 7 by the time dinner is done and we can even start the whole bed bath routine.

imo eating together as a family and dp getting the chance to spend some time with his kids is more important that a 7pm bedtime.

I woulnd't worry that anyone is damaging their children by adapting the children's routine for the parents' convenience anyway. Remember that all the dysfunctional twats who think that having children means parents should have no lives or intersts of their own, are the ones whose children fuck off into the wide blue yonder as soon as possible anyway (to get away from clutching, whining, unbelievably tedious and needy parents).

Well I don't keep my son up because it wouldn't work anyway. He usually goes to bed at 8 regardless of school or holiday, unless we are away when it might be a bit later, earlier if we can manage it but his dad is home at 7.30 3 nights a week so he likes to see him and is up at 6, maybe 7 at weekends. If he goes to bed later he's still up at 6 and is grumpy!

pinktulips "the kids have been known to sleep til 11/12 in the morning"

Every time I see this thread title I keep going all Andy Williams and wanting to burst into song thus -

"To dream the impossible dream/To shock the unschockable me!"

Tis driving me mad.

I am shocked, nay saddened, that you think that the 'performance' at school - for a few days - of very young children is more important than families enjoying their holidays together. For lots of children staying up late is a treatm so why shouldn't they do it when they are on holidays? Or do you always go to bed at 10pm and get up at 7am when you don't have to go to work?

they were up ridiculously early this morning... bloody 7am..... that's about the earliest we'd ever see sight nor life of them... sickness excluded.