Parents of 7 yr olds - what routine do you have at bed time?

[ssd]

I'm still doing the same thing that I've done for 7 years eg. we read ds1 a story then put him into bed and turn out his light. But 9/10 nights he finds it hard to go to sleep. Should I be letting him put himself to bed, or at least do the reading himself??

Any advise welcome!

The thing I have noticed from the parenting programmes around is a lot of kids suffer from bad behaviour due to lack of sleep. My dd is 31/2 so I am not at this stage yet. But a good routine and strict time keeping is really important. All kids will try to push the boundaries, but as long as you stick to your family plan then thats fine.

I would personally make sure a 7 year old is asleep by 8 - 8.30 at the latest. They have a lot of stimulation during the day and they need to rest their bodies and brains.

Let them turn the light out so they can have some sort of trust from you, but make sure you both agree on a sensible time and they stick to it, stay in their room and abide by the rules.

I wasn't set a set routine at bedtime when I was younger and I find it hard to be strict with myself at bedtimes and can fanny about for ages doing other things when I am tired and should be in bed. Thats why I think good ground rules surrounding sleep time are so important.