Should I put them to bed earlier?

[rhetorician]

Dds share a room. Dd1 is 4.7, dd2 is 20 months. They go to bed at 8, as in close the door and walk away, but we have hours of mucking about (e.g. It is now 10 to 9 despite late night last night and busy day today). This has been getting progressively worse over the summer. DD2 still has a nap and they are up around 7.30-8. I just think they should be asleep by 8 at the latest at their age and wonder if all the messing about is because they are overtired?

Hmmm. My DS1 is 4.4 and only seems to need 11 hours sleep these days - occasionally 11.5. If he's asleep by 7pm he invariably wakes up at 6am - so I would say going to sleep at 9pm and waking at 8am is about right for your DD1. If you want to shift her to going down at 8pm maybe try waking her at 7am for a few days so she's super tired at bedtime?

How much sleep is your 20 month old getting during the day? My DS2 is just 2 and I've had to cut his nap down to 30-45 minutes to get him to sleep 11-11.5 hours at night.

Disclaimer: DS1 was a terrible sleeper until 22 months and DS2 is still pretty crap so you probably want to ignore me.

bicnod'they sound about the same! It has to be said that they don't seem horribly tired, and dd1 in particular is a little sod when knackered, so it's easy to tell. Bah. Just want them gone after a certain point if you know what I mean