Six year old bedtime

[sindylouwho]

My child is six and a few months off being 7. Can someone tell me what time their six year old goes to bed and what the routine looks like please??

Hi, my 6 almost 7 year old had dinner around 5 ish unless he has a class swimming etc and goes for a shower around 630 and to bed for 7/730. We have stuck to this during lockdown. (hes still attending school 3 days a week as im a key worker) I have said he can move to 8pm but he insists on sticking to 7pm. He's an early riser and will be up at 6am regardless of when he goes to bed. Hope that helps somewhat x

7pm, start getting ready at 6.30 pyjamas, beaker of milk , teeth, story. They don’t bath every day and when they do it’s around 3/4pm.

At the moment it's about 10pm!! This works for us as I'm recovering from suspected covid so getting up as late as possible and need my sleep. When she was going to school it was usually about 8pm.
She goes up with DH at 9pm, PJs, teeth etc then I read a story and talk with her for a bit, lights out and she normally drops off pretty quick. Has been anxious about everything going on so sometimes wants to talk for a while. I'm not worried about her going to bed later than usual, she's still getting about 11 hours of sleep a night.

Our 6 year old is about the same age. Normally milk and small snack about 6.30, bath(not every night). Upstairs for in teeth and stories. Leave her about 7.15. She will play with her toys in her room and then go to bed. Will sometimes be up and down. Normally sleeping about 8. She gets to stay up late for games or movie night about once a week.

Showers and PJs to be just before tea (if very grubby) or just after tea, which is 6/6.30pm.

Then roughly 8pm ish its vitamins, teeth, pee and into bed. 1 story from me or DH, then final pee and lights out. He's usually asleep between 8.30 and 8.45pm.

Wakes up between 6.30 and 7am. I don't have long sleepers and never have had.

Mine is the same age and I have a child a year younger. We start the routine around 7.30 or so. Then stories at 8pm. They wake at 7.30 and watch tv until I get them breakfast around 8am.

Our routine is out the window since we've had no school. Bedtime was around 7 but she found it hard settling and was wanting us to stay with him. I just wondered whether it was too early but I guess not. I'm going to start a new routine come Monday.

6.5 and goes to bed at 7pm

I'd say do what works for your family. We used to all be up by 7.30 for work/school, with me often leaving at 6.30 for work. These days I'm WFH so much later start in the mornings. If he wants to stay up with you is there an issue with that? I try not to be led by the clock but by what my daughter needs

Well it's the only some adult time we get. Especially at the moment. There's programmes id like to watch which aren't suitable for children. I think I'm going to stick to 7-730

My nearly 7 year old is rarer in bed before 9 nowadays. More like 9.30. Usually you between 6 and 7. Lockdown has totally messed up our family's sleep patterns! My 11 year old often isn't asleep by 11pm.

My DS is recently 7 and is usually asleep by 8.30 during lockdown. If he was going to school it would be 8pm. He gets in to his Pyjamas at 7.30 and then I get in to bed with him for 30 mins for a snuggle, story and general chat.

It depends on the child.

DS was in bed at 7pm 'read' until lights off at 7.30pm with his story CD on and he would be asleep within 10mins. It was the some and with DD1.

With DD2 she would go to bed about 7.30pm and lights of about 8pm again with a story CD playing but she would finally go to sleep about 9 - 9.30pm (and still be wide awake by 5am but that another story) she is like her dad and is a bit of a night owl, who doesn't need as much sleep.

Our routine is totally out the window at the moment. I find everything is running later and later. It was 11pm last night when my 6 yr old finally fell asleep. Back up then today at 8.30am.

Hmm you've all given me food for thought. I think I'm just thinking about it more as I'm back at work soon so would like to get back into some sort of better routine.

My next door neighbours keep theirs up until 10 to 11pm somewhere so I can enjoy listening to the noise of their thundering elephants crashing and banging on their wood floor in the living room jumping and clattering about and shaking my ornaments on my shelves and generally doing my head in.

They like it so they can sleep late in the morning without being woken at the crack.

Personally I feel that kids should be in bed by 8pm to allow adult time for parents to relax. And that after 9pm if someone’s keeping a small child up there shouldn’t be any energetic activity disturbing neighbours and getting the kids hyper, it should be wind down to bed, or reading in bed. And this letting them fall asleep on the couch shite doesn’t teach them how to fall asleep in their own bed alone either. They are just storing up problems for later when the kids are bolshier and heavier to keep putting back to bed when the don’t want to go there once school starts again....

8pm at the latest I mean. 7 or 7.39 would be better. But not for the long lie in the morning people.

@Elieza she never sleeps in. She was up at 6:10 this morning. It doesn't seem to matter when she goes to bed. She doesn't go to sleep on the sofa nor do I allow her to make noise, we don't have any neighbours but I still don't want her up and messing around. I was left to sleep on the sofa with no real bedtime. It didn't really affect me. But I want a decent routine where I'm not sending her too early nor too late.

Elieza you clearly live in a family without older children.

Personally I feel that kids should be in bed by 8pm to allow adult time for parents to relax

I have a 5 year old. I also have a 10yo, 14yo and nearly 16yo. Older children don't tend to be "In bed by 8pm" allowing for some "adult time". My teens, especially currently during lockdown, go to bed around 10.30pm.

The notion of "grown up time" is incredibly twee and only exists in the relmes of newer (ie less than a decade) parents.

Make a no odds to me if our 5yo has a 9pm bedtime currently. All the better than we get an 8am wake up instead of 7am. And "adult time" really just means "not hard graft parenting" rather than there being no children around.

Mines is 7 and before lockdown went to bed around 8pm on a school night. He doesn't need to wake up until 7.45 on a school day so plenty sleep.
It's been closer to 9pm during lockdown but it works for us, he settles quickly and gets an appropriate amount of sleep.

Mine is 6, almost 7. Normally I say her bedtime is 7 but a lot of the time it ends up being more like 8 really.
I feel like I can't help when she goes to sleep so I tell her she can't play/read a book as long as she starts in her room (with varying success of course)
Last few days it's been a lot later she's gone to sleep. I've still tried to get her in her room although she inevitably keeps coming down for something. It's been past 10 the last couple of days.
Absolutely ridiculous.
I'm like you it's the only time I get to myself especially now. I too want to watch something that she can't. And it's just me and her so intense
I'm going round the bend at the minute

I'd let her go to bed when she is ready for sleep but I never minded mine being downstairs with me. I would object to her being up so early though unless I was going to work, even then 6.15am seems too early. Encourage her to play and read in her room when she wakes if she can't go back to sleep.

She has always been an early riser and I was as a young child. She will never play in her room, she likes to have breakfast as soon as she's awake to.

She goes up with her younger sibling at 6 and gets ready/brushes teeth/plays while I deal with the other one. She then comes downstairs again, reads to me, we watch a 30 min programme together and then into bed for me to read to her. She then reads to herself and normally turns her own light off. If not, it's lights off by 7:45.

@sunrainwind that seems like a good routine. Nice and relaxed. We've started taking her up at 7:15. Two stories and a chat and she is allowed an Audio book. Seems to have been ok the past two nights