At what age do children realise that their parents need sleep too?

[FrazzledFairyFay]

A serious question - at what age do children realise that we don't really want to be woken up in the night as we too need our sleep?

ermm I don't know - but I've been sleeping terribly for a while now and it totally caught up with me last night. Curled up on the sofa after putting DS2 and 3 to bed at 8pm and told DS1 (8) to entertain himself until his bedtime (9pm) - I woke up at 9.20pm (briefly) and found that he'd taken himself up to bed .

However - I did then crash out again - have just woken up and can't get back to sleep again

About 25. :D

My oldest never slept through (or for more than a 4 hour stretch) until he started school.

If I think back to my own experience as a child (and taking into account my siblings) I think the first time we thought that parents needed sleep was when I decided to stay out later than I was supposed to and was hoping they were asleep.

never?? just kidding.
hugs to you. My boy at 5 still has the odd night of night terrors when really overtired. I think habit is an issue with most older children night waking?
hugs and I found consistency and perserverance to be the key with sleep training with our eldest. all the best!

Thanks everyone. My two aren't too bad compared to some, what gets me is that they either sleep 12 hours straight up or wake up wide awake in the middle of the night and are up for 2-3 hours.

My oldest is 22 now. Working full time as a night stocker at a local warehouse. He now sleeps for a good 6 hours straight (and unfortunately talks in his sleep).
My younger two sound like FrazzledFairyFay's children. Well the youngest anyway (age 10). The twelve year old grudgingly goes to bed at a set time but once in bed is dead to the world and obstinent about being woke for school. The youngest goes to bed around 9 and sleeps until about 7am. She is ten up like clockwork and wants her breakfast. They all have very different personalities so that may have something to do with it.