do you wake your kids in the morning...or let them sleep in

[ProudGrandma]

We have 3 kids. On a regular night my 7 year old has lights out at 8:30, my 9 year old has lights out at 8:45 and my 11 year old at 9:15. My 9 year old is awake every morning by 6:30 (if not earlier), my 7 year old ususally is up shortly after that (unless he got to bed late) and my 11 year old will sleep past 8 if I let her. Which, doesn't sound like sleeping in, but if I let her sleep past 7:30, she is awake past 10 or 10:30 at night (which in my opinion is too late for an 11 year old). So, is it ok to wake her day after day between 7 and 7:30...or would you let her sleep? I have always heard that children will sleep as much as they need, so if they are sleeping in, let them. But given the fact that a late morning means a later night, i am not sure that is the case with my daughter. What do you guys say?

[lionfamily1999]

:lol: My dc think 8 is an early morning :p

 

We are night owls, though.

 

It seems like, in your situation, she makes up for her extra sleep with later hours and since that doesn't work for you, I think you should get her up in the morning.

[butterflymommy]

I have a daughter who will sleep late (9-10) no matter how early she goes to bed. She just needs to sleep... a lot. I've learned the hard way that waking her up is going to put her in a foul mood all day. 9:15pm is a very reasonable bedtime, so I would just let her sleep unless you have activities outside the house you have to attend.

[1GirlTwinBoys]

We're not on a bedtime/wake schedule. I just let mine sleep until they wake, unless we have to be somewhere.:)

[RahRah]

Because of DH's work, we don't even have dinner most nights until 7:00-7:30, then he spends time with DS and now the baby....so bedtime isn't until 9:30-10:00 (baby is down around 8:30-8:45 though). I let DS sleep until he wakes on his own - makes for a much happier kid during the day! Most days he wakes around 8:00-8:30....but if he's had a crazy busy day, he has slept in until 10:30!

[ProudGrandma]

I have a daughter who will sleep late (9-10) no matter how early she goes to bed. She just needs to sleep... a lot. I've learned the hard way that waking her up is going to put her in a foul mood all day. 9:15pm is a very reasonable bedtime, so I would just let her sleep unless you have activities outside the house you have to attend.

 

yea, 9:15 is a reasonable time in my book too, but if I let her sleep in, then she isn't ready for bed by 9:15. Also, waking her up isn't a chore or isn't hard to do...i just need to physically go upstairs and wake her because she won't wake herself. But once I do, she grumps for a minute and then everyting is fine.

[regentrude]

We start school at 8am (and on the days the kids come to work with me, we need to leave the house by 7:30). So yes, I wake my DD. DS is always up before anyone else.

If we do not start school on time and leave too many things for the afternoon, less will get accomplished because we do not work as focused in the pm.

[Heather in Neverland]

I wake them up at 7am.

[Lily_Grace]

During the week, yes. Chores need to be done by a certain time. On the weekend he can sleep as much as he likes...and still gets up about the same time usually.

[AngieW in Texas]

We're mostly night owls.

 

Oldest is 18yo now, but has gone to sleep around midnight since she was about 12yo. She used to sleep really late (I'd actually wake her up if she was still asleep past 11am), but ever since the road construction behind our house, she's gotten up by 8am almost every day. She has an 8am class 3 days/week for fall semester, so she'll have fun getting up for that. Despite her late nights, she's never had problems getting up for classes. Two years ago she had an 8am cc class, but it was one hour away in morning traffic, so she had to get up at 6am to wake up sufficiently, shower, and eat something before making the drive with me (she had to do the actual driving as part of her driving practice).

 

My 15yo was a very early-to-bedder (for our house) up until she turned 11yo. Before that, she was in bed no later than 10pm every night. At 11yo, she started shifting later and now she gets in bed by 11:30 pretty much every night and generally gets up about 8am.

 

My 13yo has had sleep issues for several years. She used to be in bed no later than 10:15, but now that she has braces, taking care of her teeth takes a LONG time. She's generally in bed by 10:45 and gets up about 7 or 7:30am. I don't wake her up unless she's still in bed at 9:30am. On those few occasions, it generally turns out that she woke up repeatedly through the night or was awake for several hours in the middle of the night. She woke up just as I was going to wake her up on Monday morning at 9:40am. She didn't remember waking at all during the night, but she was utterly exhausted the entire day and her whole body was sore, so I think she had joint slipping issues (again) that kept kicking her out of deep sleep.

 

Dh and I usually go to bed between midnight and 1am and get up between 8 and 8:30.

[mytwomonkeys]

we have bedtimes here, but no set wake-up time. they are asleep by 8 or 8:30. my son wakes up by 6:30 - 7ish, and my daughter between 7:30 -8ish. she's still asleep now though, and it's after 9. we don't have plans today, so i'm just letting her sleep. i figure she must need it. if she was a late sleeper daily, i'd probably reconsider though.

[CarenM]

I let them sleep in. No rush...school will get done.

[eternalknot]

We have 3 kids. On a regular night my 7 year old has lights out at 8:30, my 9 year old has lights out at 8:45 and my 11 year old at 9:15. My 9 year old is awake every morning by 6:30 (if not earlier), my 7 year old ususally is up shortly after that (unless he got to bed late) and my 11 year old will sleep past 8 if I let her. Which, doesn't sound like sleeping in, but if I let her sleep past 7:30, she is awake past 10 or 10:30 at night (which in my opinion is too late for an 11 year old). So, is it ok to wake her day after day between 7 and 7:30...or would you let her sleep? I have always heard that children will sleep as much as they need, so if they are sleeping in, let them. But given the fact that a late morning means a later night, i am not sure that is the case with my daughter. What do you guys say?

 

One reason I gravitated towards homeschooling is because I think growing bodies need more sleep, and it always drove me crazy that my sister (at the time she was in high school) had to wake up early, against her natural body clock. She was a zombie for the first hour or so after waking, and got hooked on a coffee-a-morning habit just to get herself out the door and alert enough for first period. Her body clock is just more of a late-night/late-morning thing. I think we're hard-wired a certain way. I don't think it did her any favors waking her up early in the morning; she had no choice, but I put myself in a different situation.

 

I let my kids sleep in. It's 0930 and one of mine is still in bed. I pay more attention to quality sleep than I do sleeping hours; it helps that I'm a night owl, so my kids staying late isn't an inconvenience or bother ... since I'm up, too LOL.

 

One thing I've noticed, though, and it's particularly noticeable during fall/winter is that even myself and my night owls will fall asleep more quickly -and soundly- if we time it so we're in bed roughly 2 hours after the sun sets. Even if we've only been awake for 8 or so hours. After a few nights of this, we're all re-adjusted a bit. We'll wake up with the sun 2-3 hours earlier than we'd normally awake during the spring/summer seasons. I think our bodies are just wired to follow the sun, daylight savings and all of that be darned ;) When we're mindful of that, our quality of sleep improves, and we result in not needing as many hours of (perhaps more fitful) sleep.

 

I'd let her sleep in, myself, but I live by the schedule at work and home is my happy schedule-less place. I'd focus more on quality sleep - whether that's number of hours her body requires, or working on getting her more sound sleep during shorter hours. It's a very interesting science!

[Harriet Vane]

We have 3 kids. On a regular night my 7 year old has lights out at 8:30, my 9 year old has lights out at 8:45 and my 11 year old at 9:15. My 9 year old is awake every morning by 6:30 (if not earlier), my 7 year old ususally is up shortly after that (unless he got to bed late) and my 11 year old will sleep past 8 if I let her. Which, doesn't sound like sleeping in, but if I let her sleep past 7:30, she is awake past 10 or 10:30 at night (which in my opinion is too late for an 11 year old). So, is it ok to wake her day after day between 7 and 7:30...or would you let her sleep? I have always heard that children will sleep as much as they need, so if they are sleeping in, let them. But given the fact that a late morning means a later night, i am not sure that is the case with my daughter. What do you guys say?

 

My 10yo is similar to your dd. Sleeping later means staying up later.

 

We wake both our kids shortly after 6am so that they can have breakfast with their father.

[JudoMom]

We wake the older 4 at 7:30 every morning for Bible study before dh goes to work.

[KS_]

I let mine sleep in during the summer (and they have a later bedtime), but during the school year, either I wake them up, or do things to make them wake up, like opening their curtains, turning on the light, etc. My ds can be very cranky when he wakes up, so I don't really like waking him up, but if I don't, school doesn't get started til quite late.

[Impish]

Littles have trained themselves to be up before 6am. They *must* see Daddy in the am before he goes to work, or life just isn't worth living. :lol:

 

Diva I wake up at 7-730 am.

 

We have a dog that needs to be walked, so laying in bed til she decides to get up isn't an option. She's in bed by 9 at the latest, so has the chance for sleep...if she chooses to sneak read until the wee hrs, that's her choice, and natural consequence is she's tired the next day.

[Ellyndria]

Sleep is a precious thing. I let him sleep until he wakes up.

 

However, I say this as a person who frequently has trouble sleeping more than 4-5 hours at a time, and on a good night sleeps 6-7 hours. I know the importance of sleep. If I get woken up before 7am, I am not happy.

 

So, of course, DS usually wakes up early. I am happy if he at least sleeps until 7, because if he's awake, I wake up. Sometimes he'll wake up at 6:30 or earlier, ugh. Today he was up at 7:25, which woke me up. On the rare occasion that he sleeps until 8 or 9, I am thrilled, because that usually means I got to sleep as long as I need (I usually wake up between 7 and 8), *and* that I have some quiet time to myself in the morning.

 

Edit: Going to bed earlier doesn't guarantee more sleep. For example, if I go to bed at 10, I will wake up at 2 or 3 and not be able to go back to sleep for a few hours. Falling back asleep at 5 or 6 am is mostly pointless as DS will be awake soon. If I go to bed at midnight, I'll have a chance of sleeping until 7. This is why I hope DS sleeps until at least 7. The last couple weeks, I had to wake DS up by 7:30 to go to camp... by the weekend, he was waking up by 6 or even 5:30!

Edited August 4, 2011 by Ellyndria

[Daisy]

My daughter is always up by 6am.

 

My son is usually up before 7am.

 

If both kids are still sleeping at 7am, I wake them up. That is every day of the week and year-round.

 

Time to get moving. If you need more sleep, go to bed earlier.

 

Both kids are wanting to walk with me in the mornings right now (cooler) so I'm waking them up at about 5:30 so they can go with me. They'd be upset if I didn't. LOL.