How late do you keep your children out?

[chepyl]

We are usually home, fed and kids in bed by 11:15. We do stay out past midnight a few times a month.

[I.Dup.]

I'm a little stumped on that, too. Eat at 6 pm? Done at 7 pm? 30 mins for bath, reading, cleaning up, bed? 

 

 

 

Our boys are in bed by 7:30. My daughter was staying up until 9pm but now we put her to bed at 8pm because her attitude was terrible when she went to bed at 9. We all suffer if she doesn't get a certain amount of sleep. Even 15-30 minutes affects her. She's 11, my boys are 8 and under. If we don't start getting them ready for bed by 7pm or so, they get their second wind and start running around the house like wild animals. Right now it's 6:20 and they are starting to yell and get worked up (they're playing fun games, but they just get more and more worked up until they start running around and always, always ends up getting hurt and screaming because they're overtired). My kids are up between 6-7 even if we keep them up late. It's a huge frustration. I wish there was a way they could calmly stay up later and sleep in later, but that doesn't seem possible.

 

They eat breakfast at 7 so they're hungry for lunch by 11. Then dinner is 5:30 at the latest, that's 6.5 hours after lunch.

 

Yep, by the time I finished this post they are now fighting and starting to cry....6:22pm

 

But we are a larger family so they're pretty active during the day. Not sure if it would be different if we had less kids.

[GSOchristie]

We don't do anything like shopping at night. My kids are melting tantrum puddles waiting to happen after 7:00, so we never put ourselves in the situation. Occasionally we will stay at a friend's house till 9:00 or 10:00, but it is not pretty the next day. My kids are in bed by 7:30 and 8:00.

[Jan in SC]

Do you just restrict activities for older kids to be home? I'm surprised by the number of people that have kids 10 and older and are able to put them in bed by 8:30. My son has a rehearsal tomorrow that doesn't even begin until 9:00pm. That is unusual, but we are rarely home before 9ish.

[Dana]

Do you just restrict activities for older kids to be home? I'm surprised by the number of people that have kids 10 and older and are able to put them in bed by 8:30. My son has a rehearsal tomorrow that doesn't even begin until 9:00pm. That is unusual, but we are rarely home before 9ish.

Some of us are just homebodies ;)

[Χά�ων]

Do you just restrict activities for older kids to be home? I'm surprised by the number of people that have kids 10 and older and are able to put them in bed by 8:30. My son has a rehearsal tomorrow that doesn't even begin until 9:00pm. That is unusual, but we are rarely home before 9ish.

Granted my DS is only 9 (he will turn 10 part way through this school year) but I find that when you are up every morning between 4-6am it makes going to be before 9pm rather easy. :)

[Mrs Mungo]

Do you just restrict activities for older kids to be home? I'm surprised by the number of people that have kids 10 and older and are able to put them in bed by 8:30. My son has a rehearsal tomorrow that doesn't even begin until 9:00pm. That is unusual, but we are rarely home before 9ish.

 

Most of our activities are either 1) designed for homeschoolers and meet during the day or 2) are designed for school kids, so they don't go too late. My eldest dd is in theater, but her rehearsals are generally in the late afternoon instead of at night. 

[Jan in SC]

Most of our activities are either 1) designed for homeschoolers and meet during the day or 2) are designed for school kids, so they don't go too late. My eldest dd is in theater, but her rehearsals are generally in the late afternoon instead of at night.

That's great! Two of mine are involved in theatre and here that doesn't begin until 7pm on weeknights because the adults work.

 

Dana- um- you don't have to be!! 😃 I'm perfectly willing to drag you around with us!

[Joker]

Do you just restrict activities for older kids to be home? I'm surprised by the number of people that have kids 10 and older and are able to put them in bed by 8:30. My son has a rehearsal tomorrow that doesn't even begin until 9:00pm. That is unusual, but we are rarely home before 9ish.

 

My oldest is in ps middle school and youngest will be joining her this fall. The middle schools in our county have policies in place so nothing goes very late. Sports practices/games, many extracurriculars, and dances are directly after school at 2pm and end by 5pm. Any other performances, such as band, art, etc. are finished by 8pm. The elementary, middle, and high schools all coordinate and they each have their own night/nights that don't interfere with any other school during the week. My dds aren't in bed at 8:30 anymore, but we're usually home by 8pm.

[Mrs Mungo]

That's great! Two of mine are involved in theatre and here that doesn't begin until 7pm on weeknights because the adults work.

 

 

The adults who run our theatre program work too, but they all work for the theatre. It's nice to be near a decent sized city. :D

[SKL]

During the school year, my kids had gym classes that went until 8:30 two nights per week, and then it took a half hour to get home.  And then we had to start "afterschooling."  Getting them to bed by 8:30 would only happen if someone was sick or being punished.  ;)

[MistyMountain]

I generally do not go to stores late. In the summer my kids are outside to about 8 or so some nights. Then we start the nighttime routine. There are nights where we may be out a little later if we are at a friends but that is when they are generally in by. We have a later summer schedule. It doesn't get dark in the summer here. During the fall and winter when dd is back at school and it gets dark early we have an earlier schedule and we generally eat around 5 and then relax a little and start the bedtime routine and the kids are in bed at 8. Sometimes we have scheduled activities that are late and I generally put them in pajamas after it ends and they go right to bed when we come home or if somethings extends past dinner time then I make a quick dinner.

[vonfirmath]

I don't know how you people pull off 7:30 bedtimes.  Do your kids get up very early?  Do you eat dinner very early?

 

We pull it off because we have to. Often dinner is the first thing we do when we walk in the door because the kids are starving.

 

Kids wake up 5:30a -6:00am.

[Dustybug]

I don't like to be out past 7 with my kids. That's when we start winding down for bed.  I like to have them in bed no later than 8:30, but the earlier, the better.  Mine usually wake between 6-7.  The only night that we are regularly out past then is Wednesday evenings because of church services. 

[KungFuPanda]

If all the people I see out and about late at night were homeschoolers as well, your post would make more sense.  This isn't just during the summer either.  I see them with young elementary kids out past ten on school nights and I seriously doubt they are all homeschooling as well.

I don't think everyone who is out late is homeschooling. I just thought it was odd for a homeschooler to take issue with people not keeping mainstream hours.

[fraidycat]

We are night owls. We are usually home by 11, but not necessarily. Mostly we're not out at all because there is no need to be out shopping that much!! Even now my kids, although in bed, are still awake - it's 12:10 a.m..

[Hoot]

There may be a couple of instances throughout the year where we're out until 10 or later (July 4th fireworks etc.), but typically we're home by 8 or 9 every night.  DS's bedtime was 7:30 - 8pm for YEARS because he's such an early riser and in those days it was rare that we would ever be out past 7.  Even now, we don't shop late at night.  If we're out in the evening at all it's because of karate or baseball.

[Arcadia]

Library closes at 9pm and my kids tend to stay until they are booted out. Barnes & Nobles are opened til later. Our across the street supermarket is a 24/7 so we do evening runs to the supermarket just for fun. Generally we are home by 10pm.

[bluemongoose]

We are usually home by 6:30 with the exception of Monday nights and Wed nights during the school year. DD has scouts on Monday and we get home between 9-10 and DS has scouts on Wed and is home between 8-8:30. My kids ages are DD 8.5, DS 6.5, DS 4.5, and DS 1.5. Bedtime is 8-8:30pm.

[briansmama]

I voted "other" because I'm pretty firm on an early bedtime for my dc and they are never up past 8, let alone out and about at that time. They are 6 and 9.

 

When my oldest was an infant I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and really took it to heart that my dc need consistent bedtimes and much more sleep than adults. I remember being chronically tired as a child due to lots of chaos and no routine so I strive to raise our dc differently and give them as much security as possible.

 

On the other hand, I do admire others who are able to be more flexible with children who don't seem to react negatively to inconsistent/late bedtimes.

[swellmomma]

It depends on why we are shopping.  If it is because we ran into walmart at 10pm on our way home from the city because we need toilet paper and some basic supplies that will be needed before the grocery store opens the next day (or on a Saturday night since our grocery store is closed on sundays), well we might not finish there until 1030-11pm and then the 45 minute drive. 

In general I aim to be home by 10 from things like that.  The stores in my town and the next one close at 6pm, so we have to drive 1-2 hours to get to a location with places open later.  I try to do everything I can if we have had to stop off like that.  Now if my kids were fussing and over tired we would get in and out quickly but if we stopped off like that it is because we had no other choice we needed to pick up what we were there getting.

Of course I also have to bring the younger kids with me when I pick up the teens from cadets or ds14 from work so that means 10-1030pm getting home those nights.

[briansmama]

I don't know how you people pull off 7:30 bedtimes. Do your kids get up very early? Do you eat dinner very early?

We've always had a 7:30pm bedtime for the kids. When they were babies we knew they needed the 12 hour stretch at night, and then when they were older and gave up the naps they really needed it. Now my dc are so active during the day they need it even more.

 

Mine are not early birds- they get up around 7am. My youngest is usually close to 7:30am. I think because we have always had the consistent bedtime for them it hasn't been difficult to implement.

 

Dinner is by 6pm.

[Hoot]

Do you just restrict activities for older kids to be home? I'm surprised by the number of people that have kids 10 and older and are able to put them in bed by 8:30. My son has a rehearsal tomorrow that doesn't even begin until 9:00pm. That is unusual, but we are rarely home before 9ish.

 

Honestly, yes.  We are mostly homebodies anyway, but when DS was born I decided that we weren't going to be the type of family that was constantly rushing here and there to different activities.  DS is involved in a good number of things - karate, baseball, recreational swimming, drama, photography etc. - but they do not dictate our life all year long.  The only thing that really takes over is baseball during the spring.  The other things are a minimal time commitment, are flexible in their times, or are primarily during the day.  When DS was in public and private school I guarded our time MUCH more fiercely.  There were a lot of things that I simply wouldn't allow because they would have kept him out far too late.  

 

[LibraryLover]

We have been out late at times when young, although we always tried to make sure they were not stressed about it. I can't say that we have never been out late when they were too tired, but I can't think of any dramatic episodes.  My youngest has been a night owl since the day of her birth, so I can't for sure say one might not have seen her at the market with her Dad (also a night owl) shopping for sundries later in the night.  :)

 

[PeacefulChaos]

7:30 bedtimes amaze me, too.  :)  

Church on Wednesday nights *starts* at 7.  We don't leave until close to 9, and then come home, etc, etc,...

My kids go to bed at 9.  They always have, except when they were in school - then they had to go to bed at 8: otherwise I was literally dragging them out of bed at 6:45.  Thank the LORD I don't do that any more!  (I would get them up and fall asleep on the couch while they ate breakfast.  So.not.morning.people! :D )

As for me, I force myself to go to bed between 11 and 12.  I don't get tired at night, so I can easily stay up pretty much the entire night without noticing.  (I'm not going to lie, when I was trying to finish a show once... like, a few months ago lol... I stayed up all.night.long. :p  Aish... :lol: I finished the show around 6 and then went to bed - DH got up for work 30 minutes later.)

[Susan in TN]

I remember visiting my BIL and SIL years ago when they had mostly teen agers and one younger, who was about 6 at the time.  We were surprised at how late they were all up every night, even the 6yo.  Our oldest was about 10yo at the time and it was "shocking" to say the least that their 6yo was often up until 10 or 11 at night.  But now that we have teenagers and more activities at night, I can see how difficult it can be to organize younger kids around an 8pm bedtime.

 

Our youngers still go to bed between 7:30 and 8, but we also have more drivers and adults who can be at home to make that happen when the older ones have later activities.  It is somewhat necessary since my younger kids rarely sleep past 6:30 and we are shocked if they aren't awake by 7.