What time is bedtime?

NJBrit · August 2010

My stepkids have the following bedtimes: 8pm for a 7 year old, 9pm for a 12 year old, and 9:30 for a 13 year old. The big problem we run into is that my husband doesn't get home from work until around 6:30, so by the time we are done with dinner it's almost 8pm anyway!

I'm just curious, what time do your children go to bed on school nights, and how do you handle family time if one parent gets home later in the evening?

Sammysu · August 2010

Im in a similar situation. My DH comes home around that time a few nights a week and between dinner, showers and clean up, its hard to enforce bedtime. My 12 year olds bedtime is generally 9 or 9:30pm but since lately she has been getting into some trouble, her bedtime has been 8pm. I try to put the baby down by 7:30 and my 4yo 8 or 8:30 (she doesnt have to go to school until 9am)

But school doesnt start here until Sept 7. I guess it all depends on what "me" time you need as well as how they perform in the morning and during the day

heyitsme · August 2010

I aim to have DD in bed between 8 and 8:30, but our bedtimes are never consistent.

Family time for us is a bit different, though, because DH works 4 nights/week so it's usually just DD and I after school/at night.

ali2005jason · August 2010

For both my kids, bedtime is at 9:00. Some nights DH doesn't get home until after 10. Those nights, the kids don't see Daddy... Sad

Erina1004 · August 2010

My DD is 8 and she goes to bed at 8:30 on school nights.

fmoore723 · August 2010

My boys are 5 and almost 7---they start getting ready for bed (shower, teethbrushing, and starting to read) between 7 and 7:30 and are in bed between 8 and 8:30. DH is in the Air Force so his schedule varies, but for the next 6 weeks they are working 12-8pm. After that he goes to the gym and is home between 9 and 9:30. Needless to say, they don't see daddy during the week very much.

mhwood · August 2010

My daughter is 13 and her bedtime is 9:30.

Personally, I would have my husband handle the bedtime routine for all of the kids so he gets to spend some quality one-on-one time with each of the as they are going to bed.

Angela814 · August 2010

We are working on getting bedtime to be 9pm consistently. DD1 is 4 years old. She needs to be up by 7am to get ready for 4K in September.

We generally have dinner at 6:30pm, so the night kind of flies by for us too.

ecu1995 · August 2010

I am for both kids (10 and 6) to be in their beds at 8:30, we let the 10yo read for about another 30 minutes.

libra31 · August 2010

DD (5) just started Kindergarten and her bedtime has been 9 all summer. After 3 days of K, I can already tell that bedtime is going to need to be as close to 8:00 as we can make it.

Would your stepkids take their bath/shower prior to dinner? If not have them do it immediately following and then come back downstairs for awhile. That may help save time.

taagent · August 2010

For us it depends on what time SD (10) has to get up to catch the school bus. When she is with her mother she has a 9pm bedtime (her brothers (15 & 17)have a 10pm bed time although they caused her to miss the bus this week, and she wouldn't get going one morning and almost missed the bus herself, and then her mother over slept which caused her to miss the bus again (do you see a theme? She is only with her mother 4 school days a week and she missed the bus 2 times, almost missed it once). Here she catches the bus at 8am so she will have an 8:30 bed time because if she doesn't get enough sleep she is horrible to deal with

NJBrit · August 2010

libra31:
Would your stepkids take their bath/shower prior to dinner? If not have them do it immediately following and then come back downstairs for awhile. That may help save time.

We do have them take showers before dinner, which has helped out a ton. I'm nervous with the start of sports and other activities, and hello... a baby ... that things will be a bit day by day this year. We'll see.

It's good to hear what others are doing. One problem we've had with our oldest is that he goes back to bed in the morning after eating breakfast. In the event that this happens we have him go to sleep an hour earlier that night, and he loses his cell phone, video game time, and desert for a day.

sweetsurrender9 · August 2010

NJBrit:
My stepkids have the following bedtimes: 8pm for a 7 year old, 9pm for a 12 year old, and 9:30 for a 13 year old. The big problem we run into is that my husband doesn't get home from work until around 6:30, so by the time we are done with dinner it's almost 8pm anyway!
I'm just curious, what time do your children go to bed on school nights, and how do you handle family time if one parent gets home later in the evening?

My 9 year old SS is in bed at 9 pm. If he's working, DH doesn't get home until 7, so dinner is about the extent of family time. If DH happens to be off, which happens 4 days a week because he works 12 hour shifts, things are much different. Depending on the day, and how schooling has gone, family time usually consists of making dinner together to reinforce reading and math skills.

SS LOVES to cook, so it's very much a treat for him to help in the kitchen. If there's still school work to be done, he'll do his work at the table while dinner is prepared. If we're able to eat before 7 pm, we'll play a board game or allow some free computer time, again, as long as school work is done, then off to bed at 9.

Showers happen in the morning here, as a way of waking up before tackling school, so that doesn't affect the evening routine too much.

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