You know how most people think it’s cute when they see a child struggling to keep his eyes open and his head from bobbing at the dinner table? Or a child who has already succumbed to sleep right her bowl of spaghetti?
I cringe at this.
Seriously, there is nothing worse than a sleep-deprived child. And trust me, I know. I have three lovely angels who turn into head-spinning whirling dervishes when they are sleep-deprived. It’s not pretty. And you know what else? It’s not their fault.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, it is advised that children between the ages of 3 to 12 years old get at least 10 hours of sleep per night!
We adhere to fairly strict bedtime routines and rituals in my Trenches. Of course, now that it’s summer, we tend to relax the rules a bit, but if my boys (ages 8-1/2, 6 and 5) go to bed late (meaning past 9pm) one night, we try to “catch up” the next night by making bedtime a little earlier.
Our bedtime routine consists of cleanup (whether this be indoors or out), then upstairs for showers and pajamas, then back downstairs for dessert and a little bit of TV time (usually the Red Sox). Every. Single. Night.
So when my children act like brats? (Which, let’s face it, they all do at one time or another.) I can’t use the excuse, “Oh, he’s just tired.” But to me, that’s a good thing.
How many hours of sleep do your children get per night? Are you strict about bedtimes or more laid back?
By talking to them, you can communicate with them as well as teach them whatever you want. I didnt know them well, and vice-versa. My problem identified – I did not know my kids!!!.
Set aside time everyday for each other to unwind – this is important that each get time for him / herself, with no disturbance. Moreover, since my parents love to be with my boys so much, I would leave them to sleep over at grandparents place quite often.
My kids are IN BED at decent times…but it takes them a long time to fall asleep, and I’m okay with that. I feel like if they are resting, that’s something, right?
My kids have never once fallen asleep in a car, at a table, on the couch, etc. That has to be a good sign, right?
We are not strict about bedtime but this summer we learned that we should be.
My 8 year old daughter came home from camp a 5 days ago. She too was exhausted. At first we attributed her exhaustion to the 3 hour bus ride and supposed late camp night. We quickly discovered that camp had a strict bedtime of 8:30pm (I am embarrassed to share how late she regularly goes to sleep). Since coming home from camp by 8:30pm she is rubbing her eyes and showing many signs of being ready for sleep. This was a great lesson to my husband as we now realize that our daughter needs a lot more sleep than we assumed, and should be in bed by 8:30pm.
My son just got home from 2 weeks away at camp and BOY was he tired! I definitely saw those heavy lids. I get less stressed about this as my kids get older but when they were young this certainly made me panic. Especially because it could just as easily lead to that overtired second-wind which kept them up but miserable. Or, it would likely mean that although to bed late they were still waking up at their usual early hour.
Now my kids will sleep in a bit and adjust better to less sleep. However, this is the exception because they get beastly with not enough zzzzz’s!