I have a friend who is a mother of 4 (!) boys. As we were speaking (at the football field, natch) about back to school preparations, she mentioned that each of her boys have a different bedtime, based on age.
We have never done this at my house. I have always had all 3 of my boys go to bed at the same time.
But I’m contemplating it for the upcoming school year. The kindergartener could go at 7:45, the first grader at 8:00 and then the 3rd grader at 8:15. I’m wondering if this would work for us, or if I’m better off tucking all 3 of them in at once at 8:00.
What do you do?
Always.
5 year old @ 7:30
7 year old @ 8:30
9 year old @ 9:30
Divide & conquer 🙂
I think I stagger because that’s what my parents did. My older sister is 7 years older so the same bedtime for the 2 of us wouldn’t fly. My middle sister and I are 2.5 yrs apart and shared a bedroom. I’d go first. Once I was tucked in – my middle sister would start her routine and be in bed about 15-20mins after me. And my older sister was probably an hour later than us. Maybe later…
My 3yr old goes down between 7:30-8pm
My boys are 7.5 & 9 and they go down between 8-9. By the time we’re done teeth, peepee, stories, chats and snuggles can take upwards to an hour.
if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! if all three boys are good with going down at 8pm, then continue that. otherwise you are going to stretch your bedtime from taking 15 minutes to taking 45!
my 9 and 7 year olds go to bed at the same time, but the 9 year old can read a little bit before lights out. the 12 year old stays up later.
I think in theory this is a good plan; younger children need more sleep, and if they all have to wake up at the same time, then the only option is staggering bedtime. However, as the mother of three, I know this wouldn’t work in my house. Each of my children needs a lot of attention around bedtime; my youngest for snuggles, my middle guy to talk about the day, and my eldest for all his bedtime routines. For us it works better to have everyone going down around the same time. Unfortunately, I know my five year old daughter is often not getting enough sleep, but that’s just one of those things when you’re the youngest!