Bedtime

[HoneyTree]

I looked in the archives for a thread on this, and couldn't find it. So if it has been discussed at length already, would someone please point me to it? But if not:

I'd just like to hear your thoughts on bedtime. It's not going too great for us while so many other aspects of UP are, so I feel like I need some new perspectives.

Do your kids go to bed when they're tired, or do you have a regular bedtime? What factors influenced your decision one way or the other?

How do you handle situations where you can tell your LO is "over tired," but is fighting sleep?

How do you handle being really tired yourself late at night when your kids are wakeful?

Thanks for your stories!

[Ravenlunatic]

I know what has worked for us and others in this area is the bedtime routine. I try and keep it consistant, but compared to our friends we are far more inconsistant... but it still works for us.

An example of our friends routine which has not wavered since thier child was like 6 months old (now 6 years old). After dinner there is 30 minutes of playtime, bath, snack, teethbrush, 3 stories and lights out. Every single night. Sometimes they are in the room for up to 45 minutes with lights out until child falls asleep.

Our routine looks more like this. After dinner playtime outside or in, bath ( not every night), 30 minutes of tv with snack, teethbrush, stories in bed, lights out. We are very flexible in that the tv watching only started this year (dd is 5), we may go back to walking around the block or doing an art project instead. We too stay in with dd until she falls asleep, usually within 5 minutes of lights out but sometimes longer.

Anyway, I think that lights out needs to be very consistant. Like you have to ensure your children are in bed ready for sleep within the same 30 minute period every night. Maybe one night it is 7:30, on anther night it is 7;45, and still another 7:25. But every night they are in bed during this same 30 minute period even if they say skip bath or whatever. Even when over tired if my dd is super sleepiy an hour before bedtime I could maybe turn the tv on and rock her and she would fall asleep, but if I put her in bed and tried to get her to go to sleep I would get a fight. I woould choose instead to let her manage are evening and then make her go to bed at regular time (if I got a fight because of her state of being tired, well then I get a fight. She still goes to bed.

I hope this answered your questions.