Moms Talk: No Blues for Bedtime

Life seems to have a paradigm shift between childhood and adulthood: children hate bedtime, where adults yearn for it. 

How do you get your kids to follow a bedtime schedule? Especially when you have children that are different ages, how do you structure their times? Do you have any tips for the trade?

Lisa May
We are lucky in the fact that our oldest has to get up really early this year and the younger ones can sleep in. For this school year, we are having them all go to bed at about the same time. This works out really well for the girls, since they share a room. 

When my oldest complained, I mentioned that she is getting much less sleep than them. She has to rise at 6:15 a.m., while the other two can sleep in until 7:45 p.m.  

This is working great for us this year. Of course, some evenings run later. But on those evenings, we take care of showers early, so it is bedtime when they get home. 

When my oldest two were younger, we were much stricter on a bedtime routine. I have found being a little lax (not too much) has helped. Plus I think we all relax a little after our first child. 

Samantha Goswami

So true. We yearn for bedtime and kids only seem to fight it. Since my kids are close in age and have to both get up early they both have the same bedtime. We start at 8:30 p.m. on Sundays and weekdays with bedtime activities brushing teeth, praying etc. and by 8:40 or so they are both upstairs. Showers are complete after dinner.  Of course, we have our exceptions if we are running late.

I am waiting to see what everyone else says since as they get older we might have to tweak the 8:30 p.m. time.

Jenny Wescoat
Bedtimes were a big deal to me when I first had my oldest kids, because my husband was traveling every other week and I needed that schedule to be reliable! We still keep pretty consistent bedtimes, because even with our older kids, it seems like it just doesn't pay to stay up late.

I'm the mom, and I still notice how cranky I am when I go to bed late.  We are pretty regulated, especially in those early years. I think it only pays off later. I keep reminding myself of that right now because I'm trying to get our newborn on a schedule and it takes so much discipline to lay that cuddly little baby down in her bed instead of holding her all day!

We've always done a story time with our kids right before bed, and we take turns ushering the crew to their spots. We pray with them and give last kisses. A routine really helps our kids.  

Bedtime is a catch-22 when you have kids. I love that we're all home and settled early, but sometimes it's a challenge in other ways. When we invite friends over for dinner, I never know how to politely say, "I'm kicking you out at 9p.m." when those without kids are here. Generally, I've just said something ahead of time that we'll have to wrap up the evening early, but it never feels very hospitable. Our kids don't settle down very well when they can hear us visiting!