What's a good bedtime?

My older boys no longer have an exact bedtime but the younger girls do. We've always put them to bed between 8 and 8:30pm. They are now 9 and 11. My 11 year old gets up constantly and the 9 year old complains about bedtime. Should I change it to 9? What is a good bedtime for that age?

I think it also depends on what time your kids have to get up in the morning. I like my kids to get at least 10 hours of sleep a night. We have to be out of the house by 7:30 and my kids can usually get ready for school in 30-40 minutes. I wake them up just before 7 am. My youngest is 6 and goes to bed around 8:30. Even then he sometimes will fall asleep earlier if he's had a busy week with sports. I don't think the time they go to bed is as important is how many hours of sleep they are getting. Too often kids are sleep deprived. I know my oldest son's school starts early which is hard to get kids up and out of the house before 7:30. Whereas my youngest son's school doesn't start until after 9:00 am.

The girls get up around 7am to be to school by 8. They're definitely going to bed in order to get a good amount of sleep. I don't have as much trouble with the 9 year old as I do with the 11 year old. She will normally want a snack (regardless of having one) or want something to drink. Then it will turn into her head hurting or that she can't sleep. That can go on until nearly 10 before she's in bed and staying there. The 11 year old will continuously come out of her room. Sometimes she wants a drink and other times, it's simply to see what is going on. I hear her singing or playing in her room a lot, long past when she should have been in bed and sleeping. It's a little more difficult for her, because she doesn't understand why she has to go to bed in the first place.

I can say that no matter how much sleep they get, they do get up and ready for school with no problems. There just has to be an easier solution to them going to bed and staying there so that my husband and I can get some peace.

Our 11 year old goes to bed at 9.00pm, but in the school holidays, we let him stay until 9.30pm. We find he still sighs and huffs about going to bed, but I think thats just kids of that age. He really needs his sleep. He will usually get up around 7.30 in the morning, but stays in bed reading or playing with his iPad until the younger kids wake up.

If he gets much less than 10 hours, he becomes grumpy and looks tired the next day. I think the 10 hour rule is good for this age. My younger kids, 2 and 4, go to bed around 7.30pm and get up at 7.30 to 8.00am the following morning. Its not a solid 12 hours unfortunately, they play and talk for an hour or so before they drop off to sleep. (4 year old twins in the same room)

Well certainly this is an issue that parents everywhere deal with and have been dealing with for ages now, and we are no different in our house. We struggled with this one, especially with our oldest son, but we always seemed to settle in on around 10 o'clock. It fit with everyone's schedule and just sort of became the norm, and I am sure that it varies depending on what type of family you are.

My son is 5 now and has been going to bed at 9 or 930 pm. I try and tire him out before dinner, then he is hungry and fills up. Then homework and tablet time for 30 min. He does very well on this schedule. he wakes up rested and I have never really had to argue with him about getting ready for school.

Bedtime as always been 8:30 or 9 for my daughter. Like someone else here said, it depends on when they're getting up in the morning... if they're not having to be at school until 8 and get up at 7, it's different from the kids who have to be gotten up at 5:30 or 6 to be taken to daycare.

For a while, she wanted to go at 8... but no matter what, even weekends, it's never past 10.

I have given up on bedtime. 🙁 my kids don't understand what bedtime is. So I just let them get all their energy out and hope for the best. It's okay because I am stay at home mom and they are not going to school yet anyway. As long as they get the right amount of sleep.

My kids are 9 and 10. When they have school, we usually get ready for bed by reading and snuggling for around 30 minutes. After that they have to go to bed and there are no arguing about it. Sometimes, they fuss about having to go to bed but for the most part they are usually ready. I like for them to get at least 10 hours of sleep. On the weekends, they do not have bedtimes so they love to be able to stay up as late as they want to. I think you just have to find what works for you and your family. The most important thing is for them to get the right amount of sleep.

When our kids were younger they didn't really have bedtimes. They just went to bed when we did. My husband used to work nights so we usually went to bed right after he left for work at 11pm. We would sleep late as well. Now my kids are 9, 10, 11. My husband works days and gets up at 5am. I have an immune disease and get tired easily. Now their bedtime is 8pm. That's when they brush their teeth and get into bed. Then they read for about an hour. My son is usually asleep by 9:00. My girls take longer to go to sleep and my oldest will play quietly in her room or draw or read until she falls asleep. My son is the early bird, always up by 7am. The girls will sleep all day if I let them. I get them up at 8:30 on school days.