Suitable bedtime for an 8yr old.

[Scottish Joan]

My 2 girls go to bed at 0830 but can sit in bed for an hour watching tv or reading and get up at 0730 for School, there morning routine is:

0730- Be awake and out of bed
0745- Be fully dressed
0750- Have washed, brushed teeth and brushed hair.
0800- Prepare School bag for the day
0810- Be downstairs for making breakfast
0820- Have finished breakfast which is usually cereal and a glass of orange juice (non fizzy as fizzy drinks bad for teeth)
0840- Be getting ready for School (shoes and jacket on and fastened up and School bag on)
0845- Be out door and on way to School, hand in hand with mummy (they like holding my hand).

Being up at half 7 makes both girls narky with me which can be frustrating but apart from that they are loving kids, they get along with each other very well and NEVER fight with each other and both like sitting on mummy and daddy's knees at times.

 

[forgetmenot]

It depends if it is a school night or not but if they are up early then they will probably want to shut down early. 9 pm i would think would be a good time for them to be in their beds allowing time to unwind before hand

 

[GDPR]

Hi Joan.Is it getting up at 7:30 that makes them narky,or could it be the rigid schedule?

What are your days like when things don't go exactly as scheduled?

 

[Scottish Joan]

What do you mean by "rigid schedule"?

To be honest, our days usually do go as scheduled, the only thing girls challenge is the jacket zipping but I just say "I think you need to zip them because its cold and you don't like getting cold".

 

[PrincessX]

I just let my kids "be" most of the time - sleep when they are tired, eat when they are hungry and dress when they are cold. There is no need to put them on an every 5 minute schedule. Of course, I guide them as needed.
Routine does not always equal well being.

 

[forgetmenot]

I think the routine is more for your benefit and that is understandable but with children you can not have such a fix time schedule
Things change things always happen that can interfere with schedule like sickness poor night sleep etc there has to be play time down time family time home work time you see times can not be so fixed really because each child needs a different schedule perhaps i hope i am making some sense

 

[GDPR]

What do you mean by "rigid schedule"?

I meant a strict schedule,no room for errors,no leeway,everything precisely timed.I didn't see any time to relax on the schedule or cartoons or anything that kids normally do.

How do you get your kids to follow the schedule?Do they just automatically know and follow it,are you telling them what to do as soon as they wake up?Are you constantly reminding them?Are there consequences for not doing everything they are supposed to do within the time limits you have set for them?

I raised 3 kids and the only way I could have stuck to that rigid of a schedule is if I had been yelling at them the entire time saying things like "time to eat,you have precisely 10 minutes,start eating!Chew faster!" and everything being so frazzled and hectic that I would have had a migraine by the time they were off to school.And I am sure they would have dreaded every moment of it just as much as I would have.

I couldn't imagine being under that much pressure at the age of 8.Even now,as an adult,I wouldn't be able to stick to a schedule like that.

 

[Scottish Joan]

What I have posted above is a draft of what I'd like routine to be but tbh, girls are good in the morning so don't really need a routine.

They get up at 0730 and are heading out to School at 0840 so have an hour or so in between getting up and leaving for school in which they can watch cartoons when they are bathed, washed and fed which is usually by 0800.

 

[GDPR]

I'm confused.There's a huge difference in saying that's what their schedule "is" in your first post and then saying it's what you would like it to be.

I guess I'm not sure what you're looking for or asking....

 

[Mari]

Ten hours seems like a reasonable sleep time for an 8yr old assuming that they actually sleep from 9:30 pm to 7:30am. I allowed my children to read in bed but no television or computer in their bedroom until they graduated high school. Every family is different and many parents think that electronics are okay in the bedroom but I think they can be disruptive to a good night's sleep.

 

[happymomx3]