Bed Times???

I truly believe that 9 is a good bedtime for kids until they're atleast in junior high. My bedtime started changing about the time I hit 7th grade. It went a half hour later every year until it hit 10:30. By then I was in high school and mom kinda left it up to me as long at it was a reasonable time.

In my opinion, it'll be way difficult to impose a strict bedtime for a 15-year-old. I think high school is a time to let children start setting their own boundaries based on the consequences they experience from their own choices. In other words, if they want to stay up until 3 am, fine, but when they don't want to wake up for school and they're tired all day, they'll rethink that choice the following night. Of course, mom and dad will always pop in and say things like, "Honey, it's getting late. Don't you think you ought to be going to bed?" However, high schoolers will find a way to stay up late anyway.

If you absolutely MUST set a bedtime, though, I'd say 11 pm is a decent one. I think any child in elementary school should be going to bed by 9 pm. In middle school, perhaps 10 pm.

Here's another way to think about it. It's suggested that people get 8 hours of sleep, so you can subtract 8 hours from whatever time your kids have to get up in the morning. So, if they're up at 6 am, they need to be in bed by 10 pm. If they're up at 8 am, they need to be in bed by midnight. Of course, younger kids need (and usually get) more sleep, but this may work as they get older.

I had to go to bed at 10 even in high school and it stuck with me so much that even now i'm in bed at 11. my kids are younger my soon to be 9 year old is aloud to stay up till 9, but he's only entering third grade as well. my younger kids, 7, 7, and 5 are in bed at 8 when in school. But all kids are different, if it doesn't interfere with your schedual and other activities some older kid even would rather come home from school and sleep for a couple hours and then stay up later, or just plain need less sleep than others.

Hi,
I have little ones so I usually have them in bed between 8 and 8:30 pm on school nights. But for a teenager, how about setting a time for them to be in their room (9:30-10?), then it can be up to them as far as going to sleep. If they go too late, hopefully they learn from the consequences and get to bed a little earlier,then learn how to manage their time. Hope this helps.

hello as a mother to 4 teens and 2 younger ones the teens bed time is 9pm as they have to be at school at 7:30am the older ones dont like it but i think sleep is to important to have them not getting enough.