Bedtime
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| Wed, 04-25-2007 - 1:35pm |
My 14 year old son (turns 15 in July) is seeking to extend his bedtime past 11:00 PM (he wakes up at 7:00 AM for high school). He is a wonderful student (3.9 GPA) who is really hitting his stride in school this year. He has requested 20 more minutes at night to watch television. He is basically a couch potato already as he isn't athletic and he watches at least 4 hours of television already. When I denied his request for an "extension", he began to debate the topic ad nauseum until I inevitably lost my patience and began to yell.
Just looking for some thoughts and opinions of others who may have faced a similar situation.
Although many other kids in his grade have begun to experiment with alcohol, he has shown no interest at all and we openly discuss the issue. I know that we need to set limits but my wife has said "we should be happy that this is our problem considering what other parents are dealing with and perhaps we should grant his request".
Thoughts?

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My almost 13 DD goes to bed between 9:00 and 9:30 (usually closer to 9:00). She gets up at 7:00. She doesn't like to stay up late on weekends and is usually the first to sleep at sleepovers!
My 10 yo son, on the other hand, goes to be at the same time, but ALWAYS is up before 6:15 on his own. He loves to stay up late on the weekends--like 1:00 or 2:00 if he has friends over!
Karin
My 13 yr old goes to bed at 9:30 and gets up at 6.
I am the same. I actually stopped having "enforced" bedtimes when the kids started middle school.
My kids go to bed when they are tired. The only rule is that,after 11pm, all "electronic devices" are shut off unless the kids were working on some assigment that has to get done for the next day.
My kiddos don't have bed times either. We are all night owls. DD, my freshman, for the most part goes to bed between 10 and 11 on school nights and gets up anywhere between 5 and 6 am to catch the bus at 6:30. At one point I tried to enforce a bedtime and it quickly became a battle I didn't want to pick - I simply told her "you start waking up late and missing the bus we will revisit bedtimes" - she has never missed the bus.
DS 5th grade did have a 9pm bedtime, again there was always something he wanted to do, so out of frustration, I gave up trying to enforce it. After a few nights of staying up to 11, he came up to me and said "Why haven't you been telling me to go to bed?" I simply said I didn't want to debate with him every night at 9 so I left it to him. Ever since then, he has gone to bed at 9:30 on his own. He gets up at 7 to catch the bus at 8am.
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