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pacaro

I'm struck by a couple of things,

Getting up at 4.30am seems excessive and presumably requires going to bed at 8-9pm

I can't imagine doing this with a child

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As a new father who goes to bed at 8-9pm and gets up around 3-4am, I can't imagine _not_ doing this with a child.

Indeed, and I remember those years too

right now I have to get a kiddo to school by 7.50am, so we get up at 6.30 and she goes to bed at 7.30.

TFA is talking about carving out 4 hours a morning of "me time". It's hard to do that with a kid and a job

It will change over time. My child is now in high school, but not yet driving age, so I have to provide much of the transportation. School starts at 7:30am, 4 days a week (0 period) and 9am the other day. He has after school activities that means he gets home at 9:30pm 2-3 nights a week. He stays at school the entire time and studies or goofs off with the rest of the band students depending on his workload.

Going to bed before 10pm is basically impossible for us. 11pm is more common. Then it's up again between 5:30 and 6:30 to do it all again.

I can't imagine ever going to bed unless it's completely dark outside.

I did grow up in the northern latitudes somewhat, so going to bed before 11pm in the summer would be ridiculous. We were out playing with friends until 9-10pm, easily.

It doesn't really get dark wherei live in June/early July, and from April until mid august midnight is more like dusk.

You can get blackout curtains that work very well.

What time do you think little children go to bed?

Children tend to be solar powered. Getting them to bed before 10pm in mid summer nights can be a real challenge in northern latitudes.

Black out curtains really help. But starting the bedtime routine when the sun is out is a real chore. I honestly have no idea how Alaskans get their kids to sleep at all in the summer.

Blackout curtains definitely help here in Seattle, I grew up in the UK where it's even worse.

The other thing that helps is consistency and bedtime rituals, that being said I'm glad that as school starts the nights are already noticably longer and we'll soon be able to watch the sunset and be in bed on time

I think this depends on the particular child. I had one who needed to be put to bed early or the next day was going to be a nightmare for everybody. But I had another one who didn't do well with an early bedtime.

I don't think there are many one-size-fits-all answers when it comes to kids.

I really can't agree its "a challenge", I went to bed at 8pm every single evening as a young child. I remember it being still light out in the summer when I was went to bed, but there wasn't a choice, I was to be in bed, so I went to bed with a groan. Same with my siblings, we were all in bed at 8pm sharp every single day, no exceptions.

It's about setting firm rules and sticking to them.

And my parents made me go to bed at 8pm but I stayed awake until 2am. I’m not sure of the point you’re trying to make.

Honestly, they go to bed at the time the parent sets a routine after probably 3 or 4yo. My kids consistently go to bed at 9pm for school, 10pm on weekends/summer, and typically no problems going to sleep or waking up in the morning. It's been like that for years now. The time they did have trouble going to sleep at the right time is when they visited grandma for 2 weeks and had a wild and inconsistent sleep schedule the entire time. It took them about 2 weeks to adjust back to the normal routine. One hour adjustment from weekends etc is easy, but 2-3 hour adjustment is a huge stumbling block

We currently aim for 7.30 on a school night but might need to push it a little earlier, it depends on how well I manage to get her to school in the morning.

I work on the basis that younger children do better with about 10-11 hours sleep

If you go to bed at the same time as your kids you could get up at 4:30 and get 9 hours in bed. Really there's a slider for "free time at night" and "free time in the morning" that you can adjust; my wife is a evening person, so she gets up 30 minutes after the kids are up. I'm a morning person, so I get up an hour before the kids are up.

My kids go to bed at 6pm.

What age are they? My 10yr old daughter is at soccer practice at 6pm... My 7yr old is reading books until about 8pm.

3 years and 9 months. Not a very representative sample, I'll admit.

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