Just out of pure curiosity

For those of you with kids and more specifically for those with kids who are around 4 or 5 years old, how many hours, roughly, do they sleep at night.

I ask because Chloe's school is having a Halloween party on Thursday night. It starts with a fancy dress parade for the P1 - P3 kids at 7.00pm, followed by some games and things at about 7.45pm and then a fireworks display at 8.30pm. Chloe has been off sick the last few days but went back to school this morning and when I dropped her off, her teacher mentioned that she had set aside some tickets for the party but that she wouldn't be able to hold them for long as the school may run out and need to sell them to other people. She wanted to know if I wanted the tickets and if Chloe would be there.

I said no and explained that as its a school night the party is too late in the evening for Chloe. I don't mind her staying up later than usual to go to the party but she said herself that she doesn't want to go and Chloe pretty much maintains her own routine now. At about 7.00pm every night Chloe walks upstairs and if one of us isn't upstairs with her within a minute or two, she'll yell downstairs that its bath time and for us to hurry up, after her bath she gets her jammies on, comes downstairs again for some toast and a bit of TV and then she goes to bed (completely unprompted) at 8.00pm. Always.

Only very occasionally will she change her bed time routine and I don't argue with her because a child's body clock is one of the most reliable, its adults that fight the inner voice screaming "nighty night"! I figure she must need the sleep, she usually wakes about 7-7.30am so she's getting a full 11 hours sleep minimum and she sometimes has a nap when she comes from from school.

The thing is though, I sometimes (more so during the Summer) would hear kids, some as young as Chloe, still outside playing after 8.00pm and even after 9pm and the Halloween Party hosted by the school is arranged by the PTA who obviously have kids, the name kind of says it all really.

Though when I said that it was far too late for her and she'd be in bed fast asleep by the time they lit the first fuse, her teacher simply replied "Oh" and looked a bit surprised.

Bearing in mind she's also still getting over a chest infection and will need all the sleep she can get to shake it off, but even perfectly healthy, Chloe loves her bed and she never, ever yawns during the day, just before she goes to sleep yes, but not during the day.

So I ask you, is my little girl a hibernator? How long do your kids sleep?

6 comments:

  1. We try to have Kat, who is 6, in bed between 8:00 and 8:30. I get her up on school days at 7:30. Like Chloe, Kat is sleeping for 11 hours each night. Occasionally it's as little as 10 and as much as 13 on the weekends. We try to maintain some semblance of this routine, even on weekends, during the summer, and during the long winter break.

    I am very surprised that hey aren't starting the party until 7:00. Most evening school activities in our district start at 5:00 or 5:30 and are over by 8:00 or 8:30. Even at that, we often leave a little early so we can stick to our schedule.

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  2. Well, my 8 year old goes to bed between 8.30 - 9.00, preferable nearer the earlier time on a school night but on Fri and Sat stays up much later. In the mornings I get him up at 7.45pm if he is not up before. He seems to need this amount of sleep.

    I think your event is much too late on a school night, as Annie said our events usually finish around 8pm.

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  3. My daughter (4.5 years) goes to bed between 6.45pm and 7.30pm most nights, and is up anywhere from 5.00am to 6.30am. She averages 10 hours a night.

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  4. I am surprised too that it is all happening so late on a school night.

    During the week my son goes to bed around 7pm, and is up at 7am.

    Even my older daughters are in bed at 8pm and 9pm during the week except for GB night.

    At the weekends they do stay up a little later on Friday and Saturday nights, but they never lie in to catch up, so come Sunday night they are back to their earlier bedtimes.

    On the very odd occasion they do need to stay up very late, they usually manage the next day, but we all suffer the following day.

    For something like fireworks we probably would let them stay up, but it definitely be the exception.

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  5. That does seem really late!

    When mine were that age bedtime was around 8:00 and we were up around 7:00 am. They were getting around 11 hours per night for sure. Now they are 7 & 8 and I still put them to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 pm or they can't get out of bed at 7:00 am. They are far too tired. On weekends I let them stay up until about 9:30 am and they sleep until 8:00 or 8:30 am.

    I too am always surprised when I see kids playing outside at 9:00 on a school night. Those parents must have a heck of a time getting those kids up for school!

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  6. What a great question - and I love your comment about working on our issues later. I've got a lot of those... ;) Something I love about Christmas is starting new traditions with our girls. Year by year we're building a foundation. Merry Christmas (very early!) to you!

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Your comments make me smile. I love that you stopped by.