Staying up late

[Pollyanna]

It's 11:30 on a Friday night and all of our kiddos are in bed. Sure, it makes sense for the littles but even our teens are sleeping. DS17 went out with his gf and she needed to be home by 10:30 because she had a team sport in the morning. Even if I was doing something the next morning I was all about staying up late at that age and even younger. The latest generation seems far more responsible and practice in that regard. Not that there isn't the all night video game fest but more often than not it seems like most the teens I know aren't really interested in being out all night.

When do your teens go to bed?

Oh, and on a slightly different topic: do they have a curfew? Ours do not but we have to know where they are and when they'll be home. Consistent contact and updates are expected. We give them quite a bit a rope and only occasionally have to real it in.

[mommax3]

My oldest always stayed up late (still does, I'm sure, but he isn't at home so I don't know). #2 always goes to bed at a reasonable time, and is also an early riser. This is even more the case during swim season since he practices twice a day and has morning practices at 6 during the week and 7 on Saturdays. I think our youngest will be more like the oldest in terms of being a night owl. Btw, DH was *exactly* like our middle child, sleep-wise, when he was growing up. Curfews....we tried to stick with midnight (on weekends) for the oldest, but were open to appeal depending on the situation. He regularly missed it by 10-15 minutes, which was infuriating. Our middle son is pretty much a hermit and no curfew has ever been necessary, and it isn't an issue for the youngest, either. We always knew where our oldest was....usually, at someone's house. We mostly gave him a curfew so we knew when we would get to go to sleep lol!

[Sheherezade]

Sally, I no longer have to post - I can just say ditto.

Our oldest is supposed to be in by midnight. If he won't be home by then, he must text -which he always does - to get an extension to 12:30. He's always home by then. Usually it's not an issue because our house is the hang out. Movie screen/projection systems for video games will do that. Usually there is an exodus of guys from here around midnight. I get the feeling that all curfews are either right before or right after that.

On school nights, we tell both kids to get to sleep by eleven. We are starting to loosen up with the oldest since he will be at college next year; we just tell him that it is very late, we are going to bed and 6 am will feel awful if he doesn't go to bed. He's stretched his wings a bit this year by getting in a half hour of video gaming after eleven if he's been working on a paper all night. I figure it's good life practice for him for next year. He does "get" the idea that staying up very late is an option for him, but getting to class at 7 am is not.

My youngest (14) is a hermit that loves to sleep. She has been known to turn in at 8:30 pm with a book - which seems crazy- but then tells me often she's up until 1 am reading. Again, staying up is optional, school is not. Cause and effect is a good teacher. She will often say she needs more sleep because she's been up too late recently.

I'm more of a night owl now that I'm older. In college I stayed up all night routinely. With little kids, I could have slept at 7 pm. Now, I'm up at midnight again. Meanwhile, DH has shifted earlier, heading to bed at 10 to make up for that horrible, constant 5:30 am wake up.


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[v-girl]

Mine are usually asleep by 11. They are worn out from dance. They don't stay up late on Friday nights either because the middle one has dance at 9 and they both get dropped off at the same time.

[Rapunzel]

11 pm is lights out for our teens. But, being homeschooled they don't roll out of bed until 8am. If they had to be up earlier I would insist on earlier lights out, because it's a matter of good health. Teenagers need a LOT of sleep!

Curfews: Usually on weeknights everyone needs to be home by 10pm. Weekends curfew is midnight.