What are your rules about your teenagers bedtimes?

[JennyMominRI]

My DD 14 starts HS next spring..This year she had to go to bed at 9..Now I'm thinking that she needs to start taking her own responsability for this sort of thing..How do you handle the bedtime issue on school nights with teens?

 

[Barb D]

DS14 goes to bed very early, by his own choice. He also gets up very early, because he prefers to do his homework in the morning. He gets to school by 7. Even in the summer he'll have weight lifting (mandatory for football) three mornings a week at 7, and swim team the other two mornings at 8, so he'll still be getting to bed pretty early.

DD12 would stay up until 11 every night if I let her, but then complains about getting up in the morning. I'll let her stay up until 11 occasionally if there's something special on TV or something, but she usually goes to bed between 9 and 10. If she's not in bed by 10 I send her on her way.

 

[MorganLeFey]

I've got an 8th grader and a 10th grader, and my girls do not have a hard and fast rule about bedtime. the high school starts at 7:20 and middle school at 7:50, and as long as they get themselves up and out to school on time they're in charge of when they go to bed...they usually go to bed by 11 PM.

 

[Karel]

My 12 year old goes to bed at 9 and I do not anticipate that changing anytime soon since it takes her a half hour just to get out of bed in the morning.

My 14 year old usually goes to bed at 9 by choice but can stay up till 9:30 if he chooses. He's an early morning kid though.

My 15 year old started the year with a 1O oclock bed time but is now pushing that till 10:30 or 11. (He also thinks he only needs 20 minutes to get out the door in the morning...) If he's cranky and sullen, he gets told to go to bed earlier 'cause I won't put up with that. I can tell when he's tired.

 

[Holly]

As long as my oldest (13) keeps his grades up and gets up easily in the mornings I let him stay up until 11.

 

[FroggyinArk]

dd is sposed to be in bed by 10. seldom happpens, and never by her choice. she is aboutto learn that some things she takes for granted are privileges and will betaken away, she has rules and if she doesnt start following them shes going to start losing things long term.

 

[Planogirl]

During school, my 13 year old stayed up until 10 or 10:30, and then read until 11:00 or 11:30. As long as he got up without any problems and did well in school, I was fine with it.

During the summer, all bedtimes cease to exist. DS is sensible about it.

 

[Evil Queen]

DS10 doesn't have a set bedtime. I let him decide when he's ready. This is only allowed as long as he gets up on time with ease and maintains his good grades. If he slips on even one of these that's it. He's normally in bed by 10. I do allow him to stay up on Monday nights until 11, to watch a show. But the same rules apply.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

This was a huge issue in our house when my oldest hit High School.
I have come to the conclusion that he is ideally suited for a career as an All Night Disc Jockey, or maybe a vampire. He is quite simply nocturnal by nature.

After about a year of struggle we made a deal. The grades stay up, he gets up in the morning without me having to pour water over his head, and he always makes his first period class on time --- and I let him decide.

Truthfully, he tends to come home in the afternoon and then sleep for 3 or 4 hours....and then he gets up and does his homework and starts chattering away just as we are all getting ready to go to bed.

 

[PolyAddict]

During school, my DD's are usually asleep by 9 or 10. The only time DD13 is up later is if she has forgotten to do something and she is my brainiac. She is very lazy by nature and waits until the last minute to do everything. She manages advanced classes and all A's (with an occasional B), so who's complaining?

 

[disneychrista]

My 15yo has a 10pm bedtime during the week and 12midnight on weekends. She is usually in bed before "time."

My 13yo has a 9:30 bedtime weeknight and 12mid on weekends.

 

[DVCLiz]

I handle it by ignoring it completely. I'm not going to monitor bedtime for someone in high school. It's easy enough for them to learn what their sensible limits are, and adjust accordingly. If they oversleep or have trouble the next day, that's a great opportunity to learn how to do it differently next time.

I will say there's to be no noise that would keep me or younger sister awake, so doors must be kept closed and music or telephone chatting low.

 

[DVC-Don]

We have two teens (14 & 15) and they have a 10 PM school night bedtime. No restrictions on non-school nights. They often hit the sack earlier than 10 on school nights on their own.

 

[Kitty 34]

My 17 yr old goes to bed at 10:00 but he's at school by 7.

 

[NMAmy]

I handle it by ignoring it completely. I'm not going to monitor bedtime for someone in high school. It's easy enough for them to learn what their sensible limits are, and adjust accordingly. If they oversleep or have trouble the next day, that's a great opportunity to learn how to do it differently next time.

I will say there's to be no noise that would keep me or younger sister awake, so doors must be kept closed and music or telephone chatting low.

This is my philosophy, too. DD usually goes to bed around 11ish--although there have been times she's stayed up later and paid for it the next day. DH and I go to bed pretty early because I really need my 8 hours of sleep so I don't stay up to monitor dd's bedtime.

 

[Christine]

I usually tell me DD (14 and in high school) to be in bed by 9:00 p.m. I am usually in bed by 8:30!!

I work so I am up at 4:30 a.m. and DD is up at 5:00 p.m. so I think it's important that she get to bed at a decent hour. If we were a "normal" family (as she calls it) and didn't have to get up at the crack of dawn, I'd probably let her go until 10:00.

 

[MagicalMom]

I handle it by ignoring it completely. I'm not going to monitor bedtime for someone in high school. It's easy enough for them to learn what their sensible limits are, and adjust accordingly. If they oversleep or have trouble the next day, that's a great opportunity to learn how to do it differently next time.

I will say there's to be no noise that would keep me or younger sister awake, so doors must be kept closed and music or telephone chatting low.

This is how I handle it too. This gives them 4 years to learn to adjust their sleep time to allow enough rest while I am still there to get them up in the morming. Once they are adults & heading to work they are on their own. It works for us.

 

[miss missy]

I work nights and DD (12) is a night person too. She is just like me.

Oh school nights 930 is bed time. Other than that, when I go, I make sure she goes too, that could be anytime 12,1,2... we are just night people.

BUT I think if the child gets up for school on their own without being tired and raggy, then staying up a bit is ok. They would of found their time for themselves. If you gotta wake them over and over, that is grounds for an early bedtime to me.

 

[Robinrs]

Michael and I are both morning people, my only problem with him is he goes to bed TOO EARLY and gets up TOO EARLY!!

Since sleep is usually not an issue I do as the others said, just make sure you don't disturb anyone else and my biggest rule is the TV is NOT TO BE TURNED on until I am up and that's about 5AM. Told ya I was a morning person....

Robinrs

 

[dizneenut]

All 4 of my boys go to bed at 10 on school nights.
That might be changing this school year to 11 (for the 2 oldest at least) but we are still debating that.