| Author |
Message |
    
redY67
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 750
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 3:50 pm: |     |
Carrie if your daughter is perfect at 5, you are in trouble when she is a teenager!!  |
algebra2
Supporter
Username: Algebra2
Post Number: 3091
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 3:56 pm: | |
Can a child "opt out" of TV turn-off week? I hate the idea of that. It just rubs me the wrong way. What's wrong with a little TV? How about "let's watch less TV week"? Why make the kids think that TV is so evil? We like to watch tv but my husband and I are also big readers -- so our son sees that. We read to him, he sees that we always carry a novel with us AND he sees that we like to watch TV. |
Hank Zona
Supporter
Username: Hankzona
Post Number: 2193
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 4:01 pm: | |
algebra,
kids opt in...theres turn-off week, then they can sign up for turn-off year. they can also sign up for various levels...no TV, computers, video games, or a specific limited amount of time a day. |
campbell29
Citizen
Username: Campbell29
Post Number: 138
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 4:21 pm: | |
Age 7 - Bedtime 8:30-9:00. Up at 7:30. Anything after 9 results in much grumbling in the morning.
TV turnoff - signed up for no TV (except weekends) Its a tremendous help to keep her from after school watching. She never watched at night anyway. We started the year great, but now are much looser. She likes to watch American Idol with her dad, and sometimes I just need her out of my hair.
The downside is that on the weekends she becomes a TV addict and wakes up at 6am so she can watch all day. I'm not sure that a little balance might not be a better way to go. |
Sgt. Pepper
Citizen
Username: Jjkatz
Post Number: 767
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 4:25 pm: | |
Mark -- ROFL. Yup, here too. These days my head is making contact with my pillow at around the same time that my evening used to START. |
Soulful Mr T
Citizen
Username: Howardt
Post Number: 178
Registered: 11-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 5:14 pm: | |
50 y/o - 10 - 11PM
Kids, 15 and 12...I have no idea what time they go to bed.... |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5906
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 5:30 pm: | |
Ages 16 and 13. Bedtime is 10pm on weekdays. Moderately strictly enforced. By 10:20, I show my irritation at them.
Weekends when there is no appointment the following morning, bedtime is 12:30 for the older and midnight for the younger. |
Carrie Avery
Citizen
Username: Carrie33
Post Number: 214
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 6:14 pm: | |
Hey , Red, maybe you're right, and maybe you're not.We don't worry about that now. Our motto is 'Enjoy each day as it comes.' Life is too precious to worry about teenager troubles,now,as I am sure there will be time for that down the road. My son is closer to that age than she is, and my guess, having an older brother, he will keep her in line. We will see to that. |
DeborahG
Citizen
Username: Deborahg
Post Number: 1247
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 17, 2005 - 10:53 pm: | |
Glad to know I'm not the only "late nighter" (relatively...)
9 year-old 9pm -- she's allowed to read in bed for half an hour or so after that -- up at 7:00.
4 year-old 9-9:30pm (whoops!) -- I'd love to make it earlier, especially as he rarely naps, hardly ever for more than 45 mins-hour. Wakes up at 8:15 or so.
Both are really solid sleepers and rarely wake in the night, thank goodness. |
Just The Aunt
Supporter
Username: Auntof13
Post Number: 749
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 12:59 am: | |
Me- Depends! Tonight it will be as soon as I log off. Had to wind down from the Eddie Money concert. What stinks is I get up at 5:30am!
The twins are 9 and they're 'supposed' to be in bed by 8pm. But you know how that is! They can sometimes stay up till 8:3o to watch some American Idol or The Apprentice. They get up a little before 6am.
Weekends, they are supposed to be in bed by 9pm. Unless I'm watching, then they run to bed as we hear my sister pull in the driveway! |
joy
Citizen
Username: Joy
Post Number: 228
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 8:43 am: | |
3.5 year old - 8:30 loosly enforced.
Red - my daughter is in the sealions as well.
I ment to thank you for the recomendation of Alan at the Hair Chalet a while back. Now he's retiring! Got any more recomendations?
Sorry for the thread drift... |
redY67
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 751
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 9:25 am: | |
Carrie-- I hope you know I was just kidding!! My daughter was an angel when she was born. Slept through the night the day I brought her home from the hospital, never cried, was happy as can be. Now she is such a diva!!
Joy, small world! I would love to take credit for Alan, but wasn't me. I love Adrienne at Garubo's. She is fantastic. |
Wendyn
Supporter
Username: Wendyn
Post Number: 1464
Registered: 9-2002
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 9:30 am: | |
Red, I'll try to get to your PL this weekend...
I have daughters in the Starfish and Pufferfish. |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 1907
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 1:11 pm: | |
8 year old: Bedtime ritual (post-snack) begins by 8:00. Lights out is somewhere between 8:30 and 9:15 depending on how long the stories are or if she had piano or basketball (6:30 to 7:30 but she finds both very stimulating.) Up at 7:45 or 8:00 a.m. on school mornings (possibly earlier on weekends, her choice!) Weekend bedtime is usually 9:30. Very limited tv on weekdays: Cyberchase/Zoom & Dragonfly TV if we get home before 6:00. Rachel Ray or other foodchannel if her homework is done. That's it. No cartoons or other strictly entertainment tv during the week. BTW this is much looser than it was previously when there was no tv until Friday night.
BTW she created a new part of the ritual this year which I am thrilled about. A couple of months ago she asked me if I would play piano for her after lights out. (Piano is in dining room directly below her bedroom.) She made a specific request for Ode to Joy followed by Fur Elise. She looks forward to this every night now and is always asleep by the time I finish Fur Elise. I love this!
Cathy |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 3983
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 1:27 pm: | |
4 year old.... bed by 7:45/8:00 hard to enforce as he is mighty strong willed. Lately he wakes at 5 AM. Doesn't want to be awake, but thinks that if there is any light in the sky HE HAS TO WAKE UP NO MATTER WHAT.
|
redY67
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 765
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 1:28 pm: | |
Oh Duncan!! 5 am is way too early!! My son used to do that when he was a year, I thought I would die from exhaustion!! |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 1908
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 1:59 pm: | |
Duncan, I strongly recommend blackout shades and dark curtains. We had a similar problem in my daughter's room when she was young (it is bright yellow with white trim so light really bounces around.) We got dark green curtains and a blackout shade on the east window and it helped a lot. Now she seems less sensitive to the morning light especially on school days  . I myself am also very light sensitive and use the same techniques but I add in a sleep mask around 3 or 4 a.m. so I can sleep until 6.
Cathy |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 658
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 2:15 pm: | |
age 10 • 9:30 to ?, she was up to midnight last night (trying to win U2 tickets), she still got up at 7:15
age 5 • 8:30 to 10:00, sometimes later on weekends, but not very often, depends on how lazy we are.
age 40 • sleep for 5 or 6 hours a night, quite often less, try to sleep a couple of extra hours on the weekend, but sometimes go to bed around 4 to 6 in the morning. |
Carrie Avery
Citizen
Username: Carrie33
Post Number: 217
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 2:26 pm: | |
Monster: Age 10: U2 tickets?! Your 10 year old knows U2? Wow!
Yes, Adults: ( any age over 35): sleep time: whenever possible! |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 5918
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 2:40 pm: | |
Carrie, get this! My 13 year old discovered Queen and introduced ME to them. I ignored them when they were big, but wow, they did some good stuff!
In music, we have no generation gap in our family. |
redY67
Citizen
Username: Redy67
Post Number: 770
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 2:43 pm: | |
monster how do you function? I would be so exhausted!! You must be one of those lucky people who doesn't need a lot of sleep! |
algebra2
Supporter
Username: Algebra2
Post Number: 3096
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 2:48 pm: | |
My soon-to-be six year old loves The Who. He also loves The Care Bears, The Smurfs, and The Teletubbies -- so he's really not so cool. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 659
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 3:14 pm: | |
Function, who said anything about functioning... 
Yeah, my daughter likes U2, and she started listening to Queen around the age of 3.
Unfortunately, she's been listening to Z100 lately, yuck.
She also has just started writing her own music to play on the flute, even though she just started playing this year. |
Carrie Avery
Citizen
Username: Carrie33
Post Number: 220
Registered: 1-2005
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 3:16 pm: | |
Algebra: He sounds very cool. A little bit of the great things is just right. The WHO! wow, again, one of my top ten. I wish my son knew how great music was in the sixties. He likes video games more, and tests himself alot, which is fine, but when it comes to music, I am still in the dark what he think is good..,lol! |
Andrea Weisbard
Citizen
Username: Njnetsfan
Post Number: 132
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 18, 2005 - 5:12 pm: | |
My bestfriend's 6 triplet girls love Beatles music. They also like 'tween music like Hillary Duff and the like. |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 3987
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 2:41 pm: | |
Thanks for the blackout curtain ideas, we have em. And the shades. WE have em. He is just like me, when I wake up at night, I cannot shut down the brain. it starts to whirl with ideas, concerns, lines to be learned or recently learned, budgets, whatever.
On the other hand my 4 year old may be the only 4 year old boy who can quote Indigo Girl lyrics almost verbatim. Oziline, Go, and Shed Your Skin, Perfect World and Come on Home, being his current favs. Went to his first IG concert when he was 3.5 yrs old and knew from what instruments were going up on stage what song was being played next.
He loves Paul Simon too, but it is starting to get hard to explain to him what these folks are singing about. How does one explain to a 4 year old the following lyric...
"I had to put the dog down
Before I hit the road.
And I watched that sweet ole life
Become a bag of bones."
anyone???? |
Meandtheboys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 406
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 2:49 pm: | |
off topic: hey Duncan thanks for the reminder about the Indigo Girls. Gotta get me some.
My four year old sings along with Dido: I'm No Angel. Kind of appropriate. |
doulamomma
Citizen
Username: Doulamomma
Post Number: 290
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, March 19, 2005 - 6:06 pm: | |
My older two guys (7 & 4) like The Who & Queen also! The 4 yo loves Joan Osborn & must hear "the God song" at least 3 times a day. He says he wants to meet her - I told him she is a mom now too & so he wants a playdate...Older one likes White Stripes a lot.
We aim for 8:30 bedtime for both of them , but it frequently ends up being later. Doesn't matter what time they are in bed though, they never sleep past 7:30 & now that it's getting light earlier they are up by 7...earlier on weekends & also b/c of wanting to load up on TV missed during the week due to the all-year TV Tunoff :-( |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 1912
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, March 20, 2005 - 10:48 pm: | |
Duncan, both you and your son could benefit from learning some relaxation techniques. I often have the same middle of the night "brain in overdrive" experience. If I remember to (amid all the other thoughts) to do deep breathing it usually works. My spouse uses the technique of getting up and jotting down a couple of ideas/concerns so she knows she'll remember it the next day. I'm teaching a 7th grader to visualize a place he loves by a lake as a way of slowing down his brain when he's afraid he'll explode or when he can't settle himself down. There's lots of strategies. The key is to practice whatever one works for you when you don't need it. Then, when you do need to use it, you'll have the ability to just do it. You know, the way you rehearse for a performance of any kind.
Cathy |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 3990
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 8:52 am: | |
Oh....C. I use everyone of those techniques. Everything I ever learned from every shrink I ever saw. Even use some Alexander Technique stuff to really settle down, but sometimes, like during production week, there is just no way I can shut it off. So I get up and do something, write, watch a late movie, play scrabble on line with people in Australia.
At 4 years old I think my son is a little too young to work the imagery thing, but we do work with him on breathing and thinking of all the people who love him.
But he still wakes up WAY TOO FREAKING EARLY 
Course when he is old enough to go fishing with me this summer in Vermont at 4:30am he will sleep until 8. I just KNOW it. |
C Bataille
Citizen
Username: Nakaille
Post Number: 1915
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 9:27 am: | |
How about trying the simple sleep mask with him, then, Duncan. Get something colorful and help him pretend it's like special goggles that let him see into really cool (calming) dreams. I'm glad you have lots of things at your disposal. Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on what to do, including the writing, scrabble, etc. For myself, if I play games that are stimulating and have some novelty (like what another player will make of my letters), I'll stay up nearly all night. If I force myself to play something that I know too well, like free cell or spider solitaire, then my mind starts to shut down and I can go back to sleep.
On the other hand, ambien is a really good occasional drug.
Cathy |
hismom
Citizen
Username: Hismom
Post Number: 217
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 9:30 am: | |
I'm glad this was here. My 5 year old has been arguing with me to let him stay up until 10 on school nights (he is PM K but I still say 8). Now I have "proof" - that I just showed him!
5 1/2 yo - 8pm (9 on Fri/Sat)
2 yo who doesn't nap - 7-7:30
They both sleep until about 6:30-7 |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 3991
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 1:19 pm: | |
Funny about Ambien. I even tried it. But I memorize things for a living and the memory side effect was deeply bad for me..LOL
And you are right, I do end up staying up all night. But I work nights mostly too, so nap when I can. |
Arnomation
Citizen
Username: Arnomation
Post Number: 177
Registered: 7-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 1:54 pm: | |
Our 5 & 7 year olds
Up at 7:30am
Out the door at 8:30am
Dinner 6:00pm
Bathtime 7:00pm
Bedtime 8:00pm
Reading until 8:30pm
Repeat |
kathy
Citizen
Username: Kathy
Post Number: 1070
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Monday, March 21, 2005 - 2:04 pm: | |
My mother enforced an 8 pm bedtime for me and my siblings until I was 11 or 12. And I mean hardcore, lights-out. (Of course this was in another time and place when adults expected to spend the evening with each other, not their children.) I have always been a night owl and ended up lying awake for hours each night in the dark. What a waste! I vowed that I would not do that to my children.
My firstborn started sleeping through the night (midnight to 8 am) by the time he was 6 weeks old. The next feeding that he gave up was the 8 am feeding and he slept from midnight to noon! He went to afternoon-only daycare, afternoon-only preschool and afternoon Kindergarten. His late hours did let him see more of his dad, who did not get home at 5:15 pm the way fathers did in my childhood. By the time he was in first grade I had worked his schedule back to where he could get to school by 9 am.
Of course we congratulated ourselves on our brilliant parenting, that by allowing our son to set his own schedule we had let him be a great sleeper. And then our second child arrived, and didn't sleep through the night until she was about nine....
Different kids have different sleep needs. I think that the moral here is to go with what works for you and your kid. |
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