The Bedtime Trials Zzzz

At the weekend I was searching on the parenting forums for: how long children should sleep at certain ages and if/when they should be taking naps during the day etc. I found a lot of parents who have children aged 3-4, who don't actually put them to bed very early. In fact more than half of them said their children went to bed between 8.30 - 9pm... Interesting I thought.

Since it makes sense that you can't put your child to bed at 7pm and expect them to stay asleep until 8am (when you're ready for them)! That's 13 hours, could you stay in bed for that long? I'm guessing you, like me, answered no to that one. But that's the predicament.

At this age, if you set your child a fairly early bedtime, then it's perfectly normal for them to want to be out of their bedroom after 12 hours or less! But give them another hour - an hour and a half extension on their evenings and they tend to be content enough til 8am.

Now i'm not suggesting you sellotape your child's eyelids open and order them to stay up this late, if they're tired they'll probably take themselves up! But rather don't start the bedtime routine until around half eight. I've been doing this for a few days now, this is how it's gone so far:

• Night One Both girls are still awake at 8.30pm, I start the bedtime routine then, and they go to bed without a fuss. The little extra waking time looks like it's knackered them out! And in the morning? I hear nothing from them til gone 8am.

• Night Two Baby E.M stays up til 8pm then asks for bedtime, goes to bed ok. Then J.R follows me up at 9pm. And in the morning? No complaints, i'm out of bed before then! But no sound of them awake until around 8.20am.

• Night Three Bedtime routine started at 8.30pm (both girls were starting to get silly by this time) in bed by 8.45pm. And in the morning? Heard nothing from them until about 8.15am.

Now considering that my girls are used to a 7pm bedtime, these changes have made quite an impact. We're used to waking up to one of them screaming because they're bored and want out. So being able to wake up naturally is great! I'm gonna carry on the trial bedtime for the rest of this week because if it carries on going the way it is, we're onto a winner!