I was never great at getting my kids to go to bed. According to a new study I guess I'm not alone. The Firefly Tooth Brush Company asked 1 Thousand parent of 3 to 12 year olds how much time they spent on their bed time routine. It's turns out, each year parents spend about 140 hours begging their kids to get jammies on, brush their teeth, wash up and go to bed. That's more than most of us get from our jobs for paid vacation.
Parents of 7 to 8 year olds report spending the most time getting kids ready for bed. The toughest age to get kids to brush their teeth is 5 to 6.
These days I know my daughter spends about an hour each night getting her 2 year old to sleep. The toughest age for me was when my kids were really little. I was a radio morning show host and my wife worked the evening shift at a local nursing home so most nights it was my job to get everyone to bed. It's wasn't easy. Luckily, my older kids were really good about going to sleep because they knew how tough it was to get their baby brother and sister to bed.
When they all got older my attitude about bedtime changed. By the time my kids were 6 or 7 I didn't stress about their bedtime. They were usually tired by 8 or 9 anyway. As long as they were cleaned up and quiet it was fine if they stayed up later. My friends with kids the same age yelled at their kids almost every night about bedtime but I never did. My advice to parents is to not stress so much about bedtime. As long as the kids are relaxed and the house is quiet they'll fall asleep soon enough.
Source: The Stir
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