The 7 PM Bedtime - No, really!

Sleep never seemed to mean so much until you had children. The biggest problem was whether a nap on Friday night before you went out would do any good, or just make you too groggy to thoroughly enjoy yourself! Saturdays were meant to sleep in till 11 am, then hit the diners (at least here in NJ). However you spent your time, sleep or lack thereof wasn’t a big deal. Tired? Take a nap…or stay up all night if you want!

After children, pees, poops and sleep time because the obsession. Was she sleeping too much? She’s up every two hours – is she getting enough sleep? I remember with my firstborn, my mom fed him, swaddled him and put him in the crib at 2 pm. By 7 pm, he was still asleep as I hovered anxiously over the crib making sure his chest was still rising and falling.

At this point, my children are 4, almost 3 and 1 and they go to bed at 7 pm. WHAT? Domestic Goddess, do, do, tell us how we can achieve that magic number!

You know what I discovered with my first? We allowed him to stay up until about 8 pm. For some reason, that was the magic time for me. I would then get up from where I had been relaxing with him, nearly sleeping in my arms and bathe and get him dressed for bed. By the time I was through, it was nearly 8:30 and I was too pooped to do anything else for the rest of the night. This continued until I came upon the book- the 7 pm bedtime. Written by a stay at home mom, just like me, only not as beautiful and brilliant, this book outlines the sleeping problem faced by many parents – do we keep them up for quality time, or put them to bed at a reasonable time so WE can have quality time together? I was at home all day with the little ones, why keep them up that extra hour? My husband was home by five – plenty of time for that quality time.

So we tried it…..and it worked! They fell asleep by 7:30 – letting us know that they were TIRED and needed to go to bed at that time. And lo and behold, I was not feeling like a wrung out dishrag!

For those parents who walk through the door at 6 pm, obviously this is not for you. But for those parents who are exhausted by the time their little one gets to bed, try it! You will be glad you did.