I am so not ready to have a healthy bedtime routine again. I love summer, even if we’ve all had a raging hot summer down here in Texas and to be honest I’m not ready for school to start. Regardless, time passes and we have to start changing our mindset back to alarm clocks, breakfasts, morning routines that don’t bring you to tears, pre-made lunches and homework assignments.
One of the most significant things that we need to start working on and we need to work on in early August, (not three days before summer is over) well before school begins again, is getting your kids and yourself back into a morning wake up routine.
Reading Goodnight Moon Isn’t Enough! Let’s Talk Logistics
Over the summer we may have become a little laxed in terms of bedtime and bedtime routines and what time our kids wake up and what they do every morning after they wake up and now is the time to get everybody set back in order.
It’s almost like we got on a plane and we flew somewhere where the time zone is different and now we have to acclimate ourselves to a different time zone which can be exhausting. It can be frustrating and all we want is a seamless transition into school morning routines without tears.
My college freshman is about to go from sleeping till noon to 630am morning team sprints on the beach. I wish I could be hiding in a cabana to watch that mess on the first week of workouts.
Bed Times by Age and Kids Aren’t Good at Fast Changes
There are lots of different opinions and thoughts as to what’s the best way to get your kids back on a school morning routine. Perhaps some people like to “rip the band-aid right off” and jump into going back to school on day one with a brand new routine after a lazy summer. But that can be very challenging for kids, especially kids that are not neurotypical. I prefer talking to my child about when and what regrouping for school mornings looks like. Getting his buy in makes it less painful sometimes.
A good morning routine, in my opinion, is one that starts at least three weeks before school starts. It starts by altering bedtimes by age and adjusting the family’s morning ritual back to what it needs to be; well before school begins. If your kids have no bedtime routine or set time bed time over the summer and you’ve seen them still awake when you’re taking your 2am bathroom break, then you might want to go ahead and change their bedtimes by age back to 9 or 10pm, just to get started and depending on how old your kids are.
If it’s much earlier than that you may want to set bedtimes to fit into 30 minute chunks of time. For example, for the next three days we’re going to bed at 10pm then for the next couple of days we’re going to bed at 9:30pm then for the next couple days we’re going to bed at 9pm. And do that until you get back to the bed time you want it for your kids to follow for the school year.
It will be tough and you will have to be a “bad cop” for a time but it will get easier as long as you stand your ground. I remember having to stand outside my kids door and hold the door knob so he would stop trying to break out and stay awake longer. (Ok, it may also have to do with him wanting to sleep in my bed too, but we aren’t going to talk about that). Lol
It helps if you work backwards from how many different things your child needs to do before they go to bed. Do they need a shower or take a bath? Are they slow bathers? Is tonight the night that they wash their hair? I know I need a lot more time on hair washing days to get my morning routine finished.
I know that everyone definitely has to brush our teeth and get dressed to go to bed. The things that you know that your kids need to do to get ready for the end of their day. Don’t forget things earlier in the day like homework, sports or other after school programs and DINNER.
Skip caffeine after lunchtime and stick to foods and beverages that are more inline with healthy digestion. A heavy stomach may put you to sleep but you may not stay that way or a harmless sweet tea might keep you up half the night because of the caffeine.
Are Teenagers Capable of Healthy Bedtime Routine?!
Now let’s talk about your older kids, preteens and teens; they’re fun aren’t they? Lol the good news is that you can sit down with them and tell them that we need to start transitioning into the school year again.
They are more capable of negotiating in a rational way, or are they? Lol.
Ask them what they want their schedule to look like and what they think is a reasonable bedtime and negotiate from there. Talk about their chores that are part of their daily life and discuss when they think they can do them.
Point out that if they are on top of their schedules they will find that they have more time at night to do the things they want to do before bedtime or possibly do them in the morning before they leave for school. Treating your preteens and teens like healthy young adults who have the ability to negotiate and communicate will allow you to find the invested interest was well worth it.
Older kids might just like the going cold turkey method where they just rip the bandaid off on the first day and just do it. If you think your kids has the right personality for this, go for it, but if you have a very cranky argumentative kid, I don’t recommend this.
One thing to keep in mind is that under no circumstances do you want your kids to become sleep deprived. Our brains and our bodies cannot work at optimum level without a good night’s sleep. There have been studies with people who have medical issues that have had a significant decrease in illnesses by just getting more sleep. Why do you think your default is sleeping when you are home sick?
Start soon, start strong and stay positive! It will get easier as the weeks progress and soon enough you will be prepping for another fun summer of freedom from bedtimes.