Do you let your kids sleep till they wake up?

Yes! Unless we have some place to be in the morning (which is VERY rare), I let them sleep til they wake on their own. Then they have time to read in bed before starting their day. We do this for several reasons:

1. I enjoy time for waking up in the morning, rather than having to jump out of bed and rush, rush, rush. All through my childhood, my mother was very good about how she woke us up for school. She kept the lights off, whispered and rubbed our backs as she gently coaxed us awake. My father, however, was the opposite. He often flipped on all the lights and came into our room singing, whistling, or just speaking loudly for us to wake up. Waking up that way always put me in a bad mood, and still does. I try to allow my children a quiet, gentle waking time, and since we aren’t getting up to catch the school bus, there’s no need for me to wake them at all usually.
2. I have purposely worked our schedule so that we have plenty of time to unload the dishwasher, eat breakfast, and have a family devotion at the breakfast table and still start school by 9:30. Our children have been waking at the same time (around 8:00-8:30) for so long, that our schedule has just naturally formed around it.
3. I (personally) think it’s a crime (LOL here!) to wake a sleeping child. We never woke our children as babies and still never do. I’m a firm believer that if a child is sleeping, their body needs that sleep, and I do everything in my power not to interrupt that precious time for their bodies. I purposefully don’t schedule things before noon so that they have time to sleep/eat and we have school. 
4. I have only 2 children. I understand that others who have more may need to wake children so that the day can remain on a consistent schedule. I also recognize that for some families, it’s not practical to let children sleep as long as they like. In our home, this is not the case. Even if my children sleep til 10:00 (and they have done this before), I just try to roll with it and adjust our day accordingly. We may do some school before lunch and some after, or chores may not get done that day, or we may just do light school, or we may cancel whatever activity we had scheduled for the afternoon. I want to be flexible, as I know that my children won’t be young forever and this, to me, is part of “securing for them a quiet growing time” (in Charlotte’s words).
5. We do have set bedtimes. Kids must be in bed, ready to sleep by 8:30. This keeps them waking between 8:00-8:30 the next morning. So yes, I guess my children consistently need 12 hours of sleep per night. They are never grumpy, are able to make it through whatever we have going on the next day without being grouchy, are very helpful around the house, play well together, and overall we usually just have great days. I attribute much of this to the fact that they begin every day well rested.

Hope that helps!

Lindsey

Elementary age – no. Older – yes. Our youngers ones have a lights out time but I let them sleep until they wake up. Our older girls have a time they need to be up and they get to regulate what time they need to be in bed to be up in time.

Jennifer, absolutely on not waking up the parents! My kids are old enough now (glory, glory, Hallelujah!) that we can realistically enforce that rule. Fridays and Saturdays are my husband’s days off, so the rule on those days is to lay in bed and read or play quietly, but don’t come downstairs to our room unless you have an emergency. They are allowed to get their own breakfast if they want…as both of my kids can use the toaster, fry or scramble eggs, cut fruit, and flavor their own yogurt. It’s a glorious season!

There is NO way I could wake up at 5:30 every morning…even if I didn’t have to be anywhere. I don’t get up before 7:00 EVER. Not to work out, not to read my Bible, not to make breakfast…for no reason! I’m just a girl who LOVES her sleep and loves everyone else in the family to love their sleep too.

I wake them up if I’ve made breakfast that needs to be eaten before it gets cold.  If we have a hot breakfast, I serve it between 8 and 9, so I’m sure they’ve gotten a good amount of sleep by that point!  They go to bed at 9.  My older two girls and I are usually up by 7.  

I do not wake my kids up. But our bedtime is 7-8 depending on the season/night of the week. My daughter is awake ready to go between 6 and 6:30, my son (if the daughter doesn’t wake him) will sleep until 7:30 or 8 most days.

Shannon, my kids are 9.5 and 8. Please don’t think our home is some sort of utopia; it isn’t! My kids are so close in age that they’re the best of friends and usually play very well together. Of course, we do have sibling rivalry and bickering, but not often. They are VERY helpful around the house and are capable of doing many tasks without help now, but there are still many things they do not know. I’ve purposed since they were babies to give them adequate time to sleep and rest, often leaving a gathering or event early to make sure they had a nap or got to bed on time, investing in room-darkening curtains, and keeping loud fans going in their rooms for white noise so they’re never disturbed. Sleep has always been a big deal to us, and it makes sense to me that well rested children might be more pleasant than tired ones. 

As for them being able to make their own breakfast, it didn’t take much effort for me to teach them that! A week or two at the frying pan was all it took for both of them to learn to safely cook their own eggs. Thank you for your sweet compliment of my children. I do feel very blessed to be their momma!