Bed Time

Samara has her dinner around 5:45 or 6. She takes a bath at 6:45 and she is in bed by 7:15, almost always sleeping by 7:30.

Elie has been taking a bath around 6 then sleeping by 6:20 or 6:30.

Sam always woke up after 7...sometimes on the weekends she even slept until 8:30, but lately she has been waking more in the 6's (though the last two days were 7:15 - hooray!). Elie has been waking for the day between 7 and 8:30. He still wakes up most nights one or two times to eat quickly and go back to sleep.

Sam takes a 2-2.5 hour nap in the afternoon.

Elie has been taking two or three naps, depending on how early he wakes up and how late he wakes from his afternoon nap. Elie does not like to be awake for more than an hour and a half or so.

Now that Elie is sleep trained, he loves his sleep. Samara loves her sleep. I definitely have children who sleep. A lot. 

BUT...that is juxtaposed to many of the kids in Sam's school who seem to sleep about half the amount that my kids sleep - which is a HUGE difference! These kids go to sleep at 10pm at the earliest, usually more like 11 or 12, and they have to be woken for school, which starts at 9am. Most don't nap.

The mall at MRT is FULL of kids after 8pm. In face the mall opposite our condo is showing movies on Friday nights at 8pm in the courtyard - Madagascar and other little kid movies. At 8pm! I wish Sam could stay awake for that, but even if she tried she wouldn't be able to.

I just read a post on a mom's group I'm part of online where the woman said that her seven month old was going to sleep at 10:30 but because of Chinese New Year the bedtime has been pushed to midnight. Whoa! Elie can't handle the world past 6pm, but I can't get it together to get him in bed by then.

Some of the kids walking around in the evening seem like they are doing ok. Some look glazed in the eyes. Others are screaming. I can't believe there is something genetically different to kids here and in the west that makes them happier to get less sleep or be able to stay up later, so what is it? 

Also, on the parents' side, don't they want some time in the evenings? I LOVE my few hours in the evening when the kids are asleep. Totally different culture. Totally baffling to me on a lot of levels.