When I was a kid, it was my choice. I could either go to bed or I could attempt to stay up to see the ball drop in Times Square and ring in the new year with my family. Now that I have my own, I wonder what other parents are doing.
Some preteens and teens will stay up to see musical performance (I was one who did that), others will be at sleepovers and already planning on staying up all night so they can crash all day. But what about the younger crowd, the under 13?
Do you let them stay up and fall asleep whenever? Do you make them stay up because ringing in the new year is a tradition? What does your family do?
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I can tell you what we did when we were younger. Being in the United Kingdom.
My parents, Granddad, Nan and a few of my uncles and aunties went out for a meal, my Great Nan when she was alive (she died in 2009) came up to look after us (plus my cousin stopped the night) this was dropped when I was about 12, but Great Nan still came up as this was easier for my Nan and Grandad
I was woken up by fireworks when I was younger. For some reason we were not allowed to stay up to midnight.
The first time was in 2000, I was 16, one of our neighbours hosted a buffet, after this we could stay up if we wanted to.
The reason for this was my parents did the entertaining on New Year's Day (similar to what we will have for Christmas lunch) plus also we will have ham as well.
Normally seeing another country bring in the New Year on television is good enough for me.
My son is 4 & my daughters one. My daughter will be asleep but I'm going to let my son stay awake for as long as he can to see the ball drop. Plus I am also going to have a few friends over, make a big dinner, & things like that. I'm hoping its a good day/night.
My Little One and I stay up and watch movies. If she is out before 12 it's ok. Two years ago when she was 5 she was out 20 minutes till midnight :)
we were alowed to stay up and my mom always had us eat little smokeys and black eyed peas..but thats all i remember
I think kids should be alowed to stay up thats the fun of it and if they fall asleep thenthey sleep :)
Luckily, we're in the mountain timezone, so we cheat and let her watch the ball drop for the East coast, she feels accomplished and I don't have to put up with a cranky kid the next day! lol Other years when she was younger (she's 5.5 now) she we be too sleepy to make it until 10 so we would youtube a video of the ball dropping for her and she would get to drink her cider and call it a night...
@aidensmommy - we totally did little smokeys and black eyed peas too!
New Year's Eve was a family day for my family and always will be. Our parties always have been child friendly and we stayed up until 3 am all the time from the time we were newborns. It should be fun for kids too and it should be a day where children can break rules and eat sugar and stay up late.
I would never MAKE my daughter stay up, if she is tired then she is tired. I won't keep her up, to me that would be mean. IMO at least. Even if she tried she woudn't make t very late. She is 3, and she has always had a strict bed-time and now she will tell me its time to go to bed if i lose track of time. Lol.
As for me, as a child i did try to stay up. I didn't always make it, but i did try. :)Normally, we have an all night lock in at my Baptist church, for kids from grades K-6th, on newyears eve. this year, because new years eve, was Saturday, and there is church the next day, we were not able to do that, we had to push the fun back to last night, since Friday night and Saturday morning a messianic Jewish church rents our building. Usually the lock in is designed for fun, ore than anything else. I did games this year, and had games of strength, games for the mind, and games to test the stomach. this year, stomach testing games were baby food, liver wurst, and rice cakes.
I know I'm not the norm but my kids have never had a bedtime. I wanted to teach them time management, choices/consequences etc so they have a scheduled time to get up everyday and that time is dependent on our family's schedule for the day. I'm a strong believer in teaching children personal accountability and I start at birth. They can stay up as late as they like but they must get up at the required time on our daily schedule with no exceptions and no mercy just because they're tired. They must then stay up the rest of the day with no napping allowed for anyone over 5 years old. If they choose to stay up they mustn't disturb anyone else who has chosen to sleep. They learn quickly that they are directly in control of how they feel the next day and how their sleep affects their mood & performance. With an exception now and then, they all fall into a really good sleep routine on their own and carry that with them for life.
I could not care about the ball drop. It's just another day in another month in another year. Big deal. I'll be asleep by 10 so I will be ready for church the next day (this year).
When I was a kid 13 and under my parents and I would play games together, talk about the future, bake, eat what we baked, watch movies.
My moms theory was that a new year was a fresh start and what better way to bring in the New Year then to do so as a united family having fun quality time.
I sure miss her <3 I'd give both my arms to spend just one more New Years with my mom playing games.
My parents never made me go to bed or stay up. If I managed to stay awake then it was totally fine. If I had children I'd take the same approach, let them stay up if they want to. If they fall asleep before midnight, then that's okay too.
My parents always said that we could stay up as late as we could. When we were younger we usually ended up falling asleep before midnight anyway.
I would let them stay up as long as they could. Most of them are asleep before midnight, anyway. =] But truthfully, I'd want them to sleep in a little so I could, too, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to try & keep them up a little longer than usual.
@tsh44@xanga - I agree! I was raised that way basically. I had no bed time after I was about 13. Neither does my daughter who is 13 now. In fact the rule is that she can't wake me up until 7am. She wakes up at 5 am. She's nuts. Her school starts at 8 am.
My kids have no bed time at all when they are off-track from school. So, it's party time every night! Well, sorta... I conk out before they do.
@tsh44@xanga - my parents did the same and it worked fine for me! I had to be in my room by a certain time, but I could stay up and read or play games as long as I wanted :)
@TiredSoVeryTired@xanga - @written_conversations@xanga - Nice to know I'm not the only mom doing it without the bed times
when I was younger I could decide too.according to my mom at least. when we were with my grandma she urged my mom to make me go to bed, and it ended up in a fight, and I wanted to prove that I am "big" enough to make it through the whole evening, even though I was tired haha.
New Years was never a big deal in our house. I mean, we would stay up and watch the ball drop but we didn't always do it together. As I've gotten older, I've gone to parties, I've had some parties. This year, I stayed in and watched some TV before going to bed. At 10.
But like I said, New Years isn't a big deal. I could go out on any other of the 364 days in the year to do the same exact thing people do on New Years. As for kids, I'd say let them dictate what they want to do.
I let them stay up if they want to. My entire family gets together, and all of the kids too. My daughter is 2 and my son is 3. This year my daughter fell asleep at 10:30 (2 hours past her normal bedtime) and my son made it through Midnight. He actually didn't fall asleep until he was in the car on the way home.
I don't make them stay up, but I don't insist they go to bed when everyone else is up either.
They both then slept in until about 9:45/10:00 this morning, and are taking a nap now. It didn't affect them too much, they still napped at close the the time they normally do.
I let my 2-year-old stay up last night, and I intend to allow all our children to stay up in the future. It's just something fun we can do as a family. =) Growing up, my parents always let me and my brothers stay up, and we would often go outside and shoot fireworks.
I thought about doing East Coast New Years at 9pm (we live in California), but I ended up letting my son stay up. He passed out around 12:30 and now he's taking a really long nap today to make up for it (he's almost 3). I would never MAKE him stay up, but we were dancing and he had apple cider (watered down!) and pita chips, and it was really fun. He cried at midnight though, because so many people in our neighborhood we shooting guns off. But I think, meh, it's one night a year, should be up to the kid.
For my cousins we used to pretend it's midnight when it was really like ten.It worked everytime!