Parents of young children have revealed how they are raising them to be “night owls” – with unofficial bedtimes in the early hours of the morning.
Emily Boazman has never been a morning person, and once she welcomed her three children, she decided to fully embrace her natural body clock.
The 35-year-old is most productive in the evening hours, and homeschooling daughters Crew, nine, and Knox, seven, plus her three-year-old son Keen, means she can set their schedule accordingly.
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For the Boazman’s, that means having dinner after 9pm, playtime up until midnight, and most of the family tucked up by the early hours.
But people on TikTok haven’t reacted well after Emily detailed a typical evening routine for the ‘night owls’.
“I get thousands of hateful comments about how we are narcissistic parents for this lifestyle,” Emily, from Clovis, New Mexico, US, told What’s The Jam.
“They come in constantly.
“They say that it’s abusive to keep the kids up so late.
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“They say that they need sleep – which they get, just at a later time than most – and discipline, something they have as well.
“At first, it does suck [to receive these comments].
“It’s tiny little gut punches, and it doesn’t feel great.
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“But then I remind myself that people online aren’t directly related to me and I shouldn’t allow the comments to affect me.
“My sisters and their families, as well as our friends, are all night owls as well, so we have this little community of people that thrives during the later hours.
“It’s all we know.
“We love spending time with our kids, and they get 9-11 hours of sleep a night.
“It just works for us.”
Sharing an example of a typical evening in their self-proclaimed “night owl” routine, Emily’s husband Jake, 44, can be seen preparing dinner at 9pm, which they go on to eat at 9.30pm.
By 11pm, Emily is giving herself a pedicure while her children play with toys, and often gets the bulk of the housework done between 11.30pm-1am.
Their youngest, three-year-old Keen, finally goes to sleep at 11.30pm, with the girls Crew, nine, and Knox, seven, following shortly after midnight.
Emily and Jake spend time with one another, finally calling it a night at 2am – with the five family members often sharing a bed.
The mum-of-three said: “I grew up in a night owl family and my husband has always been a night owl as well, so it’s all we know.
“We just have never been strict about going to bed at a certain time.
“And that’s because all our family and friends are also night owls, so everything we do is just later in the evenings, and when we get home, we usually have stuff to do before they go to sleep.
“But they can’t stay up later than us.
“When we say it’s time for bed, they have to go to bed.
“They’re always free to go to sleep before us, though – usually around midnight.
“My son will ask to go to sleep sooner a lot of the time, and we take him to bed.
“He takes late naps almost every day [too] and gets a lot of sleep!”
Emily homeschools the children, often rising between 9.30am – 11am.
She said: “There aren’t really any early mornings for us aside from meeting once a week for our homeschool co-op group at 9am, and church on Sundays at 10am.
“The kids do just fine on those days.”
Meanwhile, Jake works as a district attorney and needs to be at work by 8am.
Emily added: “I don’t know how he sustains this life, but he said he’s always been this way, surviving on little sleep.”
Despite the family being happy with their routine, users on TikTok criticised the idea.
One person commented: “This is chaotic. I can’t imagine growing up in this chaos.”
“Your poor adrenal systems,” another user wrote.
Another shocked viewer said: “There’s no way these timestamps are correct right?”
Someone else called it a “recipe for disaster later in life”, pointing out that the children may struggle to adapt to the working world.
Emily responded: “I have always been a night owl (as well as my entire family) and we all went to public school, college and worked days (6:40am-6:40pm).
“We just went to bed earlier, and it was no problem.
“We don’t love mornings and never have since we were little (when we woke up early every day and actually did go to bed around 9). We always despised mornings.
“But we adjust to our schedule and haven’t really struggled.”
Other users were far more pro-Emily and Jake’s approach.
One wrote: “This makes me feel normal! We are the same exact way in our house with 4 kiddos!”
“All families operate differently – you guys look extremely happy and organised – I love it for you!” another person said.
Someone else commented: “Happy to come across this! If I ate before 7pm, I’d be so hungry. We get up around 7-7.30 to start our day and get to bed anywhere from 10-12.”
READ MORE: Dad’s genius bedtime hack to trick kids into going to bed early with hilarious game… they can’t win
