This seems to be an issue in our home this summer. Our kids are 17, 18 and 21...very soon to be 18, 19 and 21. I want to know when they all became nocturnal. How do they survive on such fews hours of sleep? I can't do it...and feel so guilty going to bed HOURS before them.

Do you wait up for your kids to come home, or stay up at night talking with them until the wee hours of the morning. Or did you when your kids were these ages?

The best I can do is have them check in with us when they get home. At which point I murmer a few words and try to wake up enough to carry a conversation. Then I'll often get up and go chat a little, but it's so hard to do. I need about seven hours of sleep. What about you?

I never had children, but have had enough young houseguests over the years to know exactly what you're talking about!

I need 8-9 hours sleep, and suffer if I don't get it. Hubby's usually in bed by 9pm, 10pm at the very latest. We've had to stop having young houseguests here anymore because their schedules have been so disruptive - staying up until 2-3am (with TV going, which I can hear upstairs in my bedroom) and then not getting up until 1pm, starving for a big meal and raring to go out somewhere exciting - but 1pm is just when we're going for our afternoon nap because we've already been out and about since about 6am!

We live in a tiny house, and have our routines, including regularly scheduled meals for hubby's diabetes. We finally just decided it was too difficult to work around these crazy nocturnal hours and stopped inviting/allowing people to visit.

I always thought it would be easier to deal with if they were your own children, because supposedly you would slowly get used to the evolving habits.

People visiting sometimes do not use common sense, after all they are on vacation and we are not, we still have schedules to adere to and things we must do. I don't invite any houseguests anymore either. My hours are pretty much my own because of the work I do from home but I still have issues to take care of. I also finally decided that I won't run up to the Vegas strip anymore to meet visitors because I hate the traffic, the crowds and have anxiety attacks, so I tell them I will meet you off the strip only, where I feel comfortable. Its one of those 'take it, or leave it' rules I had to instigate.

This reminds me of a friend (?) I had years ago who asked me if she could bring her four children to my house for their family vacation. Uh...no. She wanted something that was different and...key word here...free!

It's been ages since I've had children or teens at home but I do remember one steadfast rule: When they came home they had to kiss me good night so I could check for any drinking. It worked!

Dianne, I remember one piece of advice a high school freshman counselor gave when our oldest hit ninth grade. Parents, always let your kids know you will be waiting up for them when they get home! The kids who get away with the most may not have that in place. I bet you were a great mother of teens. Something just tells me that.

Eagle, I look forward to getting in some the the routines you and your hubby have...only to be disrupted again next summer when the kids arrive home from college.

My kids are now 23 and 26 but, when they were teenagers, I always got up to give them a hug -- and to get a discrete sniff.

A sniff tells a mom a lot. Has he been smoking, drinking, doping...? We have made it successfully through the teen years and my nose helped a lot!

Yes, my friends and I are great sniffers late at night.

My younger son was nicknamed 'the midnight rambler' because it seemed as if he never slept. From the day he was born he would only take catnaps. Once he could walk, it was worse. One night, he cut up the shower curtain (at 3 or 4 in the morning!) To this day, I can't figure out how he did that. He was about 2 at the time, and the only scissors he had access to were his brother's nursery school scissors. One Christmas Eve, he got up during the night, opened all the presents under the tree, then went back to bed.

Needless to say, the problem was worse when he became a teenager. He would always be home for curfew, but once or twice snuck out again after that.

In spite of all the problems, he grew up to be a wonderful young man who now has a family of his own. (I heard from my daughter-in-law that their firstborn is just like him. I feel sorry for her!)

yonah, is your son still a night owl?

Two of mine have always managed on few hours of sleep. They can go to sleep at 2 or 3 and get up for work or school in the 6es. Just the thought of it makes me tired. However, when they can sleep in...boy do they! And I can't stand that either because I'm an early riser.

Yes, he's still a night owl. I think he and his wife took shifts when their kids were little - she took the early shift and he took the late shift! LOL