Teenager Sleeping Habits

As long as she's fine with getting back on track when school starts, I say let her do what she wants. It's just a week or two, right? I'm not OK with a schedule like that all summer because I think 10 weeks of that is unhealthy and kids should have a job or other responsibilities during the summer that prompt them to get out of bed, but for short breaks during the school year, no reason to not let her live without a schedule for a few days.

I often slept till noon at 17 and I didn't even always stay up that late. I love to sleep! And science shows teenagers need it. As others have said, so long as she gets back on track for school, I think this is what Xmas vacation is for at that age. I fondly look back at it... I also was a very good student and have done very well since college and graduate school so you can tell your dad you surveyed people and lots of successful people did this as teens.

Our rules are as long as vacation behavior doesn't impact school habits anything goes.

Oh, FYI, both my adult children followed this rule, never effected their work ethic.

sounds like she needs downtime from all that she does and this is her way to decompress. it's her vacation too and it sounds like she needs downtime more than anybody! i doubt we could keep up with her daily schedule. sh's got the rst of her life to get up at the buttcrack of dawn. let her be a kid a while longer.

I would let her sleep in. Teenagers need breaks too :)

All our boys have done the exact same thing!!! We compromise though on the wake-up times during vaca. And I agree with both your parents to an extent.
All our kids are good students, involved in organizations and activities and all work hard during summer break too. They need to catch up on sleep during breaks.

Some days, I need them up earlier to help out with errands or drop me at work. (During vaca we are 5 adult people here sharing 3 cars.) And I tell them the day before so they can plan to go to bed appropriately. They have learned the hard way that staying up until 2 when mom needs you up at 8 really sucks.
Then other days, they sleep as much as they want to.

Our rule though for late nights: you cannot disturb the sleeping parents!!! If I go to bed at 10 and you wake me up later with your noise, not cool.

Then what we do with the HS Senior is 2 days before the end of break, we "encourage" him to get back closer to his school schedule so there is not so much jet lag effect on the first day back to school.

As a parent.....I would say let her sleep in. Kids are often up late, overworked, overstimulated, etc and some kids are just night owls. However, since I'm at the stage where my kids often wake me at 5am...I do have to say that I think when my kids are teens, I may get them up at 5am JUST BECAUSE...so they know what it was like!! LOL Who am I kidding? When my kids are sleeping until 12 I am sure I will be too! I love to sleep and sleep in and never get to! When I was growing up we were always woken around 7-9am to clean house on Saturdays. I hated that my parents used to give me a hard time when I slept in and do with my almost 18 year old sister. So if it were my child, I'd let her sleep :)

It's a vacation, let her sleep. If it takes her time to 're-adjust' when school is back in, that's her choice. She's 17, for goodness sake.

Does dad get up on schedule when he has time off? He may because his body clock is used to it, but teenagers bodies are different and I think they actually are on a late sleep/late awake cycle naturally.

It's a VACATION because there isn't a SCHEDULE - duh! :)

Oh, and in case you're using the replies for support of sis, I'm a 43 year old mother of 1 and not a fellow teen - my support isn't age based. It's common sense based.

This struck a nerve with me. My Dad felt he had to tell me when to go to bed when I was an adult visiting during vacations. She's 17 for goodness sake. She makes good decisions, is successful in her life. Why does he want to control her? Perhaps if you could figure that out you could convince him to let go of the need for control.

BTW I never did figure it out with my Dad. He just had his own ideas of right and wrong and staying up when everyone else was in bed was wrong.

At our house we tell the teenagers they can stay up as late as they would like...HOWEVER...they will be woke up by 10am.

This allows them to 'sleep in' but not waste the day away and knowing ahead of time what time they need to be awake helps in their decision making of just how late they *really* want to stay up and will it be worth it.

But all bets are off during VACATION! :)

She's on vaca! let her do as she pleases, within reason of course, this is far better then what she could be doing. If she has issues going back to regular schedule then do something but if she makes the switch just fine then I see no big deal.

Now I don't have teenagers yet so I might have a different answer 10 yrs from now! LOL

I'm with your mom on this one. Our teenage son sounds a lot like your sister, and our rules are similar. The only exception is if we have somewhere to go the next morning during vacation. Then he needs to get to bed at a relatively decent hour so that he will get up on time the next morning. Even then he is pretty good at determining when he needs to go to bed. He knows how much sleep he needs. :)

I think most teens are probably sleep-deprived with their normal school routines and need plenty of extra sleep on vacations. This is also one way for teens to assert a little independence that doesn't involve anything harmful to them. As the mother of a 17 year old, I am always glad when he stays home and sleeps in! I know of very few teens who DON'T stay up later than usual and then sleep late on vacations from school; I did myself, and as long as she's not disturbing the household while up late, I say your dad should cut your sister some slack!

Sounds like perfectly normal teenage behavior to me. I think your mom is right you really have to pick your battles! There will be plenty of time when she will have to follow up schedule, let her enjoy being a teenager! I remember doing the exact same thing!

Since she is mature and responsible, I would side with the mom. Our kids need to know that we will give them some slack as long as they are not hurting anyone else, hurting themselves or inconveniencing anyone else.

It must come across to your dad as being lazy or selfish when it is not intended to be that way. We all have different ways we want to spend our vacation and staying up late and sleeping in is not your dad's choice. This is a great opportunity for him to say he doesn't agree with her choice of using her time but as long as it doesn't affect anyone else, then it he will allow her to make that choice.