We've been called abusive for letting our kids stay up until 2am every night

Metro

a day ago

There's no such thing as an official bedtime in the Boazman household — and it's not uncommon for the family's three young children to stay up until the early hours of the morning.
Instead, 35-year old mum Emily has decided to raise her brood as 'night owls', embracing the fact she's most productive after dark.
A typical day for the Boazmans starts with homeschooling for daughters Crew, 9, and Knox, seven, as well as their three-year-old son Keen.
The kids then have dinner around 9pm or 10pm and enjoy playtime until midnight, before heading to bed whenever they feel tired.
Having never been much of a morning person, Emily says this schedule 'just works'.
But when she shared a video detailing their routine on TikTok, the reaction was far from positive.
'I get thousands of hateful comments about how we are narcissistic parents for this lifestyle,' says the mum-of-three, from Clovis, New Mexico, US. 'They say it's abusive to keep the kids up so late.'
One of these controversial social media posts shows Emily's husband Jake, 44, serving dinner at 9.30pm. At 11.30pm, their youngest, Keen, goes to sleep, and the girls follow shortly after midnight.
The parents then spend time together and do housework before calling it a night at 2am, sharing the same bed as their little ones (a regular occurrence for the family).
'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,' says Emily. 'We just have never been strict about going to bed at a certain time.'
The only rule is that the children can't stay up later than their mum and dad.
Aside from this, they're free to go to sleep when they feel like it, which tends to be somewhere around midnight but can be later depending on how tired they are.
Although district attorney Jake needs to be at work for 8am during the week, according to Emily, he's used to 'surviving on very little sleep.'
The others wake up naturally between 9.30am and 11am for lessons, except for one day a week when they go to a homeschool co-op group meeting at 9am.
And while they may have had a little less shut-eye the night before, they 'do just fine'.
Despite the fact the family are happy with this approach, many users on TikTok were anything but, describing it as 'chaotic' or a 'recipe for disaster later in life' when the children have to adapt to the working world. More Trending
Some were less disapproving though, including one who wrote: 'This makes me feel normal! We are the same exact way in our house with four kiddos.'
'All families operate differently,' added another. 'You guys look extremely happy and organised – I love it for you!'
While the Emily found the criticism difficult to deal with at first, she tries not to be brought down by the opinions of strangers, reminding herself that the kids get 9-11 hours of sleep each night — 'just at a later time than most'.
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