This mum got slammed after revealing her children's bed time.

Is she bedtime shamming other parents or just doing what works for her family?

How many parents can say their kids are in bed by 7pm?

Not AT 7.

Not SLIGHTLY after 7.

But BY 7. Or to be more accurate, between 6-7pm.

Becky Mansfield, who writes for Your Modern Family, found herself on the receiving end of some hardcore judgment from other parents after she revealed her children are in bed when most mums and dads are just starting to make those first moves towards coaxing their kids into even thinking about bed time.

In fact, Becky puts her kids to bed when most families are still eating dinner.

The furore began when she published an article called 3 year old waking up at night – how to stop this – in the piece she casual mentioned her child’s normal bedtime was between 6 and 7. Her friend and fellow blogger, Jackie at Happy Hooligans, shared the article and shortly afterwards this comment appeared:

“Who puts their kid to bed between 6:00 & 7:00 pm?”

Since then, Becky says she’s received even more backlash and has felt compelled to explain herself in an article entitled Why I put my kids to bed at 7.

Becky's four children are eight, six, four, and two, and she says they are really active and play hard: "These kids are busy all day long.  They play with their friends, they play with each other, they play with me and they play by themselves.  They are worn out by bedtime!"

"Our older kids, six and eight, stay up a little later (they have reading time with my husband and I).  If they have football or wrestling, they are up even later, but we AIM for an early bedtime! Most night, the older kids aren’t getting to sleep until closer to 7:45 or 8:00," she explains.

"Our six-year-old has a really hard time waking up for school at 8:00am when he doesn’t get his full 12-13 hours of sleep, so I do try to get him to bed as early as possible."

The rest of Becky's article focuses on the health benefits of a solid 12 hours sleep for kids and recommendations by sleep experts, including a helpful table setting out the ideal length of snooze for each age group.

She writes, "I guess that it is assumed that people think 'My way is the right way', but that is just NOT THE CASE! It might work for you to keep your kids up until 10:00 or later. Maybe you homeschool or maybe they aren’t in school yet and can sleep in. My very dear friend does this with her daughters because of their work schedule (they are up until 10:00 every night), and it works for them! Do what works for you!"

Too true.

I suppose the bottom line is that each parent knows what works for their children. But I still can't help feeling a little intimidated by Becky's children's early bedtime, especially during daylight savings when I impatiently wait for the sun to set because, "The sun's still up. I can't go to bed if THE SUN'S STILL UP MUM!"

What time do your children go to bed? And what time do you WISH your kids went to bed?

Like this? Try these?

Good parents don't sleep. And there's a book about it.

5 ways to deal with a toddler who thinks bedtime is a choice.