A well-meaning Facebook post by an elementary school has gone viral, but not everyone is into it.
Elementary School Enrages Parents Nationwide With Condescending Post On Kids' Bedtimes.
By
Michael Avery in
News
On 12th September 2015
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#1
Any parent can tell you that kids don't get enough sleep these days. Kids can tell you too, but you'll have to prod them a few times to wake them up before they can answer the question. Between early start times for school, loads of extracurricular activities, and staring at their phone for hours, kids are lucky to manage eight hours a night. The problem is that they actually need much more than that. How much more? Wilson Elementary School in Kenosha, Wisconsin hoped to clear that up once and for all by sharing this handy chart on its Facebook page. The response, however, was far beyond what anyone anticipated.
#2
As you can see, the post has gone massively viral. As of press time, it has almost 400,000 shares. But not every parent likes what it has to say. And they have a point some of these bedtimes seem hopelessly ambitious. What kind of school-age kid manages to get 11 hours of sleep? Outside of Amish country, anyway? And have you ever tried getting a 12-year-old to go to bed at 8:15? They'll laugh right in your face.
Look at a few of these angry comments from frustrated parents (who probably aren't getting a lot of sleep either):
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#3
These parents certainly got defensive fast, but the facts may be on their side. Dr. George Zaldivar, Sleep Center Medical Director at CAMC General in Charleston, West Virginia, feels that schools are at fault for starting too early. He told WTRF:
"The child should be going to school by 8-830 instead of getting up at 6 in the morning."
On behalf on all kids everywhere, thank you Dr. Zaldivar! While we're at it, maybe we can stop pressuring kids to take a million extracurricular activities just so they can get into a good college and be in debt the rest of their lives. Sorry, that's a tangent.
The National Sleep Foundation recommends that kids 3-5 get 11-13 hours of sleep per night, and kids 6-13 get 9-11 hours. As for teenagers, they should get 8-10 hours, but let's be honest; that's never going to happen.
