Single Mom Who Lives In An RV Puts Her Kids To Bed At 6PM Every Night Says People Who Called Her 'Lazy' Are 'Jealous'
People are convinced she's neglecting her youngsters with her super-early kids' bedtime routine, but the science is on her side.
TikTok It seems everyone has an opinion on how people should parent nowadays, whether they have kids or not. Sometimes, it seems like it's the best parents who get the most backlash.
Case in point, this single mom lives full-time in a luxury RV with her two kids, a four-year-old daughter, and a six-year-old son.
She recently shared the kids' early bedtime routine she uses with her son and daughter, sparking several angry comments and backlash — and Rebekah thinks she knows exactly why.
A mom on TikTok who lives in an RV shared the early time they end their day as part of her and her kids' bedtime routine.
TikToker @the_realrebekah is a single mom, as well as a designer, decorator and author, who lives full-time in a rather luxurious RV — complete with ceiling fans and a dishwasher.
Her RV is pretty spacious, but at the end of the day, it's an RV — close quarters for a family of three. So she's got her mommy routine down pat to keep everything organized and running like a well-oiled machine for her two kids, 4 and 6.
Rebekah uses an early-evening bedtime routine for her young children, putting them down at 6 PM each night because they wake up at 6 AM.
Even if they have a late night, Rebekah's kids are early risers — "no matter if they go to bed at 7 PM, 8 PM, 9 PM or 10 PM," as she put it in the comments of her TikTok.
So, they go down at 6:00 PM each night, right after dinner — certainly earlier than a lot of kids' bedtime routine, but given her tykes' early wake-up times, not at all out of the realm of a normal amount of sleep for kids their age.
The standard sleep recommendation, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, is 10 to 13 hours of sleep for children 3 to 5 years old, like Rebekah's daughter, and 9 to 12 hours for kids aged 6 to 12 like her son. So at 12 hours, both of her kids are right on target.
And as we reported in 2018, a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics found that earlier bedtimes for youngsters were correlated with better health outcomes, including lower rates of childhood obesity. So the science is on Rebekah's side.
But the science being on her side when it comes to the kids' early bedtime routine she's chosen didn't stop other moms on TikTok from shaming her for her parenting choices.
TikTok commenters called the mom 'lazy' and accused her of bad parenting for taking an early approach to her kids' bedtime routine.
Not everyone was upset by her routine — some were just shocked by how well it worked. Several asked how she was able to pull off just an early end to the day, but her advice was pretty much the same time-honored advice that has been around for ages — finding a kid's bedtime routine that works and then sticking to it every day, also known as "sleep hygiene."
"We do dinner, teeth, PJs, read, bed," Rebekah responded to a commenter who asked. "It's the same routine every night." She also told another commenter that she "hired a sleep coach," who recommended the exact routine she uses.
Still, several commenters lambasted her choices. "That seems pretty early for a bedtime," one commenter wrote. "What on earth? Are they babies?" another scolded. Others assumed Rebekah was not allowing her kids to do activities like sports, forgetting that they're still very young and, in her son's case, only go to school for half the day. And also that weekends exist.
But one woman, in particular, had a huge problem with her routine. "6:30 bedtimes for the kids," the commenter wrote, "that's horrible. You'll regret that habit when they're older. Pathetic. Lazy parenting."
Rebekah did not take kindly to the comment.
The mom thinks TikTokers criticizing her kids' early bedtime routine are lashing out because they're 'jealous.'
Rebekah posted a TikTok in response to the commenter, defending her kids' bedtime routine and reiterating all the work she does before going to bed herself because she "values going to bed with a clean house."
She also said she does it because "I value myself and I value my alone time," which working full-time as a single mom is probably pretty hard to come by.
She then went on to say, "I always find when people leave comments like this it's because they're jealous and they're upset because they're exhausted and their kids are not going to bed until 8 or 9 or 10 and their house is a mess and their whole life is in disarray."
That might come off a bit judgmental to some moms, of course, but most of the moms in Rebekah's comments were right there with her—and many found the "lazy" comment downright silly. "LOL a structured schedule does not equal laziness!" one commenter wrote, "complete opposite!"
Indeed, initiating a kid's bedtime routine and getting them on a sleep schedule is a difficult enough process that Rebekah hired a literal consultant to help her do it, after all.
But even her clapping back didn't stop Rebekah from getting criticism. After she posted another video sharing her kids' bedtime routine and her own typical evening schedule, she got even more criticism, much of it from parents accusing her of never seeing her kids.
"That's literally no time together!" one mom commented on the fact that Rebekah said she picks her kids up at 5:00 most days, only for them to go to bed at 6:00. But, Rebekah countered that they mostly spend time together in the mornings since they're all such early risers.
And several other moms pushed back that their more normal schedules ultimately aren't that much different than Rebekah's. "LOL I don't get home from work till 7," one mom wrote, "[my] kids [are] in bed by 8:30. No different."
Several other commenters pushed back with what is probably the most relevant question—why are all these people so invested in how another mom handles the bedtime routine for a pair of kids that aren't even theirs?
It may have been a little harsh, but it kind of makes it seem like Rebekah was onto something with that whole jealousy theory.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.