My kids aren’t allowed out of their bedrooms after 6.30pm - that’s adult time

"Rules like this are why my marriage is thriving."

A mum has been blasted after confessing she sends all her kids to their bedroom early so she can have alone time with her husband.

Claire, a mum-of-four from Sussex in the UK, always wanted to raise her family with a strict set of boundaries, giving them space to grow at their own pace.

As such, she has a few rules she and her husband expect the kids to respect in the house. 

But it was one requirement in particular that got people really riled up, with some accusing her of keeping her kids in a “prison.”  

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Mum’s strict rules compared to a “prison”

Claire and her husband have four children: Amira, 12; Grace, nine; Pearl, four; and 16-month-old Elijah. 

They’re all expected to help out around the house, based on the rules she and her husband have set out. 

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Some of the rules they enforce are pretty fair, such as assigning chores to every kid, such as taking the rubbish out and washing up after dinner. 

Even their youngest, Elijah, has started to “put his bricks away, which is absolutely fab,” Claire explained in a TikTok. 

Claire’s kids aren’t allowed to have phones until they turn 12, and even when they have one, they’re not allowed to use social media platforms or access certain apps. 

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So far, everyone seemed to agree with her boundaries and argued she wasn’t strict at all. 

That was until she read out her fourth rule: “The children are not allowed out of their bedrooms until I go in there in the mornings,” she said. 

To elaborate, each night at 6.30pm, she will make her four children go to their own bedrooms, where they have to stay until they wake up the next day. 

Her eldest two daughters, 12yo Amira, who has autism, and 9yo Grace, will go to their room for the evening and do whatever they do”, and 4yo Pearl and 1yo Elijah will be tucked into bed by 6.30pm. 

“If they need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, that’s fine, they can go to the toilet,” she clarified. “But then they go back in their bed and shut the door.” 

Why?

“It is adult time,” she answered. “Strictly no children downstairs.” 

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Claire and her husband send their kids to bed at 6.30pm every evening. Picture: claireghana/TikTok

“Parents need ‘us time’ as well!”

People were initially horrified by this rule, comparing the household to “a prison” and arguing she was “prioritising her own wants and needs over her children’s.” 

One woman wondered if Claire spent “any time with” her kids if they went to bed so early. 

“Do people realise that there's 24 hours in one given day?” Claire responded. 

“If I have the children all day, whatever, yes, I'm gonna say, ‘It's now quite time for you to go to your room, have the evening to yourself.’”

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Claire was accused of raising her kids in a "prison." Picture: claireghana/TikTok

According to Claire, her daughters would rather spend time in their bedroom anyway. 

Sending the kids to their room every evening does wonders for her relationship with her husband, to boot. 

“And rules like this are why my marriage is thriving,” she said. “Just because people have children, doesn't mean that you should just not have a marriage also.”

And just because she has such strict rules, she stressed that she doesn’t always enforce them. 

“Sometimes I do break the rules, and maybe at 7pm they will go up,” she said.

But most of the time, “we as parents and husband and wife have to have that time together.” 

While she has still drummed up controversy for parenting choices, others understood her reasoning. 

“My kids go to bed at 6:15 at the latest, so keep doing what works for you!” a parent praised Claire.

“We need ‘us time’ as well!” another agreed. 

“I don't get why people have an issue, it’s your choice!” wrote a third.

Originally published as My kids aren’t allowed out of their bedrooms after 6.30pm - that’s adult time