A Daily Bedtime Routine for Busy Families

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You may have seen my recent daily morning routine post, but I thought I would write another post about the other time of day parents find tricky; bedtime! We find that the girls start to play up from about 4pm onwards so I thought I would start our bedtime routine from then. We are usually back from the school run and I’m cooking tea by this time, so it seems a good place to start our daily bedtime routine!

Mia was an amazing sleeper from birth and actually went into her own cot in her own room at 6 weeks old as she was sleeping straight through the night. She still loves her bed at nearly 7 years old and will quite happily stay in her bed until about 9am on her Nintendo Switch! When we had Lottie, we presumed that she would be exactly the same, why would she be any different? Oh, how wrong we were! She only started sleeping though at just over 2 years old and will still get up anywhere from 5am-7am every morning! It’s safe to say, she isn’t happy staying in her bed!

The girls eat their dinner every day at 5pm so I generally start cooking about 4:30pm for them. Once their tea is in the oven, I prep ours for the evening as we eat separately once the kids are in bed. If it’s a dinner I can cook and leave to heat up later then I will do, literally no time is wasted! I can then clear the pots up and clean the kitchen down while they are eating theirs.

By the time they are done eating and I have cleared the kitchen up its usually about 5:45pm so if it’s a bath night, Mario will go and start running it for them. If it’s not bath night, then we get a bit extra time to play! I always tidy the kitchen and the living room before bedtime. This means everything is done when we come downstairs to eat and watch telly!

The girls absolutely love their baths and happily spend nearly an hour in there so by the time they get out and into their pj’s its usually nearly 7pm. If this is the case, the girls have their snack of a biscuit, a cracker and a breadstick (Mia started this trend when she was about 1 and its stuck!) while watching In the Night Garden. Once this has finished, we all go upstairs. Mia goes into her room and can read or play on her Switch until 9pm when she settles herself down. I read a story to Lottie in her bed and then I switch her light off and leave the room.

Lottie is so much better at going to bed these days as she is usually shattered! Preschool has helped massively with this! She hasn’t napped in the day since she was about 1 so she’s usually asleep around 7:20pm and I can go and eat!

I like to prepare as much as I can before this time so that I’m not going back downstairs to loads of tidying up to do or tea to cook. The most important thing I can tell you is to get everything prepared before you need it, it saves so much time!

What does your daily bedtime routine look like?