Working mums and nighttime routines?

I'm curious about how working mums (especially those like me that work until 5pm) handle the evenings.

I pick DD up from daycare at 5 3 days per week and we often don't get home until nearly 6pm. She often settles better if we start her dinner/bath/feed/bed routine by about 5.15pm, but obviously this isn't possible on a weekday and it can be as late as 7pm before we get her to bed quite often, especially as we've got calves to feed etc as well.

So I want to know for those that get their kids home late from work, do you put them straight to bed? Or if you have a later bedtime than you think they ideally need, do you stick with a consistent bedtime all week, or go with the earlier time the other nights? How do you handle the evenings when you get home from work?

Oops, DS doesn't go to bed until 9pm most nights......

I'd love to have him in a routine but that seems to be the time he's ready for sleeping. Any earlier and the time we would have spent watching TV and relaxing, we would be spending battling him to bed.

We don't get home til 530pm and then we make sure Tea is eaten by 730, then it's bath at about 8pm and chillaxing until bottle, teeth and bed at about 9. We just have the one but I guess it'll change when we have more.

I don't mind it though because we get to spend more time with him.

Maybe you could bath in the mornings? (I'm still amazed that people bath their kids BEFORE dinner - don't they get filthy again or is that just mine? )

I base my DD's routine around DH getting home around 5 as it means he can do bath etc.

We eat 5.30/6 as a family - when I'm back at work DD will get the previous nights dinner reheated while we have an entree.
She plays with DH while I run her bath etc
She is in the bath 6.15/30
Then dressed and in bed by 7pm at the latest.

I would go with the consistent routine so that it is the same every day DD's routine varies by about 30 minutes at the most so her bedtime is anywhere from 6.30-very occasionally 7.30

I finish work 3 days a week at 5:30pm, home by 6pm. The 2 days DD is at daycare, DH picks her up at 4pm. Usually we do dinner around 6pm when I get home and then she's into her bath around 7pm and down for the night by 7:30pm. I sort something out for her the night before or if it's been a full on day we will occasionally use the Watties dinner stuff. Slightly later than before I went back to work but seems to be working okay. DD will normally do a little 5 - 6pm pre-dinner sleep, we will let her go a little later depending on what kind of day she has had.

I pick Jackson up from DC at 5pm and we are home by about 5.15pm (DC is close to home). When we get home I cook dinner and in the mean time I heat some veges up for Jackson (already steamed and frozen). That keeps him happy while I finish our dinner off. Once dinner is finished cooking I serve it up and we have dinner as a family.

Dinner at 6pm
Bath at 6.30
Booby at 7pm
Bed at 7.15/7.30pm depending on how long he feeds for.

Some nights we have left overs which is great and makes for a more relaxing evening.

I work till 5 - get to MIL at 530pm and pick up DD and home just after that. 90% of the time I have prepared dinner before work - either in crockpot or just already peeled and cut up in pots. DD eats just before 6 - I often have to distract her to get that long as she is usually ravenous. At this time of the year through till end of November, me and DH eat after he gets home from the shed (feeding calves and milking) which is usually around 730pm. DD will NOT wait that long!

Bath at 645-7 and bed at 7-730 - wakes at 7-8am. I start work at 9 which is helpful and DD goes to my MIL and DH just up the road on the farm so I don't have to travel far to drop her off - and for any reason I am late, then great grandmother will have prepared veges and meatballs for DD and she will be eating when I get home!

 

But we still have the sameish routine at the weekends, except on a Friday we always go to the local pub and eat there so bedtime is as late as I can hold off DD before she gets ratty!

 

Whatever works for you hun - DD now generally adapts well to whatever I through at her!

I changed the after work routine around a bit so it worked better for a toddler (I think I did this about 9 months or so ago). Daycare feeds G late snack at 4.30pm, I pick her up just before 5 and we are normally home by 5.15pm. I run the bath straight away and chuck her in, she's out and dressed in PJs usually by about 5.40pm which gives me time to cook dinner and quickly deal with washing before we eat at 6/6.15pm. She has her milk in a cup straight after dinner though I did used to sit with her on the couch while she had her bottle. Then we go straight into teeth, face wash and stories then she's in bed by 7pm. Then I do the dishes and clean up. Everything works like clockwork coz I do the same things in the same order every day, occasionally it gets screwed up if I am running late but she is in bed by 7pm pretty much every night. She's pretty good now too and will set the table (with some supervision) and will stand beside me on the chair "cooking" while I prepare dinner, or play by herself.

stupid'o'clock tehe, G always wakes at stupid o'clock on weekends When I need her to wake early so I can get us out the door on time she sleeps in!