Working mums and nighttime routines?
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Topic: Working mums and nighttime routines?
Posted By: T_Rex
Subject: Working mums and nighttime routines?
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 3:16pm
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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? ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Replies:
Posted By: monikah
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 3:53pm
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i finish uni earlier than 5 but push their routine back so that DH is home and he does heaps of it. I often have tea precooked for DS or just throw some veggies in a pot with a vege sausage on the fry pan and it is done in 10 mins. he is normally eating just before 6. then its bath time for both boys. we probably end up with a 7pm bed time whih is totally fine for us. we put both kids down at the same time so we can have the house back. both kids wake between 7-8am so it works really well.
in saying that we arent a huge family with routine anymore or we would end up stuck at home everynight which we couldnt cope with so our kids are really good with going with the flow ------------- 
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Posted By: MrsH
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 5:34pm
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?  )------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: MrsMojo
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 6:43pm
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I get home at 5pm. My kids are looked after here. I throw together a quick dinner then BF my son before bathing the kids. DS goes to bed sometime between 7pm-7:30pm and DDs bedtime is 8pm. It's a rush and I feel as though I barely see my kids but they get too tired otherwise (DS is already asleep on my lap right now and I need to wake him to bath him etc). -------------  
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Posted By: E&L+1
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 7:17pm
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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 ------------- http://lilypie.com">  http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: fire_engine
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 7:26pm
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I pick DS up at 5 and DH gets home about 6.15. We tend to eat sometime between 6.30 and 7. Start the bedtime wind-down 7.15ish and usually in bed at 7.45.
Would DC consider giving him dinner? Our problem is that DS is SUCH a daddy's boy, and if he doesn't have enough Dad time at the end of the day, he doesn't go down well. It's a real balance between getting that time together and getting him to bed at a decent time. ------------- Mum to two wee boys |
Posted By: Jess439
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 8:13pm
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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. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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Posted By: MrsH
Date Posted: 07 October 2010 at 9:30pm
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Oh, I forgot to mention that it's HUGELY important to us to eat as a family which is another reason we're so late getting DS to bed.
Excuses, excuses.... I know. ------------- http://lilypie.com"> http://lilypie.com">
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Posted By: WestiesGirl
Date Posted: 08 October 2010 at 12:40am
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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. ------------- Our Angel July 08  Gone but not forgotten
And to complete our family, our princess has arrived 
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Posted By: MrsMojo
Date Posted: 08 October 2010 at 7:35am
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There's nothing wrong with putting DS to bed at 9pm. It works for you and for him and that's what's important. In many cultures globally children go to bed with their parents sometimes as late as 11pm and if they're tired the next day they just sleep (I read that in this months Little Treasures Maybe if I put my kids to bed later they wouldn't wake up at stupid'o'clock (but then since I leave for work at 6:45am I wouldn't get to see them -------------
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MrsH wrote:
).Posted By: gmunster
Date Posted: 08 October 2010 at 9:35am
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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! -------------  
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Posted By: AzzaNZ
Date Posted: 08 October 2010 at 9:45am
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I finish work at 17h30, race to daycare so I get there by 18h00.
Then home and I start running a bath and turn the oven on. Put supper in the oven with a timer on. Jump in the bath with DD (or if she goes in alone then I ask her to sing because I know if she's singing she isn't drowning  )
Get us out the bath and dried. Pull supper out the oven and finish anything off that needs to while DD helps set the table. Feed DD around 19h00. DH comes home around 19h30. DD to bed at 20h00. Eat with DH once she's in bed. And now I just need to work out how to do it with 2 children when I go back to work in a few weeks! ------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
http://lilypie.com"> 
http://intermittentblogger.wordpress.com |
Posted By: Shelt
Date Posted: 08 October 2010 at 9:55pm
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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!------------- http://lilypie.com"> 
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