Well overwhelmingly you wanted to know about how we do bedtime up in herrrrr so here it is:
- They go to bed early.
If they are crying and freaking out at bedtime, you’re waiting too long to put them to bed. During the school year my kids get their story read to them at 7:30 and in the summer at 8:30.
This is important for many reasons, but I’ll give you my top 2.
One. Because I’m farking tired. Okay? They don’t need to be up bugging me until 10pm (yah, I said bugging me, because at 14 hours of [usually] solo parenting it’s gone from cute to straight annoying) or later just because it’s summer. If they wind down and go to bed early, then I can relax and watch tv or read my book or pick up the kitchen or whatever the heck I want for a couple hours before I need to go to bed. It makes staying up late for fun things like visiting friends, traveling and whatnot more special.
Two. If your kids are like mine. They are going to get up at pretty much the same time. Every. Day. So to make sure they are getting enough rest, they need to go to bed early. My kids don’t sleep in. They just don’t. So if they don’t go to bed at a normal time, they end up missing sleep.
- Routine. Plain Jane and simple, yo.
Do the same dang thing. My kids eat dinner, get a water bottle and go play or watch a movie. About 10 mins before it’s time to read to them I tell them it’s almost bedtime. They have time to go potty, brush their teeth, fill their water or finish whatever they are doing. I start with the youngest and she gets to pick a story and so on until my oldest and we are reading a chapter book together.
So what I want to know…what are your bedtime tricks? Do you struggle with routine in the evening?