What do you do as a family after dinner & before bed

[Wipingsides]

Adjusting to a new normal of children staying up later & finding it frustrating!! We have DD12 & DS9. Our routine up to now has been upstairs @ 7-7.30 for the DS & DH reads to him or he has half hour TV then he goes to bed & DD has TV til 8.30 then off she goes to bed to read. Both asleep by 9. Fine. Except they’re pushing the boundaries now & both want to stay up later & very different tastes in Tv.. plus DH can’t abide watching “naff family friendly tv” til 9pm 🙄
We do have 3 TVs but not comfortable with us all in separate rooms...
Weekly we’ll watch a film together, rarely play a board game- not usually enjoyable due to tiredness all round by the stage of the day!
What is your evening routine with older children? And what happens when they both stay up even later??!!

[bigchris]

13 and 15 here

They are in their smart phones or console

At 9 it's everything off and pack bags for next day , showers etc

I had to go to bed at 9.30 til 16 but they seem to go at 10

[bigchris]

I hate the lomg summer nights , they don't go out like I used to at that age , it's just more screens and later nights because of the sunshine !

[Fizzypoo]

As mine have gotten older they have gone into their rooms more.

We have 3 weekday nights in a week. As long as homework is done and we've sat up at the table and had a conversation I let them get on with it (ages 12 &14) and I crash in front of the telly in the living room.

9 is bedtime - I don't mind if they play on their playstation/switch ect from dinner time to shower and bed time.

[delilahbucket]

DS and DP often play instruments together, or we watch a documentary together. DS is 11 and he goes for a shower about 8pm and then watches a bit of TV before bed at 8:45 on a school night. He then reads for a bit before sleep.

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

One or the other usually has sone kind of activity on, like Scouts, climbing or cricket.

Mine are older so probably spend a fair bit if time doing homework too. DS gets in his xbox given the first opportunity and they both like to bake so it's not uncommon that one of them will be in the kitchen.

My youngest, 12, needs her sleep though so if she's not got an activity on, she's upstairs by 8pm, she probably messes around for half an hour but is usually asleep by 8.30 pm. She usually wakes quite refreshed. On the nights she goes to bed later, she is murder the next day

[BrownAjah]

No screens allowed after dinner here. Kids (11,9,6) all usually vanish upstairs and play until bedtime stories/showers start at 7pm for 6yr old. I still read with all 3 so getting them all to bed takes about an hour. 11yr old usually in bedroom about 8pm and he can read/draw/quiet activity until 9pm lights out

[reluctantbrit]

DD goes up directly after dinner, around 8pm. She packs her bag, tidies a bit away and reads before light out.

There is the odd day we may watch some TV like a history or an animal documentary but maybe 1-2 a months.

She loves to wind down on her own, TV before bed is not helping her to fall asleep and also all electronics has to be down as well.

[ExpletiveDelighted]

14 and 16 but similar routine for last couple of years. Home from school/work, eat, out again to sports/hobbies (most nights, most of us), homework, TV (family friendly) or potter about, DCs head to bed at about 10. Parents choice of TV after 9 but it is always family friendly till they go to bed, so documentary, quiz, reality show or age appropriate drama.

[SoloMummy]

Though earlier, for us it's either a part of a family film/TV, another shared book - sometimes audio, board games though usually I ensure the games are before a slightly later dinner unless the mood is right iykwim.

[BackforGood]

At that age at least one of them would be out over different evenings - Cubs or Scouts, swimming, etc.
We both also volunteer / have hobbies, and we both work in jobs that involve working at home in the evenings sometimes, then, there is also household stuff to be done around all this - so we've never "sat down for cosy evenings round the TV" anyway.

[245Blossom]

Reading with interest. We used to have an upstairs by 7, chilling out till 8pm routine. Now dd is 11yo and wants to stay downstairs with us later, but also still wants the whole bedtime routine, this can now take til 9.30. So dh and I currently have very little wind down time and certainly don't get time to watch any tv that isn't pg viewing. But surely this will pass and in a few months or a year & dd won't want/need a bedtime routine ????

[ExpletiveDelighted]

The bedtime routine will disappear but they just start going to bed later and later. At that point you need to decide whether to send them up say at 9 even if they aren't going to bed till 10 or give up on non-PG viewing and accept that wind down time includes having the DCs around. We've gone for the latter, it's fine mostly but tricky if we want to discuss things privately (eg finances).