Help me figure out when I can exercise

Neither of us are good at getting up in the morning to exercise. We alternate doing the post nursery dinner - bath - bedtime slot twice a week, and a weekend morning each. We’ve made it a priority so it happens for both of us. It was motivating at the beginning purely for the break from parenting, but now it’s a habit. Caveat is that we both work mostly remotely so can do chores, put dinner on etc in the day during breaks. I also use the flexibility to fit a session in if I need to at lunch time.
The other bit of advice I have is that something is better than nothing! Stop waiting for the perfect time to do it, if you’ve just got 20 minutes, just do 20 minutes!

Could you do a home workout on some of the WFH days at lunch and do more walks at the weekend.
Or try yoga or something quiet at home in the evenings?

I find it easier to do 10 minutes here and there with home YouTube workouts.
Yes you can get up early but the challenge is actually being able to get up. Once you're up you might as well get on with it. Once the day gets going it's easier to make excuses.

Get some weights to do at home in the morning- mix that in with running. 6am before the kids are awake

Your routine is similar to mine. I usually get up at 5.15ish, out the door for my run by 5.45am or 6am depending on how far I'm going. Long run at weekends.

Also early yoga classes- I'm lucky that our local studio does two 6am classes each week, and as they're only 45 mins I'm home by 7am to take over.

Do you mean you already do the 30 mins workouts, or you want to fit them in? Do you work from home?

We do similar to this. Do you work from home op?
Our kids are older now so can be left but essentially I cook dinner for about 6/6:30 then whoever is exercising (7-8 normally) has theirs afterwards. Either reheat or cook again from scratch if it’s something that doesn’t reheat well. We also do exercise at weekends - either a class or sport.

What time do you you do your 3 x 30 minutes home workouts, could you do that time every day and vary what you do? I found HIIT is good one to do at home with limited time.

How about long weekend walks?

When my kids were little I would go for a run after the bedtime routine. Slung on trainers, leggings and tshirt and ran 3k in 20 mins three times a week. Hated it but it did make me feel better. In winter I mixed it up with Jillian Michaels' 30-day shred, which also only took 20 mins.
Now my kids are older and I have more time to myself, I do longer, lower impact exercise like going on 2-hour long bike rides, swimming and yoga. I see exercise as investing time in myself and really enjoy it now.

I use lunchtimes at work, after kids are in bed, I don’t do before work simply as I don’t like to run when not fuelled, but that’s always an option. Build activity into your day whenever possible. I walk wherever possible, as do the kids. Weekends I do my long runs.

Honestly you just need to prioritise it, we can usually find 30 mins to do stuff we really want to do (or sit doomscrolling on our phone!) so it just takes a mindset shift sometimes. Exercise is a non-negotiable for me, so it has to fit in.

Doesn’t look that hard! Just get up earlier and go for a run or walk or do a home workout. Or do a home workout while child is occupied with breakfast etc .

midday break, OP mentions "a walk", sometimes.
How long a walk can you squeeze in?
is there a workmate who would like a walk, too.
Could it be a run+shower rather than a walk at midday break? Then eat actual lunch at your desk (which is common).

Can you park a bit further from office or nursery to get 10 minute walks in either way?

OP hasn't mentioned weekends at all.

I get up at 6 three times a week . It’s the only way to fit any exercise in.

We get up at 5:30 and take it in turns to exercise one indoors at home whilst kids in bed or up watching TV/playing in their rooms and then the other goes out for a run and then we alternate. We both leave at 7:00 on office days. Also walk/run during lunch break. Then on a weekend we get 3 hours each Saturday morning by one of us getting up early 5:30-8:30 and then the other going 8:30-11:30, then we’re both done by lunch time. We might also do an hour each on Sunday morning depending whether we have plans to go out for the day. They key for us is early mornings, but that means we don’t need to do anything on an evening.

I would do one early evening - you cook dinner but dont eat amd go to the gym while DH does bath and bedtime. They will survive i promise! And it will feed very odd to miss that part of the day but you may like it very much. I’d do that on a wednesday if possible and the. Id workout once on a Saturday and once on a sunday.
For steps, i also try to do 7k a day but i look at my daily average for a week because some days life is too busy. So it may look like monday 5k, tuesday 6k, wed 8k thu 4k friday 10k etc…

Also exercise with your child. An indoor trampoline, football in the garden or park. Or you can do 10-15 minutes of yoga while they play or crawl all over you.

Get up at 5am or 6am and go to the gym, out for a run or workout with weights at home.

Go out for a run at lunch time. 30 min run and 30 mins to shower (if workplace has them) and freshen up.

In the evening after 8.30 or after dinner.

At the weekend - carve out an hour on either Sat or Sun.

Cycle to work when you can.

Yes make use of lunchtime

and the. 830 - just get on with it , shattered or not

or do something with DS like dancing to some music

or one looks after child and the other does exercise - it must be easier with two of you

and workouts at weekends - say sat sun and then once in the week

I do nursery run, too far to walk but sometimes cycle before starting work.

Is it really too far to walk? How far is it? If you walked to & fro, 40 minutes each way, that's probably 10k steps just there.

Can your DH do more of the pickups? When you say you split bed and bath times, do you mean you alternate days or both do that? Either way there’s a block of time there up for grabs at least a few times a week.

Something has to give if you want to fit exercise in. That might be doing batch cooking or having quick soup and sandwich dinners instead of spending an hour making dinner. It might be letting your dusting go. It might be giving up tv on the sofa time in the evenings.

Go for a run rather than counting steps. It's quicker and you will get more from it.

I would say have a night a week where DH does it all - pick up, dinner and bed and you do your workout. You wouldn’t eat together that day but it doesn’t matter as a one off. Then return the favour.

I would do either a 6am or an 8:30pm run depending on your preference for mornings or evenings.

one is earlier than I would like and the other later but I would make it work.

i would also do a longer run on a weekend morning. Take it in turns with your partner to each do the early mornings with u in r DS one day and do your own fitness the other.

I say all this now because fitness is an important part of my life. However, when my kids were young and I worked odd shifts around them I didn’t fit anywhere near as much in as I do now and it wasn’t as important to me.