Parents of children under 5 - Describe 5pm-7pm in your house

[Teachingteacher]

This is mostly to make me feel better about my life! Tell me if yours is similar.

Mine looks like this:

5pm I arrive home with DS aged 4, and DD aged 6 months.
5:10pm - DS has a snack of cherry tomatoes (same every day!) at the dining table while DD sits in the high chair watching him
5:20 - DS plays in his room while listening to the Thomas the Tank Engine podcast, DD sits screaming in the high chair in the kitchen while I finish up dinner (it’s mostly meal prepped)
5:30-5:45 - DH arrives home
5:45 - We sit at the table and eat dinner. Everyone mostly eats their food. We finish every meal with a piece of fruit and a piece of chocolate. DD has a few bites of purée to keep her busy
6pm - we finish dinner and DH goes to run the bath. DS helps me bring plates into the kitchen
6:10pm - DH has a bath with the kids. I clean up the kitchen and put on the dishwasher. I also put on a load of washing. I then come over to the bath and wash both kids hair. DD comes out first and I change her into her pjs. DH gets DS into his PJs.
6:20 - We have ‘clean up time’ which involves tidying the living room and bedrooms, putting laundry away, and this is when I check DS school bag for leftover snacks and letters home.
6:40 - we attempt some kind of family quiet time, read a book to DS. DD is usually screaming like a banshee at this point. We finally give her a pacifier that she sucks for 2 seconds and then spits out.
7pm - DH puts DS to bed. I hear him singing him a song every evening. DS falls asleep immediately most of the time. I start feeding DD her last bottle. DH comes out of DS’s room and sinks into the sofa with a sigh.
7:15pm - I put DD down in her crib in our room. She cried for about 30 seconds and then falls asleep.

7:20pm - DH and I look at each other, exhausted. He makes us a cup of tea (earl grey for me, English breakfast for him) and we start our evening…

Darn. Mine is quite changeable, but here goes.

DS is just 3. DD is 10 months.

5pm onwards:

Dinner, ds eats v little and dd eats a lot

Bath, dd goes in with ds, then i get her out while he continues the lengthy process of transfering the water onto the bathroom floor.

Pj's, cbeebies (moonbaby,clangers and, God help us all, in the night garden) teeth brushed.

Once cbeebies ends, ds is into bed for 2 or 3 stories. Dd crawls around floor distributing the contents of the underwear drawer around the place.

Ds goes to sleep with his dodie and music toy and i sit at the end of his bed giving dd her bottle. If she goes to sleep quickly, I sometimes snuggle with him.

I only work part time, so it's pretty chill. Fair play to all of you who get home from long days working to all of it.

I also have the audacity to have a hobby, so on those evenings I get home at 6.30 or 7 to an actual circus. Dh and ds in the garden getting nails out of old pallet wood or something. Dd in the door jumper thingy shrieking in the hope of a bottle. I've given up and just don't do any bathing those nights. Face wipe and in bed with the bottle is all they get.

5pm: everyone starts crying until they eventually go to sleep

Wow all these kids go to bed super early!

Mine are 5 and 2.5.

• Nanny has 2.5 year old all day and collects 5yo from school at 3.30. She gives them their dinner at 5pm and clocks off at 5.45. Usually both DH and I are home to relieve her.
• 5.45-6.30: play!
• 6.30-7: bath and teeth (after a lot of “persuasion”)
• 7-7.20: one of us does stories with 2.5yo, the other does music practice with 5yo. 2.5yo then into bed.
• 7.20-8: stories with 5yo, including hearing reading. 2.5yo often still awake when 5yo goes into bed (they share a room) and can stay up chatting to himself for ages…really need to start reducing his nap! 5yo is asleep in minutes. They both wake up at 7am.

4 kids (12, 8, 4, 2).
Get home from work and kids all picked up and home by 520, everyone has dinner about 545. Partner runs eldest to her sport training session. Little ones watch some rubbish on TV and play with toys until about 645 and then get in the bath, have their hair washed and every single night we count their 32 rubber ducks and throw them one by one from the bath into the sink. Partner usually loads dishwasher and puts toys away.
I get them both out and take into our room, dry 2 year olds hair, and get both into pyjamas. Read them both a story in 2 year olds room. Partner comes in and puts her in bed, and I take 4 year old into his room where we have a dinosaur related chat until his dad comes in and puts him to bed. They're both asleep by 730.
Then 8 year old gets a bath and reads or watches TV until about 8.
In the gap we run round like maniacs tidying up, putting washing on, sorting the dishes and hoovering etc. Then I go to pick up 12 year old for 815, she has her tea, and then watches Netflix in bed until around 945. She prefers to get up at 6am and get her shower before school which is wonderful and noisy 🙃. Before we sit down we sort packed lunches, uniforms, nursery bags etc.
From about 10pm we usually watch an episode of something and then pass out ready to do it all again 😴

Wow! I'm finding all these super organised evenings very triggering!

I have 3 aged 9, 7 and 4. Husband either not here as he works away, or not home until 8pm ish. If he is home his mental health issues means he does not pull his weight 😒

I work school hours.

2.20-3.20pm school pick up
3.20-4pm Nintendo switch zone out time for eldest, many demands form 4 yo/ frantic work emailing form me
4.29/15 back to school to pick up keeno middle child from her clubs.
4.30 start dinner. Somehow this takes me twice as long at least as all the rest of you on here.
Anytime from 5.30-6.45pm dinner.
6.45-7.15: hang out time for the kids. I tidy up/consider how it all got to this stage
7.15 TV off, kids uostairs for either bath or winding down time whilst I summon energy to wrestle them to bed.
8pm bed. Oldest two listen to audio book as youngest WILL NOT SLEEP UNLESS PRESSED AGAINST ME.
Husband often arrives home around now, shouts a bit about how can we be expected to live like this and goes to bed.
8.30 Audio book off. Sleep. Except as often as not the 4yo os still awake now, at 9pm. 🤦🏼‍♀️
8.45 cool myself dinner
11.pm bed for me.

I admit it could be more streamlined but tbh after 10 years of this shit, I'm broken. I hate it. And have to force myself through every stage. I can't wait until the youngest starts school and I can get them all in after school club at least one night and get a bit more time to think/work.

Your evening doesn't sound too bad, except for the crying.
I get home at 6pm after picking my DD aged 2 up from nursery. My partner finishes off cooking the meal I have previously meal prepped then we play, brush teeth, put pj's on. My DD goes up to bed at 7pm and won't sleep until at least 8pm, my partner and I take turns to do bedtime. Then it's finishing off chores, meal prepping, making lunch etc. We only watch about 30 mins of TV together a week. Usually in bed between 9-10pm as DD gets up at 5am. On the rare occasion she falls asleep early we go crazy and attempt to watch a movie but generally only make it half way through before needing to sleep.
We only do bath time twice a week as it costs too much to do it any more.

Two DS', 2 and 5.

5pm - all sit down to eat dinner. Cue 5yo saying he's thirsty and needs a drink, and 2yo pushing his plate of food away and saying 'don't like it' despite it being the same meal he devoured two nights' ago. Me and DH end up eating cold meals after getting up a hundred times to fetch drinks/sauce/fresh cutlery to replace those dropped on the floor/make toast when we give into 2yo not eating his dinner.
5:20pm - clean up after dinner, 5yo will have half an hour of iPad time and 2yo will watch a bit of Peppa.
5:50pm - start bathtime. DH will have a bath with the boys whilst I get the washing together and tidy up the boys rooms lounge on the bed for 10 mins whilst pretending I'm tidying up.
6:20pm - both boys demand I get them both in their PJs at the same time even though I am only one human with one pair of arms and 5yo can dress himself anyway. Daddy will not do. Cue tears. DH miraculously disappears downstairs at this point.
6:30pm - go downstairs, 5yo does a bit of reading and 2yo will play with some toys and trash the lounge a bit more.
7pm - bedtime. 5yo realises he's starving, thirsty, needs a wee, needs a poo, has left all his teddies downstairs and can only bring them upstairs one by one. 2yo saves a bit of our sanity by getting into bed with no fuss - sick of his brother at this point probably.
7:20pm - me and DH flop on the sofa and spend the next 3 hours debating what to watch on Netflix before giving up and going to bed.

Goady. Reported.

I wfh, finish at 5.30 (usually on the dot or near to), dh finishes at 5, we have a 3yo and a 5yo.

Dh leaves work at 5 and picks up dd from nursery, ds from after school club, and gets home about 5.30 - 5.40.

I start food when I finish work, either something batch cooked, or a simple meal. Sometimes I do veg prep on my lunch break so it's all ready to just chuck in the oven, and I chuck it in at about 5. Dh pitches in on the cooking when he gets home, the kids play together/annoy the shit out of each other while we cook, set the table etc.

Dinner on the table by 6.15 ish. We all eat together. Kids sometimes eat more, sometimes less. I don't push it, dd gets dinner at nursery and ds gets a sandwich and fruit at after school club so their hunger levels are really variable. They know, though, that what's on the table is what there is, so it's usually fairly low fuss if they don't want to eat.

Play time/tidy up time for the kids after dinner until 7.15 ish, depending on how tired they are. No TV after dinner because they are awful at going up to bed if the TV has been on at this time. When I want to start moving them along to bed time I set a little oven timer clock we have for 10 minutes, tell them that the clock is on, and they know when it beeps its time for bed. That has taken a lot of the drama out of announcing it's bed time. They get a warning, and if I try and send them up before the clock beeps, they are very clear with me that it's not time yet because the clock hasn't beeped.

Teeth, toilet, pyjamas, and story time if they are good at getting ready for bed. They have baths in the morning rather than the evening. They both go up at the same time. Dh and I usually do all this together.

Off to bed, some time between 7.30 and 7.45. Oldest drops off pretty quickly, youngest flaps about in bed but stays put and is normally asleep by 8. We clear up and relax, do hobbies, whatever.

Sounds very low drama when it's written down but it's challenging sometimes when they are tired, or take against their favourite pyjamas for no reason, or don't want to brush teeth (which is non negotiable) etc. There are flash points and a lot of cajoling. But the trick with the oven timer has made one flash point a lot better.

I'm really surprised at how many people go back downstairs after bath time! Bath time is always at the end of the day for us as that's wind down time, then it's straight upstairs after bath, into pj's, books and bed.

4yo and 2yo
I am SAHM so the boys have dinner together at 5pm, I don't like dinner that early so DH & I eat later when they're in bed.
DH often not home until 6:30/7pm in which case....
5:30/5:45 finish dinner and boys help me tidy the play room (HA HA TIDY) / throw toys into random boxes and lose multiple puzzle pieces / all marbles for marble run in the process. All go upstairs and lay both pyjamas out in DS1 bedroom
6pm back down for bath time
6:30 back upstairs to get both into their pyjamas.
Eldest chooses books while youngest has milk. Then it's all 3 of us into DS1 bed and read books / tell stories / sing nursery rhymes until
6:50. Eldest comes with me into youngest room and helps me sing a lullaby then put DS2 down.
7pm DS1 goes down
7.01pm I open a bottle of wine (or seedlip when pregnant)

DH usually arrives back some time before they're both down in which case he just joins in with the above. Lord knows how it'll work when the new baby arrives. But that's tomorrow's (July's) problem

This thread is so wonderfully refreshing Vs the usual “He still needs you with him to go to sleep at six weeks? Bath, massage, PJs, bottle, bed and leave the room, asleep at 6pm with a whole evening stretching out before me, in which to hoover my skirting boards you fucking slattern”.

I mean it’s also depressing, as I secretly feel I could just get a handle on the chaos if DS didn’t clusterfeed and cosleep, DD could just not be such a four year old, and DP didn’t have ADHD.

Everything in my routine seems to take much longer!

I've two 3-year olds.

6:15 - pause work (from home). Give children dinner.
6:45/7 - finish dinner and they play while I tidy up and put on dishwasher
7 - if bathnight, up for bath, loads of play with bubbles, dry-off, nappy, pjs
8 - stories, glass of milk, teeth
8:15 - bed. I then check back on work and finish emails etc
9 - make my dinner, while also tidying around
10:30 - fold any laundry. Empty dishwasher, reload with my dinner stuff
11:00 - bed with book and glass of wine

Frequently I'm in meetings till 7pm, which pushes out the routine, so we skip bath to make up time.

Mine are not in school yet, so when the time comes, I've no idea where I'll fit in making lunches, setting out uniform, checking bag for notes from school etc.

4 year old.
Home from work/nursery at 4
Walk dog
4.30 ish DD plays and watches cbeebies whilst I make dinner
5 ish both eat dinner
6 she has a bath and is in bed asleep by 6.30

We both go to bed early because we're up at 5.

Your working day is clearly longer than a lot of us though.

@bussteward absolutely this. are we married to the same man? 😂

I love reading these routines! So many good ideas: the oven timer one is particularly good, I’m stealing that!

Mine are not in school yet, so when the time comes, I've no idea where I'll fit in making lunches, setting out uniform, checking bag for notes from school etc.
Same – I plan to do it when shouting and running around panicking at 8.07am while covered in cereal and doing the school run in a cold sweat and dirty hair.

I couldn’t write it all down in order if I tried.

2 hour period where everyone gets fed and put to bed. It’s chaos. Then I have a wine.

I have one two year old and work from home. Two year old is at his childminders 8.30-4.30 all week.

5pm My son, G, and I arrive home from his childminders.

5-5.30 Mummy and G playtime. We either play with his train set, play kitchen, colour or get the PlayDough out.

(In the summer that time is often spent at the park instead)

5.30 - 6pm We call Nanna on FaceTime and then G is allowed to either watch CBeebies or play toddler games on the tablet whilst I cook tea.

6pm My husband arrives home and we all eat tea at the table.

6.30pm We have wind down time with daddy. We might read books or watch Moon and Me.

(If it's a shower night for G we will take him
up at 6.45)

7pm We take G up to his room and start his bedtime routine: night nappy, pyjamas, book, teeth, water, cuddles and sleep.

7.30pm My husband and I clean the kitchen, make Gs lunch for the following day and then relax until we go to bed at 10.30.

18m. DC has dinner 5-6ish, during that time dishing him out more food, doing the dishes or cooking something for another meal and usually also mucking around on my phone and having a wine. Around 6 clean DC as he makes a huge mess, then he will play. If DH is WFH, then he'll come down about 6.30 and play with DC for 15 to 20 minutes while.i go in another room for some alone time (I'm a SAHM). Then together we do his nappy, toothbrush, story and bed. 7ish PM .... FREEDOM!!! 🥳 more wine, dinner, TV followed by bed

6yo and 1.5yo

Me and DH tag team, so one parent usually reads and does bedtime with each child.

5:15pm - Collect eldest from after school club
5:30pm - Eldest and I both collect youngest from nursery
5:45pm - Arrive home, give kids snack of toast and babybel/yogurt
6-6:20pm - kids play and watch some TV
6:20ish - bathtime for youngest (older one joins a bit later on), brush teeth etc.
6:45 - youngest out bath, nappy, pjs on, bottle on our bed with Night Garden on Cbeebies
7pm - 7:15pm - eldest gets himself out the bath (if not already) and he does his own pjs etc. Meanwhile I read youngest a book in his room and then put in his cot, light out, say goodnight.
7:15-730pm - Snuggle in oldest DS bed. Listen to him read his school reading book, then I read a chapter of a book to him. Lights out by 7:30pm, say goodnight.

Rest of the evening is spent cooking our dinner, watching TV and getting bags ready to do it all again the next day!

@bangwhistle you’re losing a lot of time in that schedule, I won’t patronisingly dump tips on you because you haven’t asked for any but I bet some of the organisation keen beans on here could offer some if you started a thread!

DH collects children from school and nursery at 4.
4-5 children play/watch TV whilst DH usually does some admin.
5-6 DH makes them supper.
6 I arrive home and we go up to the bath. Both DH and I bath them, sometimes we will shower with them etc and all get into PJ's.
6.30 they play in their rooms whilst I do a whip round upstairs and chat to DH ( usually about what we fancy to eat!)
7 we take one child each and do bedtime, read a story and then listen to a Tonie whilst they fall asleep.
7-8 go downstairs once DC are asleep and go back and forth for 20 mins about what we might like to eat.
Then the rest of the night is clearing up, washing, watching some TV etc.

Mine was very similar to this except that my husband rarely came home in time to eat with us, if he was there he was happy to help with bed time and wait for his tea. I mainly ate with the children to encourage good behaviour and chat to them, hubby warmed up his meal later. Occasionally if it was something not suitable to be heated up, I would just have a drink sitting down with the children and we would cook together once they were asleep but I did not really like doing this.

I had three children in 4 years with the youngest just 13 months apart so tended to treat the youngest two like twins, pop them in bed first after the story then spend 20 minutes or so with the oldest one to give him extra attention.

Haha, welcome to it. I think I got the idea from someone on here in the first place :)