To never do bedtime again?

[mynamechangemyrules]

Obv a time difference where I am, and have just spent 2 hrs doing bedtime for a 7, 5 and 1 year old.

There's only me. I work full time and the childcarer leaves the minute I'm through the door.

Then it's just the boys (7&5) fighting and fussing and being idiots and the baby girl getting wound up. It goes round in circles forever.

I hate it. I hate everything when I'm doing it. I lose my rag and feel guilty. The whole thing is carnage.

Tomorrow I'm going to drink wine downstairs and they can sort themselves out.

Don’t be afraid to break with convention: you don’t have to store pjs in the wardrobe - they could live in the bedtime basket. You don’t have to put them asleep in order of age - maybe settle the baby last if that works for you.

Baths wind my boys up so they are definitely not part of the bedtime routine in my house. All the experts say you should keep things calm at bedtime but I find putting them up earlier and letting them play in their bedroom works for us. They get a five minute warning before lights out to finish jumping on the beds their game. At different stages they slept together, or on a mattress in my bedroom, and even in my bed. I’m a firm believer in what works and that it’s only a phase.
I have lowered my expectations of what children will do, and chilled out about it. It took me a lot longer than others will admit to get my dc to the stage where they go to sleep in their own beds without hassle, get dressed independently, etc but by accepting the stage they were at, I was able to let go of the stress and the rage.