To think that 39mins to bedtime is a fast job?

[stealthbanana]

Just had this article from the Indy pop up in my newsfeed.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/uk-parents-bedtime-nine-days-year-compare-market-a9700981.html?fbclid=IwAR0m8p6jmMBWshyETjtbf-GmY5-92GdIHaUuDMnSU56-byO57c28SbdYMJE

Am genuinely flabbergasted that people can get their kids to bed in

I run the bath at 5:30, DH gets the milk. We then Bath them and get them in to bed with stories at 5:55. I always take DD1 and DH takes DD2. We are downstairs by 6am and start dinner.

It depends I can do it in about 40 minutes with a shower, but I quite like the evening time, especially when I've been at work, so bath time gets a bit longer with songs and 'swimming practice', DS has a naked post bath run around with the cat, one story becomes three... If I put DS to bed at 6:30 he'd be up by 5 am! He's usually asleep around 8/8:15 and gets up about 7/7:30 which is fine by me

My 2 year old goes up the stairs at 7pm, and DH/I are back on the sofa by 7:20pm. Teeth, nappy, pjs, book, and into bed. Job done. I dont wait around for her to fall asleep etc. I tell her to lie down, give her a kiss and a stroke on her head, and off I go. Sometimes she talks to herself for 15 or so minutes. Sometimes she doesnt.

My 2 year old goes up the stairs at 7pm, and DH/I are back on the sofa by 7:20pm. Teeth, nappy, pjs, book, and into bed. Job done. I dont bath her at night time. She gets too excited. I also dont wait around for her to fall asleep etc. I tell her to lie down, give her a kiss and a stroke on her head, and off I go. Sometimes she talks to herself for 15 or so minutes. Sometimes she doesnt.

Wow 1.5 hours seems like such a long time! Mine are 2 & 3 and takes half an hour tops! Usually more like 20 minutes and that’s pretty much every night!

Agree you don't stay with the child until they're asleep. Bath, teeth, story, good night kiss.

How old are your kids?
Are you aware you don't need to bath them?
And probably shouldn't stay till they fall asleep.

My kids have a nightlight on, some toys to play with and books to look at. So if they don't go off straight away they have something to play with. Sometimes they get a movie on and will watch a bit of it. But generally they go to sleep pretty quick. We do get a fair bit of night waking though, and some very early mornings.

3 year old DD here. Jammies, teeth and toilet sorted in under 5 minutes. 2 minutes to do a set routine of things she likes to do in her room (look at posters, read out a wall hanging quote, measure her on her height chart and spell her name out loud) then a story on my bed before tucking her up in hers. 12 minutes approx. She tends to shower in the morning these days. Historically she was a whizz at extra rituals appearing in the routine but I've got savvy to her nonsense now and have streamlined it right back down.

45 minutes would be an absolute maximum. I tend to bathe DS's before dinner because a bath hypes them up before bed.

Bedtime begins at 6pm. One of us takes a DC each. Whoever has DS(4) will do school reading from 6pm, then upstairs, brush teeth, in to PJ's, book of their choice and bed. He's usually in bed by 6:30.

DS(1) starts having cosy time, we might read a book before In The Night Garden begins at 6:20. He has milk from a sippy and when he's ready to go to bed he climbs off the sofa holding his muslin. Usually 6:30. I don't think he's ever actually finished an episode of In The Night Garden.

This totally changes at weekends though, but both DC are generally super relaxed about going to sleep.

We stopped daily baths as one of mine had eczema, so teeth, PJ, stories, song. Done. 25 mins of they each had three stories and they avoided Thomas the fucking annoying twat engine.

Mine are 20 minutes each, PJs, teeth and book. They have a bath twice a week and stay in for about an hour. I don’t count them as part of bedtime as we do it much earlier in the evening and it’s nothing to do with their bedtime routine.

We did showers from when they could stand up so made the process much quicker but with DT’s you never knew how long it would be until they were both actually asleep.

It's silly to say 'you don't stay with the child until they're asleep,' though.

Clearly some people do, and probably do it for a reason.

I get that it can be helpful to assess how you parent, especially when you are worried you're finding it harder than you have a strong suspicion it should be. But it's not the case that all children respond to the same things. My DD was such a nightmare when she was tiny, and I don't know how I didn't punch all the people who brightly suggested we leave her awake in her room/ did this thing/ did that thing, because that worked so well for them. The bottom line is that some children, at some times, really do struggle with sleep, and as parents we all do the best we can, but there's sometimes no magic solution.

I never bathed my dc before bed. Pjs, teeth, toilet, then into bed for a story or two. 10 to 20 mins tops. I am curious about something, if you bath your dc before bed, do they go to bed with wet hair? As i say, just curious.

15-20 mins here for 1.5yo.

Mine take hours. So much so it isn’t really a bedtime, more of the whole evening now.

We used to walk/drive with ds1 for 2 hrs every night from when he was 1-4yo. Then we laid with him for 1+ hours from 4-6yo. Then we gave up and now he and ds2 and dd just fart about and come to bed with me at 10pm.

We only bath them twice a week because of eczema.

1.5 hours - I literally had no idea anyone could take this long! We have 3 kids under 7 and normally takes us 20 minutes, maybe 30 on the nights they have a bath, and then the older one comes back downstairs with us to potter around for a bit. Teeth, pjs, nappy, 2 x books, song, bed. They stay awake for a while - 1 yr old will just chat to himself, and 4 yr old will look at books etc. If you can leave them before they're asleep you'll gain yourself 7 extra hours a week!!!!

Meant to say a sleep consultant told me it should take 20 mins max to do bedtime - but she didn’t count baths. as bedtime- Just pjs, teeth story etc

I prefer a shorter bedtime routine with mine.
If we're talking just the 3yo then it's about 30-40 minutes - into the bath (15 minutes max), teeth brush, pyjamas, hair dried (15 minutes max) and a story (10-15 minutes).

My two (6&4) baths/shower after dinner but before wind-down time, 3x per week (the days when I'm on earlies/off work) so I can't count that as part of the bedtime routine. The 4-year-old is so easy to put to bed. 5 minutes for teeth/wee/wash, 5 minutes for pyjamas on and teddies in bed ready, 10 minutes for story and cuddles then she's out like a light. The 6-year-old is a totally different kettle of fish - some nights he can be co-operative and the whole process can be done within half an hour. Some nights he can be up and down for 2 hours asking for water/cuddles/a million questions. I suppose there'll always be an "average" but very few people will actually be that average.

My eldest has always been quick, never did bath bottle bed routine. So it was just feed, teeth bed. Same now, just adjusted for age.
So at 6 months old she took 15 minutes and at 11 years old it's "right, get ready for bed" at 830 and by 840 she's in bed, usually asleep by 915?

Her sister same routine, doesn't go to sleep quickly and is often reading when we go up to bed at 11, but she's quiet and chilled so same difference.

Guessing I'm the one who pulls the average down.

When they were younger I'd read for 15 minutes to them.

3 kids 5y, 4y & 10m...bath, book, bed in 30-45 mins! It is like a well oiled machine!

@Deadringer

I never bathed my dc before bed. Pjs, teeth, toilet, then into bed for a story or two. 10 to 20 mins tops. I am curious about something, if you bath your dc before bed, do they go to bed with wet hair? As i say, just curious.

No, I dry their hair Don't you dry their hair in the day?

2.5 years and 9 months, takes me about an hour. Bath kids together at 6.30, then feed and put the baby to bed while toddler watches the clangers on my phone next to us (screentime is the only way I can get him to sit still and be calm!), then teeth, stories and bed for toddler. Baby usually goes down reliably but toddler can be whining at the stair gate for ages longer on bad days...

I'm hoping as the baby gets older I can combine storytime which would speed things up!