5 year old bedtime routine

[Kmxxx14]

Please share your 5/6 year olds bedtime routine. How involved are you in this?

I'm asking as I have a 5 year old son and 4 month old baby. My OH works either from home or away for 2 weeks at a time. Tomorrow he leaves again for 2 weeks and I find bedtime so difficult with the two of them myself.

So...
Do you bath 5 year old every night?
Do you leave them alone in bath?
Do you read to them every night?
Do you lay with them until they fall asleep?
Do they get themselves dressed into pyjamas?

Any tips to make it easier/faster?

My baby feeds to sleep and takes 20-30 mins roughly. Once she's down I then start 5 year olds bath but he likes to play then I wash him then brush his teeth and then he gets himself ready but he takes ages. Then I read him a chapter of a book and then I sing him 2 songs and he falls asleep by himself but not without shouting down some random stuff at least twice.

Honestly by the time their both in bed sleeping I feel so drained. The thought of it is just so daunting for 2 weeks.

I also bath the baby every night too.

I have a 6 yo - I would run a bath and wash her hair but not necessarily stay all the time. I bath her once to twice a week.

She sometimes has books - but not always.

When I had just dc1&2 I took baby into dc1's bed and fed him whilst I read to dc1.

Now my six yo looks at books on her own and sometimes does sticker books or watches stuff on YouTube on her iPod.

Following as I'm about to have number 2 with a 4 year gap.

My DS is nearly 4. I do leave him alone in the bath while I potter about upstairs (ie totally in ear shot). I have to brush his teeth and either put him in PJs or have to massively encourage him to do it. He has 2 books and the settles himself to sleep with little fuss. The part about brushing teeth is the most painful!!

Thanks for the replies.

That's a good point actually about feeding baby whilst reading to 5 year old. At the moment I do them completely separate so it takes double the time.

I'm not sure how baby will respond as she's usually fed in silence and darkness and I'm unsuee if she'll settle but it could be worth trying at least. Even if I bath/wash then dress them together then when baby is sleeping I just need to read to 5 year old.

Seems more manageable already

We shower in the morning before school. Makes bed time easier.
When I had a little one and a big one, I used to bath them together, brush big ones teeth in the bath, then leave eldest playing in the bath while I put pjs on the baby. Then quick out of bath and pjs on and fed baby whilst reading story's to eldest, and a kiss good night. Then feed little one more in his room before putting him to bed.
I was often on my own at nights and it is tough you need to find a routine that works for you and then once you've got it it's not so bad.

We do ours a bit about face, dinner then once cleared, all upstairs, I run a bath, get bedrooms ready, pjs laid out etc, whilst dcs play, my youngest is a bit older but this worked when smaller too. Both in bath together, baby pjs on radiator in bathroom. Once baby done in bath dress them whilst older one plays in the bath.

We then go back downstairs for quiet tv/supper(banana or something small). Once they are ready for bed upstairs for teeth and into my bed for stories (i used to feed baby then) then older one snuggles in my bed for a bit looking at books or colouring while i put younger to bed then I sort out the older one. DH works long days so this works well for us, i tried to do the bath right before bed and inevitably one was tired and cranky and it turned into a screaming fit

We do bath daily and have story time (as long as he cooperates and there's time. Tonight he played in his kithen stake naked for 10 minutes so there wasn't time for a book. He needs sleep/routine) but I often had DH's help and I don't have a baby so can't compare to 2 weeks on my own with 2 kids

Can you use a star chart and ask Daddy to bring a present home ? Or prerecorded/videoed bedtime stories so Daddy can 'read' to him once he's in bed?

We have a 5 year old and month old. Bath every other night tend to leave 5yo in bath to play about baby goes in for 10 minutes ds1 stays in while baby is dried and dressed. Help ds1 with drying but dresses self. Teeth before book if won't brush properly or is silly then loses book so an incentive to hurry. Baby fed to sleep while we read book both asleep by 7.30.

My children are older than yours but bedtime hasn't changed in years. I don't bath everyday as it made them get eczema. We bathed together, youngest out first and dried and dressed, eldest out next dried and dresses. Stories all together in mummies bed (early days baby was fed during story) then I take youngest to their room whilst eldest goes to his. I kiss youngest night night and tuck in, then pop in on eldest and do same. These days we tend to shower in the morning or after sports so not many baths now.
I get them in pjs straight after tea and they then come and watch a bit of tv and play board games. That seems to make bedtime very quick and painless later as it's just teeth, story, bed. I love story time.

Depends on the day. Bath is every other night.

At weekends, I tend to bath him before dinner (generally because he'll have been outside walking/getting very muddy!) into pjs and have dinner.
After dinner (wind down with toys, maybe a bit of TV).
Then it's quick wash face, brush teeth, stories then he drifts off to sleep.
He has autism, so that can take awhile, but he reads in bed with a torch for awhile.

5 year old DD (plus 3 you son)

Bath every other night- shared.
Never left alone.

DD out of bath-teeth and pj's on while DS plays in bath. She chooses book while I do his teeth and pj's.
DS mucks about while I dry DD hair.
Read 2 books to them both in DDs room.
DD into bed. She has water/night light and music ready waiting for her. Kiss and lights out.
DS likes to know she's in bed before he goes to bed, I sometimes sit next to him (in pitch black and silence!) While he goes to sleep, some nights he'll let me just kiss him and go.

To make things easier I'd say, be prepared. Before routine go into bedrooms, close curtains, make bed comfy, water in rooms, pj's out and special teddies on pillow etc so there's nothing they can request and no delay in looking for anything. No coming out of room, I'll go into them but don't encourage them to come out.

Dd1 (5) has a bath every other night. At 6.30 we turn the lights down and sit and watch something on the TV. She has a drink and sometimes a snack, gets into her pj's. If it's a bath night, we bath first. At 7pm we go upstairs, she goes to the toilet and does her teeth. Weread a story, put nightlights on, cuddle and then I leave the room. She usually spends 5 minutes or so organising her teddies. After 10 minutes, the other parent goes up for a kiss and cuddle and turns the all of the night lights off except one - she chooses which one stays on. She has a plug in night light across the other side of the room which also stays on incase she needs the toilet. Her bed time routine has been created by her really. Bedtime is always 7pm, and we've read stories right from her being 6 months old. But the night lights and ten minute check are things she needs to feel safe and secure so we do them. She goes through stages where she will come down complaining of an sore finger or keeps getting up to go to the toilet but we tackle that by gently but firmly reminding her that it is bedtime and she needs to go to sleep. At times we tell her she will lose a privilege if she keeps messing around. That is usually enough to stop any messing in its tracks. Most of the time she is really good 5hough.

Always had same routine although she can do more for herself now

Bath every night....nice warm relaxing

Straight into PJ's

Straight into bed

One chapter of story

She then reads herself and normally found with a book on her head.