Please help DC 6 and 4 what is your bedtime routine like ours needs streamlining

[nextchapterplease]

Can anyone share their secrets to a swift painless bedtime?
Ours keeps slipping into a longer and longer process - and currently DH and I can sometimes both be upstairs for 1.5 hours!
It's madness but we are rubbish at doing anything about it.
What do 'normal ' people do ?

We do upstairs at 7 ish - shout for them to get undressed while one of us runs a bath - the other sorts out drinks / pajamas / clothes for the next day .
After the bath ( 7.30 ish ) we do cream for DD eczema then pajamas , teeth and then maybe a joint story before they go into own rooms to read / be read to.
I am not even sure where the time goes but we do make a meal out of it all - especially as it is that one on one time at the end of the day

currently I do sit with DC2 while he falls asleep but to be honest that doesn't usually take that long in itself ( though I do need to address this too !) the main issue is that it's often nearly 8.30 by the time that happens !
Thanks in advance

Maybe cut down on bath time? Ours get a 10-15 minuite bath that's just to get clean/ signal it's night time at 6:45. Twice a week they get a longer bubble bath to play in but I couldn't do it every night.
We have a 2 story rule as well. We do chat when lying in bed with the eldest but never for longer than 10 minuites. He's always in bed by 7:30. It's hard getting a routine that feels long enough that it's quality time and short enough that you don't spend all of your evening with them.

DSes 5.5 and nearly 3.

Usually start bedtime between 7.30 and 7.45 (if they have a bath or shower it's usually around 5pmish before dinner)

Both go to the toilet
Then into bathroom - eldest puts his pyjamas on, I do them for the youngest. Teeth cleaned.

Sometimes look out the window.

Into my bed (I know). Bedtime story or 2.

Lights out. I tell them another story then they go to sleep. They fall asleep anything between 7.50 and 8.20. I don't leave until they are asleep (not through choice). DS1 gets put in his bed when I go to bed and I co-sleep with DS2.

Of course, in between all that they are jumping up and down on the bed, chasing each other, getting over excited, deciding they need the loo again and I'm often tearing my hair out.

Some nights they go to bed calmly and quickly (usually if they're exhausted). But sometimes they tip over into mania and it's like herding cats.

The only I get through it is to keep up a really fast tempo. Try not to let them distract me with anything.

It works best the evenings that I get home before 7 and I purposely spend time playing with them, crawling on the floor, tickling them etc. so they have time to reconnect with me, and then they go to bed easier.

I also try to grab something to eat so I'm less grumpy and more patient with them.

Had similar situation with my own.

I know this isn't very radical advice but I decided to set a time limit at which point the lights went off..i also was ending up sitting there until half 8.

So I decided lights off at 8pm and I was going to leave the room at that point and it did help get it under control because at half seven I would know they have to be in bed in Pajamas and having stories.

I totally agree the time skips away I think you have to just decide at which point you want to be having your own evening and work backwards.

Weirdly it feels like bedtime is more protracted as they get older! (Mine are 3 and 5)

Thanks for the replies - I am sort of relieved to know others aren't typically immune to this problem. We try to make bedtime a fun family time but that can be a mugs game.
Also Dc1 likes to read to us all which is lovely but can eat time up..
DC2 has been a poor sleeper since day one and we moved house last summer so have been properly going overboard trying to keep him calm and settled .
I like the lights out idea ! Tonight was better I think purely as starting this thread made me a bit more focussed !
Going to see if we can try to stick to a deadline for bath time and lights out I think .

We have dinner about 6 and then the bath gets run dd 3,5 gets a wee play as weve found the bath signals nighttime and she have a wee relax then cbeebies bedtime story at 6 50as then it really as bedtime as soneone else is tellig her then she can play for a wee while but usualy she asks for bed and we alternate bed time story reading then qell jqve a wee chat and lights out about 7 30. Tgat bit is pretty easy in our hpuse its keepig her in yhe bed from about 1am thats the issue!!