What is your evening routine like??

[lairyfights9]

Really struggling with evenings atm so just looking to get an idea of what works for others. I have dd1(12), dd2(23 months) and ds(7months). Partner gets home from work anywhere between 5:45 and 6:15, usually 6ish), I'm on maternity leave atm (though not returning after leave ends).

We usually have dinner at about 6:30 because it's insanely hard to make dinner before dp is home (Ds is ridiculously clingy, even more so at the moment for some reason and screams when put down - we have a sling but I find it really hard to manoeuvre my body when he's in it so housework etc while wearing him is so tricky).

Ideally I'd like to give dd2 and Ds dinner at like 5/5:30 because I want to be doing bedtime at 7/7:30 latest. They both cosleep and bf to sleep and sometimes I have to be in there with them for ages before I can get free and have time for housework/any time at all for myself to shower or chill. I need to get into a routine of batch cooking/saving leftovers for their dinner the following night.

How does it work in your house?

That sounds like hard work! I only have a 21 month old son and similar to you find it hard to get dinner ready before my husband is home, same time as yours so we end up doing dinner too late and bedtime is too late then the evening is gone. But we have started putting stuff in the slow cooker so that come dinner time it's ready to go or only something easy needs to be done (like rice/pasta). Can you 12 year old help out with dinner?

I have Ds4 and dd 11 months, I give them both tea at 5pm. DH comes home about 5ish. I start running the bath for dds bedtime at 6 and she’s down for 6.45. DH baths Ds after I’ve got the baby out of the bath and ds is usually down for 7.30. We then have our dinner about 7.30 or 8pm and have a couple of hours to ourselves.

Is there anywhere you could put your DS where he’d be happy for ten minutes while you just make a quick easy tea for the kids at 5 so you could have your evenings back a bit….jumparoo, bumbo seat watching you in the kitchen, high chair with some puffs or finger food to occupy him, or my dds favourite is her bouncy chair with a dummy in would normally buy me 15 minutes to do a quick tea.

I also batch cook east teas and then freeze them so I can just heat something up for the kids.

The issue is co sleeping and bf to sleep. I never did that - it was dinner about 5.30-6, bath (bath daily from newborn). Story, cuddle/feed if still breastfeeding, then down in own cot/bed lights out at 7.30pm! For breastfed baby I went back for sleepy feed before I went to bed. This meant I had dinner with my husband about 8 (he got home at 7.30ish) and the evening with him.
I had prepped the dinner before starting bedtime routine which took about 45 mins and either it was cooking or quick to cook so on the table in half an hour after kids went down.

Thanks for responses 👍

I do try to put Ds in bumbo in the kitchen with me/Jumperoo, but he will tolerate them for max 10mins and that's typically not long enough.

Dd1 does sometimes help by holding Ds while I try to do things, but she's at that awful age where asking her to help in any way is a huge affront 🙄 also Ds isn't really very well settled by anyone but me, he just wants me, all the time. So even if dd is with him, he's often still screaming. I could maybe try and get her more involved with the making of dinner, I might give that a go!

I don't believe that the bfing and cosleeping is the issue with this particular problem. That's not to say I don't struggle with it, because I do. But I'm not willing to sleep train the baby any time soon, and I can't sleep train dd2 because it most certainly will involve a lot of screaming and will wake Ds up. Dd2 can't be in a different room because we live in a 2 bed flat and dd1s room is too small for both of them. But as I say, I don't believe that that's the problem, the problem is more around struggling to get everything done in the evening BEFORE bed and so that bedtime isn't too late.

We pick up daughter from nursery just before 6 we both get in between 5.45 and 6.15 we eat dinner between 6.30 and 6.45.
Daughter has first medication with a snack at 6.30
Second medication at 7
Teeth, PJ's, story and oat milk
Mouthwash
Into bed for final story at 7.20-7.30
Usually asleep within 15 minutes of the light being off with one of us sat next to the bed

We cook enough for 2 days worth of meals each time. We use a lot of frozen veg to reduce prep time. When my daughter was a newborn we used frozen chopped onions as I couldn't put her down. we use veg sausages or burgers as emergency foods for no energy days. Alternatively pesto pasta or similar. During the week we have a lower standard for food but try to cook nicer food at the weekend and if we do double on Saturday and Sunday that is Monday and Tue sorted too