What is you after school routine like?

[Humptydumptydone]

I feel like there is a lot to fit in between after school and bedtime and would love to learn from everyone else's routine.

I have 2 primary school aged DC and sometimes feel its a mad rush with finishing off work, dinner prep, eating, clearing, reading, bathing, bedtime and then my own things to do post DC's bedtimes.

My youngest is in bed at 7.30pm and older child is in bed at 8.30pm.

What are you after school evenings like?

The big difference is if you're home during the time that they're at school or if you're at work. If you're home can you do the dinner prep then?

We do reading in the car home although that’s probably not ideal!
Do your DC have hot lunch at school? If so my only tip is that one night I prepack a packed cold dinner for them (lots of fruit, veg, peanut butter sandwiches) and it gives me one day off the next day from the dinner prep!
Apart from that we I either collect them at 3:15 or I am working and DH/ our babysitter does the evening. On days I collect them at 3:15 there seems to be a lot of time.
What time are you getting home?

Hey 👋 i have 5 kids, one is in primary, 2 in high school, one in special school and 8 month old at home, the high school kids get home first at roughly 3:15/20 and its school uniforms in the washing machine and get changed into jammies or other clothes if they want to go out, primary school comes back with dad at 3:30. 3:45 if there is shop run and again school uniform in wash, 4:00 i start prepping dinner for 5, 4:20 the bus drops ds9 home from school and uniforms go on a quick wash, dinner at 5, uniforms go into dryer, dishes, 6:00 8 month goes for bath, kids do any homework/reading they may have, 7:00 ds9 has usually done messy play at school so bath for him, 7:30 i take baby to bed for bf, dad puts dd9 and ds9 (twins) to bed at 8, dd14 tends to go bed same time (even though her bed time is 9:30- she gets tired, she is autistic and school days are tiring for her) OH does tidying toys etc, by 8:30 baby in bed (if im lucky haha) watch some tv with ds12 and bedtime for him at 9, take uniforms out dryer n fold ready for next day xx

Props to you @Avie29 I got tired just reading that 🫠

'Finish' work around 3pm, grab snack for DS5 and DM, get myself and DM (terminally ill/disabled) in the car.

Pick up DS, feed both in the car (normally a mini block of cheese/yoghurt pouch/fruit/breakfast bar). M/W/F DS has a class somewhere so we'll go to that, and I'll sit in the cafe with DM and get some work done. Tuesday/Thursday we'll go to a playground (or soft play if weather is really naff) and again I'll try and get some work done/tie off emails while he plays.

Get everyone home for 5ish, DS pops up to change into PJs and then reads to me whilst I prep dinner and throw in laundry. We eat at 5:30 (if it takes longer than half hour I don't make it on a weekday!) ~ normally it'll be stir fry/traybake/pasta etc. DS takes FOREVER to eat and I'm quite quick, so I'll stay at the table for 15m or so, then hover between supervising him eating and clean up.

6pm we're on the sofa, chill music on in the background whilst DS does his reading eggs and a maths game on the tablet whilst I scroll mumsnet finish up work. 6:30 he can do whatever he wants (normally TV) whilst I prep DM for bed/help with shower/meds. 7 we brush teeth/use loo/head to bed, and then I read to DS til 7:30.

It's a slog for sure! DS prefers showering in the morning, which helps. We also use the reading 30m as a buffer, so if we're running late I'll just cut it short and read less.

I was going to start a thread like this too so thank you OP. I don’t know how people with after school club or extra curricular activities do it!

3.30-4.30 - walk home from school and collect younger one from nursery.
4.30-5.45 - make and eat dinner (we all eat at this time)
5.45-6.15 - kids have a mad half hour run around
6.15-6.45 - bath time
6.45 - 7.15 reading and bedtime for youngest
7.15 - 8.15 chivvy older one along to get ready for bed. Reading (them and us). This bit seems to be a black hole of time and can sometimes turn into almost 9pm.

I have one in Yr4 and one in Yr6, with bedtimes of 8.30 and 9.30 respectively. It suits them well luckily, because any earlier would be impossible with the times their extracurricular activities run until. In KS1 and below, they did less in the evenings and had a bedtime of 7.30pm.

I get home at 4pm with yr4 DC2, who empties her bag then gets on with her homework whilst I get on with meal prep. Yr6 DC1 gets home around 4.30.
Two days DC1 only has enough time to unpack her bag and get ready for whichever extracurricular they have on. On these days, I either leave dinner part-done or ready to re-heat when we return if I've managed to prep and cook it in time. I choose fast meals for these days! Once home from clubs, they get into PJs and DC1 will do a bit of homework if there is time whilst I get dinner served, then we eat and it is upstairs to get ready for bed. I read to them individually if there is time before their bedtime, and in the past this is where they read to me too.
On the 3 days that activities are a bit later, once DD1 gets in she will unpack her bag and get on with homework, as that tends to correspond with DC2 finishing hers and the computer becoming free. They get ready for their clubs as I plate up, we eat and then leave. We go straight into the bedtime routine once home.

DH does the evening washing up and tidy-round whilst I am getting DCs into bed, otherwise this would need to be done afterwards/in the morning (the morning would suit my routine better). He usually gets home just as we're going out to clubs or as we sit down to eat, so isn't able to help with much else.

@FirstTimeHomeowner its hard work- but it definitely helps to stick to it, need a good routine especially with and 2 autistic kids and 8 month old haha xx

Wow, absolute super woman!

I have 5 children as well - twin 15 year old daughters, 12 year old son and then 9 and 5 year old daughter.

Sorry - this is incredibly chaotic and probably makes zero sense!!!

I only work part time and that's only a couple of hours in the morning so I am free to go and collect DD9 and DD5 from school at around 3pm. This is unless they have after school clubs which is quite often to be honest - they have gymnastics, dance, Spanish and multi sports club 3 days of the week after school (5 year old does multi sports and 9 year old does Spanish on one day). So on those days I collect them 4pm. I go home and get them sorted on homework - they both do Kumon so there is that every day. On Wednesdays, I take them to the centre after their gymnastics club and then we are home at 5pm. They then both do their independent reading, relaxing, playing etc. My 3 older secondary kids will have come home by whenever their clubs are done or if they went out with their friends, later. Generally they are back by 6 for dinner and DH comes home from work at 6 too. I am cooking dinner and tidying the house in the time between coming home and 6pm. We finish eating around 6:30 and then I have to get dd5 into bed. I give her a bath and get her into pjs and listen to her read properly and she is asleep by 7:15. My older 3 kids tend to go out to clubs sometimes in the evening as they have judo and dance clubs on late or they go out with friends. Or they just chill in their room and do homework and revision which is what my twin daughters will have to do now GCSEs are looming! dd9 generally watches some tv until it's about 7:45pm and then she gets herself ready for bed and either me or dh will listen to read and she is asleep by 8pm. Then we do a bit of our own tidying and relaxing, we do some work from our jobs if there is time and spend time together! ds12 has to be upstairs and in bed by 10pm and my 2 daughters have to be upstairs by 11pm. Dh and I tend to fall asleep around 11pm ourselves.