Bedtime 6 and 9 year old

[AlmosttimeforChristmas]

It’s not a thrilling topic but I’m really interested to know how long others spend on bedtime. It’s usually a good 40 minutes on teeth, book, chat and cuddles with 6 year old (including being summoned upstairs at lest once fir an extra cuddle), then maybe 20-30 minutes on teeth and chats in the dark with my 9 year old. It feels like a lot every night and sometimes I just want to shove them into bed and turn the light out and watch some grown up TV, but I know I don’t have that many years of it left and want to keep that pre-bed chat space open for when they’re pre-teens/teenagers. Interested to know what other people are doing

Can you not do some of the prep together e.g. teeth, books and cuddles in your bed and then each to their bed after that?

encourage your 9year old to do those things for themselves and join after putting 6yo down for chat /book in bed

We have same ages (plus a 1 year old!).
Our 6 year old reads to us every night, and then gets a story. Probably 20mins all in including teeth.
Our 9 year old stays up until 9ish, and at that point we just yell bed and follow her up once she's done her teeth and chat for maybe 5-10mins.
We also do one child each alternating, so the parent that didn't 'do' them just goes in and says goodnight.
You could definitely be more efficient!

Thanks for the replies! I could definitely be more efficient if I needed to be. I think I might find a compromise whereby I agree certain nights with my older boy are ‘extra chats’ nights as I do love them and it’s the only peaceful time we getaway fromtje crazy younger one! But sometimes do ‘quick chat’ nights. Ditto I think I need to trim the 40 minutes with the younger one to a more efficient 25….

Thanks. 9 year old does all the essentials himself (occasionally‘forgets’ teeth) so it’s mostly just chat time. Just good to know what others are doing

I could. At bedtime they’re actually a total PITA together though….. I think I’ll just trim things a bit

Also they sleep at different times. Kind of wondering if other people are sucking up a protracted bedtime so they can spend one on one time, or if they just get through it as quickly as possible! I guess there’s a mix, like in everything

I'd prioritise the one on one time, but slim everything else down. If different bed times can they get ready at the same time, share a story, then older one reads to himself for a bit while you have ten mins chat and cuddles with younger one and then finish the older ones bedtime after at whatever time works? Totally get prep together might not work if they are wild at that point though!

DH and I take a child each and swap each night. Generally takes about 20 minutes.