Late nursery pick up/late bedtime

[Doxylox]

Curious to see what your routines are if you pick your children up from nursery/preschool late? And what time bedtime turns out to be?

We pick 2yo up 5.30-6pm and by the time we get home and do dinner/bath/books/bed it is 9-9.30. It feels too late but don't really know how to make it quicker tbh...

Interested to hear your thoughts 🙂

I pick my youngest up from nursery at 5:45 ish but she had dinner there so has a snack when we get home, little bit of playtime, then upstairs at 7 for bath. Do your nursery not do dinner?

It takes 3-4 hours to do dinner bath and bed?!

I used to arrive home from childminder about 6ish and have my child in bed by 7 at that age. She had eaten at the CM fo be fair, so I suppose you’d need to add half an hour for beans on toast or similar, but then literally 10 mins in bath, in to PJs, stories, milk, bed.

Does your 2yo need a full dinner after tea at nursery? With my DD we would just give her a plate of healthy snacks (eg cubes of cheese, crackers, crudités or nut butter sandwich) when she got home at 6, bath every other night and up to bed at 7 for stories. Now with my DD5 and DS2 we have to make a full dinner as DD needs it. I cook in advance and reheat, use slow cooker or make something quick like pasta or stir fry so that we have food on the table for 6. Bath time is 6.30 but only every other night unless particularly dirty. Pjs 7. DD goes up for teeth and stories straight away as she's tired from school. DS still has a long nap so he's not tired for bed til 8. He usually has a third evening meal before he goes up but just weetabix or porridge - he's a hungry boy!

I pick up more at 4:30 but 4 hours from pick up to bedtime can surely be shortened?
My 1 year old goes to bed by about 6:30 at the minute and 3 year old stays up until 7:30 or 7 if they seem more tired.
They come in and have a play together while I prepare them a light dinner/ warm snack. Then they play in the bath for about 20 mins. I get them into cosy jammies and they play for another half an hour or so while I go between tidying up dinner/ the bath and playing with them. Then we have about 20 mins chilling on the sofa watching something and then it’s books and bed.

Pick up from nursery at 6pm. Home for 6.10. Snacky bits (fruit, yogurt, toast if they’ve not eaten well that day), done by 6.30. If bath night - 15 mins play, 15 mins bath, story and bed by 7.30. If not a bath night - 30m play, story and bed by 7.30. Curious as to why it takes so long - we don’t eat together on nursery days so is that it?

edit to add: that’s a 2.5yo and a 4yo.

We did pick up at 5.30/6. Dinner at 6.30. Bath at 7. Bed at 7.30. DS has the same routine still and he's 5 now.

I picked up at 5.45pm today and they were asleep for 7.30pm. No bath today but a good amount of play time so could have fit one in.

They do eat with us, small portion offered but will have had main tea at nursery. Lots of bedtime books.

How do you get them up in the morning with a 9pm bedtime!?

Pick up between 5-5.30pm. Home for a snack and play. Take him up at 10 to 7, teeth cleaned, pjs on, book and bed. No baths on nursery days but he only goes 2 days a week. If he did need a wash for whatever reason it would be a shower.

I would get in at 6pm, they would have had food at nursery so they would have bath, milk, bed with stories and sleep. All done by 7 - 7.30pm. As they got older added some toast or snack food with a drink. They were so tired they were sometimes asleep before 7pm. I ate once they were in bed.

I pick up my kids anytime between 5 and 5:45 they are 3 and 1. And we usually have dinner between 6 and 6:15. They do have afternoon tea at nursery but it’s at 3:30.
i think the key is having quick recipes for meals or cooking in advance, so Mondays we always have something from the feeezer that I’ve premade. Today was salmon and noodles- this took 15 mins and was a fresh meal. It’s always a juggle but I think try and identify the steps that are taking longest

We used to pick up at 6pm, home by 10 past, he'd have a hot meal at nursery so just a snack - sandwich, veg sticks, egg on toast etc - then straight up to bath and bed. In bed by 7.30/8ish at that age. We'd have dinner later.

Pick up at about 530, home by 545. Tea is ready to go (I've got a freezer full of kid sized meals), so they sit straight down and are done shortly after 6. Might play for 10 mins, then in the bath by 620, books start at about 645, asleep by about 7. 730 latest.

It's sad that we don't get much time to play on those days, but it's an efficient system!

Really not sure how it takes so long. I pick up my 2 year old twins after picking up my 5 year old at around 5.30. Twins have eaten at nursery so they will have some crackers/toast. 5 year old had cooked lunch at school so will have beans on toast or similar. All 3 fed by 6pm then half an hour of play. Bath at 6.30 and all 3 in bed by 7pm.

How far do you live from nursery? That seems to take quite a long time..

Wow - what happens in that 3.5 hours?

We used to pick up around 5.30. 10 mins to get home. Dinner was had at nursery. We'd do 15 mins ish of play and then head upstairs. More play in the bath. Then get ready for bed and a story with lights out around 7.15

We've always had a similar bedtime, our dcs just preferred it and were always up at 7am with no problems. DD was picked up from nursery at 4.30 so we'd have dinner together, play, bath, play, read, play, read, bedtime. Sometimes with a walk or trip to the park in summer. Baths sometimes take an hour if they're enjoying it. It worked for us as it meant DH was able to still spend a decent amount of time with the dcs after work so they have a great relationship now.

If it works for you and they get enough sleep then it’s fine! Both of my DCs go to bed between 9-9.30. My 2yo dc always has a decent nap at nursery so staying up to 9 isn’t an issue. They sleep for 10-10.5 hours at night so will wake naturally between 7.30-8 which gives us plenty of time to get to nursery and then work. We enjoy being able to spend some time in the evening together and this schedule works for us.

We ate dinner by 6.30 and in bed by 7.30/8 right through my dcs early childhood.

The trick is to have meals that are really quick or the slow cooker is your friend.

Home by 6.
Tea something like omelette or beans on toast, done by 6:30.
Playtime until bathtime or bedtime.
Bathtime at 7ish, but only a couple of times a week.
In bedroom getting pjs on, nappy changed and story time around 7:45.
Stories in bed until asleep by 8-8:30

We do pick up at 5:30-5:45pm. Home by 6pm. DD (2.5) has dinner at nursery, so we do snack. Something like a bagel, cheese and crackers, fruit etc. Bath every other night unless egregiously mucky. Upstairs for stories by 7pm at latest. We’re out of the room by 7:30 normally. What she does after that is her own business but it’s usually sleep by 8pm.

DD up by 6:30-6:45am. She typically naps for around 1-1.5hrs during the day.

Do you have a commute from nursery to home??

Ds is 2, I pick up at about 5.30, we're home for 6. Dinner is 6.30 bath is at 7 and bedtime is 7.30.

I can't see why it's taking you such a long time for your bedtime routine to be honest unless you're travelling within that? I do try to batch cook and meal prep so that when I come home I'm able to provide a healthy meal within 30 minutes or less?

Ds is usually starting to struggle by 7ish so he would be absolutely busted by 9 and probably grumpy and past himself but he's dropped his daytime nap so that might be different if your little one still takes theirs? If Ds napped during the day now he'd be up later or more likely he'd wake in the middle of the night for an hour or two.

Can you break down what you're doing from 5.30 to 9? That's 3.5 hours.

I would say that sounds fine. Mine always went to bed closer to 8:30/9pm. By the time you get home and cook dinner (we have a proper hot dinner all together at the table every night), then bath and getting ready for bed, it will be later. I would much rather they had a dinner cooked from scratch every night than be in bed by 7pm. It’s just reality if you aren’t collecting kids at 3pm and giving them dinner at 4:30.

For us the trick is to get dinner on the table ASAP. We always do a hot meal in the evening, I can't live without one. We have batch-cooked frozen bolognese or similar that we leave on the side all day to defrost. Then it heats up in the same time it takes to boil the pasta.

So on my working days it's like this:

Dh goes to pick the kids up. Dd at 5.15 from school wraparound, ds at 5.30 from nursery.
I arrive home at 5.25ish. Immediately start boiling pasta and heating up bolognese.
Dh and kids arrive at 5.45ish.
We all sit down for dinner basically Immediately.

[Do not let anyone sit on the sofa and put the TV on!! That is game over for a prompt bedtime imo.]

I wolf my dinner. While the others are still eating, I go and get the pyjamas ready and run the bath.
Kids both in the bath by 6.45. Whew!
Then I settle ds while dh reads to dd, then I take over settling dd while dh does the washing up.

Kids both asleep and washing up done by 8.15. Hooray! Now we can sit on the sofa and put the TV on

We pick up at 1800 and they’re in bed by 1930-2000 after they’ve eaten, had a bath and book.