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 🙂

Pick up about 5:30, dinner about 6:15, bedtime at 7pm. Usually asleep about 7:45, but that varies a bit.

Pick up at 5.30
Home 5.45
Dinner 6.15
20 minutes of TV whilst we clear up, run bath, lay out PJs, get everything ready for the next day
Bath at 7ish
Out at 7.15
PJs, story, kiss goodnight and done for 7.30

Then the older one will go and have her shower, then want a story so unfortunately not we’re done then but the 3YO is never in bed much past 7.30 and we have a similar pick up time to you. Can you break down what you’re doing for 3.5-4 hours because I don’t really understand what could possibly be taking so long?

I hate this for us, but I feel you. My 2.5 yo basically has what dinner we have in a toddler portion, she's usually hungry! Then, a bit of telly on and bath/ wipe down before pjs and stories. Since the clocks have gone back, it's just made it so late (need a wee, need another story- to which we say no 3 books are the limit especially if short or little, then need a cuddle, you know all the usual tricks, and to top it all off I'm still BF so I'm not emerging until at least 10pm. In some cases I fall asleep with her and loose my evening entirely then I stay up all night working or catching up on housework). If this carries on she'll be going to sleep at midnight by the time she's 5 (ofc wont let that happen, but just feel a massive failure in this ). Unfortunately don't have a lot of space for batch cooking, and any big things eg lasagna/ pasta bakes get eaten up so don't last. We usually have something fairly quick like a stir fry and rice or cauliflower cheese or something so no big deal but feeling like bedtime is out of control too. She still wakes up at the crack of dawn regardless. Feel like I'm dying as sleep is non existent. Keenly following your thread!

Are they sleeping during the day?

I just ask because I don't live in the UK, and things are done a bit differently here.

We have a similar bed-time to you, and have done so since starting kindergarten/pre-school. But that only works because every child sleeps during the day at a set time in Kindergarten. So the common/average routine here is: 7am wake up. 11:30-1PM sleep. 8:30-10pm bed time.

Having read a lot on here, it seems that our bedtimes are later than the average UK bed time for a young kid. But then I have heard lots about parents stopping the day-time sleeps much younger than here. So that makes sense. If my son wasn't sleeping during the day, he would be absolutely hanging and awful by 7:30-9:00pm.

But with a proper rest in the middle of the day, they aren't that tired by 8:30pm.

Oh my god. I identify with all of this. And with breastfeeding on top?! You are amazing, but also must be exhausted! Its so hard to fit it all in and get the balance right between feeling like you've done a good job and not feeling stressed out to the max isn't it.

Mine has got slightly better... about 8ish? and this is what i think changed....

The biggest thing was dropping the day nap so she's more tired. If she falls asleep on the way home I'll lift her out and wake her up and just deal with the RAGE for the sake of my evening.

Shower instead of bath with me (2in1 done then but not relaxing at all).

I shamelessly have dropped books before bed for watching nursery rhymes on my phone after were out as it was working her up instead of winding her down and she just wanted to wrestle instead of read (I have more wholesome friends who use tonie box stories).

I dishwash EVERYTHING instead of wash some things up.

Keeping quick meals that you just shove in the oven for days when it all goes wrong.

I hate it when people say this but probably just her getting older and getting with the program more.

Bottle of milk in bed to help get to sleep. I still sleep in with her at the night and tuck her into her bed by lying with her, and snuggle up with her when she wakes. 1 bottle overnight and now she's toilet trained a wee trip too. I'm going to try to change this soon but just don't have the will atm🫠

Keep going you're doing great. Its so hard especially when you've been tired for so long. Do what you need to do 🥰

DD gets picked up at 6 and has had dinner at nursery. So we get in, straight unto pyjamas and have stories and milk, then wash and teeth, bed. Takes an hour and a half usually.

Hi OP. Just wanted to say you aren't alone. DD is 2 but not yet at nursery,.however, we are part of a baby club and there are other 2 year olds ( 3 of them) that have a 9pm bedtime. We were speaking about it recently because they were similarly concerned. One of the kids doesn't go to nursery and the other two have a 6pm pick up time. When they heard others do sleep a bit later it made them feel a bit better as they weren't alone in it.