Evening routine when nursery finished at 6pm

[LovelySunset]

I’ve recently returned to work after maternity leave and trying to get into a better routine.

We get home from nursery by about 6.30pm, and by the time we’ve finished cooking, eating, bath and brushing teeth it’s 8-8.30pm, then story and breastfeed so she’s asleep by about 9pm.

Would love to hear others evening routines and how people manage to get their toddlers in bed by 7/8pm. I’m trying to work out what we’re doing wrong!

Edit: sorry about the typo in the title, should be when nursery finishes at 6pm.

I’ve just come back to this thread and seen the additional replies - thanks everyone.

Until recently DH was working long hours, getting home past 8 and having to work more once home, I think this caused us to have a late routine. He’s now moved role and things seem a lot better with his working hours so it seems a good time to change up the evening routine.

Do you have to pick up at 6?
I start early so I can finish at 4 and pick up at 4:45. It takes about 15 mins to walk home, longer if we stop at the park or the baby park walks for a bit.
3 & 1 year old play together while I assemble their dinner which is usually something like a fish cooked in a milk and white sauce with veg, or left over pasta, cucumber, veg, fruit and a yoghurt. I keep it light and picky.
Then straight into the bath and they play there for a good 20-30 mins. I usually stick on a wash, give the bathroom a wipe down while they’re in there.
Bath is done about 6:30 then it’s playing while winding down, maybe a slice of toast if they weren’t hungry for much dinner. We usually watch half an hour of tv once they’re in jammies etc. Either the kids will go to bed at the same time or it’s staggered depending on who is more tired but it’s usually done by 7:30.

But they also have a totally different schedule during the day in the med with a long late nap often. My kids need to be up by 6/6:30 anyway to get ready for nursery and school so a 9pm bedtime just wouldn’t suit them.

I know it's not the point of the thread, but clean her teeth after breastfeeding and not before. I used to do it before and dds first teeth were decayed as a result

Picking her up earlier would mean waking her up earlier in the morning, so the same sleep overall.

I would give a snack/leftover from your meal from the night before and then bath and bed, this is what I did at that age until age 6/7 when we were that time back from childcare. Then we ate when small children were in bed and actually had a wind down and an evening to ourselves.