Evening schedules when returning to work after mat leave with a 1 year old

[TheTealBiscuit]

I'm just starting to think about what our evening routine and timings will look like when I return to work next month and getting my head round the massive change it will bring!

What are your timings for making/eating dinner and bedtime routine with a one year old if you get home from work at 6pm?

Hi @TheTealBiscuit. We’re rethinking this too with our second as I’m about to return. It’s only really an issue for us 3 days though. I’m assuming your baby will be in childcare? Will you be home by 6 or picking up then?

Heres what our routine with DD looked like before DS:

Home by 6pm
6.15-6:30 Light supper (if they eat around 3pm ish at nursery) / milk after food
6:30-6:45 Bath
6:45 Book(s!)
7-7.15 Bed

It helps a lot if you prep some food ready in the morning or the evening before. We used to reheat batch cooked meals if she hadn’t eaten well at nursery, or just maybe some cheese, crackers, fruit, and a cold protein to pick at if she had. Weetabix with warm milk in a pinch too! Unless we were both home by that point and the batch cooking was appealing, we wouldn’t try to eat with her, as it was far too tight time wise. Also, a nightly bath isn’t necessarily a must for a baby of that age so dispense with it if they’re going to be overtired.

We definitely won’t be able to be this precise with our toddler in the mix this time too, so we think bedtime will now need to be 7.30pm for them both.

Thank you @SnugSheep , that's really helpful!
Yes my dd will be in nursery and we'll be getting home at 6pm. Earliest I can pick her up is 5.45 after finishing work.

I agree with the nightly bath, we already don't do that and I'll be moving bath nights so as many as possible aren't on working days!

Will baby have eaten dinner at nursery?

I used to get home around 5:30pm. Mine would have a snack. I’d start dinner by 6pm, aim to eat by 6:30/7pm. Then bath and bedtime after that. We started bedtime 7:30-8pm and they went to sleep after that.

Whoever wasn’t doing bedtime or finished first (once we had 2), tidied the kitchen. Then we both did a bit of work and went to bed by 10-10:30pm.

Never did the early tea time, early bedtime thing. It didn’t work with our lifestyle. It’s meant we were on a good schedule and it hasn’t changed much now that ours are teens/preteens. Still eat 7-7:30pm, still get ready for bed by 8 ish. It may be different if baby is eating at nursery, but you still have to feed yourself, so might as well make a family meal and sit down and eat together.

This is our current routine. Home about 5.45pm, offer a snack - something like boiled egg and soldiers, or a sandwich (she eats 'tea' at childminder's around 4pm). Play for a bit, watch 2 episodes of Peppa Pig, upstairs at 7pm, nappy, pjs, clean teeth and a story. Sing a lullaby and hopefully asleep by 7.30-7.45. Then we do our own dinner, watch TV and tidy up. I'm looking forward to eating dinner together as a family during the week one day, but we just aren't ready to eat that early. Bath time happens when she needs it, or she joins one of us in the shower in the morning. If doing bath time, bed time might be 20 minutes later.