No bath at bedtime?

[IcanandIwill]

Has anyone tried ditching the bedtime bath for a calmer bedtime routine? My DD' 6 & 2 have always had a bedtime bath. I'm on my own now (widow) and need to make life as simple as possible. Bath time seems to mean playtime here, it's never that calming pre bed experience you read about. If anything it wakes them both up. Another option is to have a really early bath and plenty of time to chill out after.

i do an early bath before tea, into jimjams, tea, then story/wind down activity.

I have never had bath as part of the bedtime routine. We do PJ's on, wash and teeth, then into bed for stories. Now DS is at school he reads us a story, then we read him one. He has always gone off to sleep without a major problem.

I always did bath before bed with ds1 but I found that ds2 had night terrors when he had one. So now they have a bath 3/4 times a week and have it a bit earlier. DS2 has almost grown out of the night terrors but I still find a bath makes him a bit over excited and he struggles to settle.

We have always done a bath but a friend of mine found her DS got really energised from being in the water so they switched to bathing him in the morning - works really well for them and made for a much easier bedtime.

We never did a bath routinely at bedtime as ds got too excited, and we needed a very flexible routine anyway. Now ds is 6, and its easier to have a shower with him in the morning too

I bath children when they are dirty.
I've never got the idea of baths as part of bed time. Bed time takes long enough without adding things.

Children are bathed if dirty and sometimes for a splash about when the evenings dragging out, but not everyday.

I do the bath time in morning :-) Once the older DC's go off to school and the house is tidy DS3 gets his bath. I like that time as I can play along with him and chill, rather than at nighttime thinking "I still need to do dishes/washing etc". Mine are bedwetters so it's morning showers for the older ones.

Thanks for the replies. I'm certainly going to give it a try, anything for a more relaxed evening I say!