How do you find time to read after becoming a mum?

[Hopefullyhopeful1]

Just that really. I have an 11 month old and work full time. What used to be my favourite hobby has slipped off the radar. When I do manage to get a minute (usually after DC in bed), I struggle to keep my eyes open.

Has anyone managed to keep up their reading after becoming a mum and working full time?

When my DC were very small - no (sorry!). I rediscovered it when my youngest was 3yo.

My youngest is 4.5 and I've never managed to get back into it for long!

I read to the DC. My youngest heard the entire of a song of ice and fire before age one. Audiobooks also good, it’s entirely fine to listen instead of read. I listen whenever I’m in the car, when I go running or exercise class, when I have to nip to the shop. Sometimes on head phones sometimes the dc listen too. I read actual books in the bath and on the loo.

with my first and second DC I would stay up late into the night to read as I had to. I would also read whilst walking/bouncing tired children to sleep.

I try and go to bed half an earlier than I want to go to sleep and read although some days it’s only 10 mins. I used to read on my commute when I first went back to work but in latter years have switched to podcasts. Defo hard when the kids are small!

I still read every day, even if not quite as much as I did pre-DS. I tend to read of an evening, after he’s in bed and I’ve tidied up from the day, with a glass of wine or a bottle of beer.

I listen to audiobooks in the car and when I do housework

I have the kindle app on my phone and will snatch reading time wherever I can. I'm the only person that doesn't mind when an appointment runs late!
I also consciously choose to read over watching tv etc so I'm always years behind on shows.
I'll also listen to audiobooks when doing stuff around the house, driving any distance etc.
Time to read will come back to you, but possibly at the expense of other things. Fifteen minutes of scrolling can be replaced by a chapter or two. Plus I second heading to bed slightly earlier and make reading time.

Ditto this

I listening to audio books during night feeds but nothing too taxing (and it took ages to read)
Only recently got back into it

I have a 14 month old who's at nursery as me and DP work full time. I read on my lunch break, or an hour after dinner & bath.

Audible.

My DD (b 2005) was a demon breastfeeder. I fed her (almost) 24/7 with a book in my hand. I was/am a demon reader.

I started by reading a chapter before going to sleep. Even if only for ten minutes it helped me feel I could do something just for myself.

Honestly, it took me years. Almost a decade.

I tried audiobooks but find them quite hard to concentrate on, and they're just not the same as reading.

I was just so tired, even if I'd had the time I didn't have the energy. The only time I managed if for years was on my commute. Now that my youngest is 11 I have time to read again and have for a few years now

My dc are 15 and 17. I never stopped reading. I read in bed every night, absolutely without fail! I like audiobooks for non-fiction, but not fiction for some reason - it has to be actual reading!

I used to read while feeding when they were babies. Mine are older now and i've got into the pattern of going to bed half an hour earlier and reading then, or if I have a lunch break at work I'll read then. The eldest has just started to read independently too so now we can sit together and read our own books, which is lovely. Don't give up hope!

When I get into bed every night I make sure to read - even if it's only a few pages. When my youngest was a baby I could barely manage more than 2 pages but now that he's 18 months I can stay awake for almost 4 pages now 😂
It can be done. I find reading helps my brain swish off quickly and I fall asleep faster. Keep at it.

I also make sure I go up to bed a little earlier to give myself time to read. But must be disciplined and must be able to put the phone down and stop scrolling.

I have the kindle app on my phone and read at night before I go to sleep. If DD is engrossed in peppa I'll also try and read then too 😂

Kindle. Amazing. You can read one handed whilst breastfeeding. Or in a dark bedroom room whilst you are sitting and waiting for your toddler to go to sleep and they won't let you leave. I read so many books when DD was a baby. No reading at all when DS was a baby a couple of years earlier as I didn't have a Kindle then. Just lots of sitting in dark rooms!

I read every night and have a kindle for bed time reading and keep a paperback in my bag incase my son falls asleep in the car so I can read whilst he sleeps if we don't have work/ nursery that day. I am also easing much less and falling asleep much quicker but just so what I can. I also read to my son all the time in the hope that he will be a reader too

When DD was very little I started training her, every day after we had played after lunch, around 2pm was 'reading time'. I made myself a tea and a couple of biscuits and Dd some water and baby biscuits and put her on the floor with her board books and I sat on the sofa, to begin with it would only last 10 minutes (mostly whilst she was snacking) and then she'd climb onto my lap and want me to read to her instead, eventually she became happier to sit and look at the pictures for a longer time and would make up her own stories.

We carried this habit on at the weekends almost all the way through Primary but we would read to ourselves for 30 mins and then we would take it in turns to read DDs trickier books.

Oh yes, I also have books everywhere and have about 4 on the go at anyone time,
Bag book,
Car book,
Garden book
Bed book

Still struggle with it and youngest is now 7. My attention span just got zapped - something at the back of my brain is always worrying about being interrupted by a small child. So I can’t seem to get lost in a book.

Long train journeys for work trips are useful (when I should be reading work spreadsheets but oh no the wifi isn’t working). Audiobooks I’ve found a bit meh, really.

Audio books at first, commuting after return to work were when real books reappeared. As dc are older now...dp reads them a bedtime story and I snuggle up and read my own book.