Around here it USUALLY consists of my DH dragging our daughter all around the neighborhood at all hours of the night till they saunter in at 8pm, exhausted, dirty, and sweaty…up to bed, for clean up, teeth, and her begging to stay up “5 minutes? Yeah? Yeah! That’s a good deal mom. 5 Minutes. Ok? Ok!”
She is a negotiator.
Tonight, WIlly Wonka was on…so I let her stay up till 9 to watch it, which means I will be dragging her out of bed to rush for gymnastics classes in the morning.
Do you have a bedtime routine? Same time every night?
Our routine is simple.
Home from work.
Cook dinner.
Relax (together or seperate, depends on the night)
Two youngest have baths at 7pm, and in bed by 7:30-8pm.
All the older children are brushing teeth and getting ready for bed at 8:30.
9pm bedtime for everyone under 18. (Even the 16 year old)
We are all up by around 5am, so it’s an early morning.
I though my kids would fight it, but they love it, they usually head to bed before 9pm just because they are so tired from school and sports!
The boys r asleep anywhere from 9p-10p, before that it’s dinner, bath, teeth, movie time with mommy, sometimes I don’t want to but when they want me to sit with them then I go.
Our routine is typically this, dinner at 6ish, baths at the latest of 7, bed and reading stories by 7:45 or so. Lights out by 8:15 or so, but it all varies by about 15 minutes.
We have a strict and simple bedtime routine. With the youngest (18 months) we kiss her and put her in the crib; turn out the lights and shut the door. That’s it.
With our 6 year old hubby would read the Bible, read a story, pray with her and turn out the lights. No stalling. We just started this new routine: We kiss her goodnight, pray with her and let her stay up to read by herself in her bed. She can turn the light out when she gets tired. It’s working well so far!
I WISH I had a definite routine. Our summer has been so crazy with travelling that’s my daughter’s lucky she even goes to bed!
I’m with Lyssa on this one. We cherish our kids. And we cherish our grown-up time. The baby goes down no later than 7pm (bath, books, bottle, prayers) and the older two (8 yr and 5 yr) are down at 7:30pm. Same routine with them though no bottle
I must admit it is one of the few things that we do really well!!!
The time differs from day to day depending on my mood. It’s usually 7:30-8:00. My hubby and I get them in their pj’s, then put them in bed. My youngest drinks a sippy of milk while I read them a story and then I have to tell them a story. Then we all have prayer time and they go to sleep. A routine is so important and I think it works great. We’ve never had any problems with them not wanting to go to bed.
With my son (4yrs) he watches a 1/2 hour show before bed then it is pjs, teeth brushed, and then we either read a couple stories or we lay on our bed and tell him a made up story where dh says the beginning then I say a party then Zack does, etc.
With my daughter (1yrs)…no routine. The child sleeps with dh and I and we can’t get her out LOL
I am a nazi when it comes to bedtimes with my 2 girls. They are both in bed by 7:30 because, let’s face it, I look forward when they are in bed
We give them bathtime, then get them dressed, brush teeth and hair, then sing a series of songs (have to be in the SAME order every night) then prayers then nighty-night. I’ve tried to stick with that ever since they could hold a routine and it’s been so nice having the nights for just me and my husband 
Funny you should ask. I just wrote an entire blog posting on this subject. I call our routine the “Ten Minute Tuck”.
http://ldgermany.blogspot.com/2008/07/wfmf-ten-minute-tuck.html
We try to keep to a routine and with our older boys they are pretty good about it (CB is the only child I know who’s ever complained that “mama, it’s 8:11 and you haven’t put me to bed yet” he’s a stickler for time!). His twin brother BH is our negotiator, he’s forever making deals, with us, his brother, etc.
With our 3-yr-old it’s a big struggle. He has sleep issues, sometimes he can’t wind down, sometimes he can’t fall asleep, sometimes he can’t stay asleep. If we’re lucky, he just hangs out doing his thing until he finally gets tired. If we’re not lucky, he has one of his 2-hr bedtime meltdowns. He rarely naps but if he does there’s no getting him to bed before 10-11pm, and he’s usually the first one up no matter when he falls asleep.
Routine, what’s this routine? Can you really get kids to bed on time each night? Is there a magic wand for that? LOL My son likes to push and push to stay up later and later and since my hub is supposed to put him down at night, he seems to get to stay up. Daddy is tired and easy to push around. But when it is time to get to bed, there is teeth brushing, hand washing, pottying and allergy medicine taking going on. Then reading some stories and off go the lights, a little snuggle and we are out. But he is still up for anywhere from ten minutes to three hours. So it doesn’t work.
Mine are usually in bed anywhere from 7-8. It typically depends on their behavior from the day and if I am at my wits end. I run a home daycare so even during the summer they are up early. On Saturday’s I am more lienent and they can watch a movie or whatever until I go to bed.