Day 7 Is it Bedtime Yet?

Day 7 of the Blog Challenge. (New topics)

Is it bedtime yet? 

It’s dark out. Your neck has been bobbing for what seems like hours and you’re sure of it , you’re sure that it’s time. It has to be, right?!? You’ve  watched all the Raven’s Home and Bunk’d you can handle and now, now Peppa Pig has made the rotation 🤦🏾‍♀️ and there’s even mention of Descendants 2. IS IT BEDTIME YET!?!? It’s the parental equivalent of “Are we there yet”?

Is it bedtime yet? 

This thought skips through my mind multiple times each evening. Am I alone? Do you feel guilty when it first enters your mind? Yeah.... until you hear them argue over that same spot on the sofa for the hundredth time or your toddler has tried to mount your neck for the fourth time mauling your head or someone calls you (Mommy) 10 times in a row just to tell you what theme they want their birthday 2 years from now to be. Yep that usually wipes out my guilt.


After bellies have been fed and showers and baths have been had the effort to hold my head up and my eyes open exhaust my mental abilities. My kids on the other hand are just getting started. Their  i second wind is kicking in.

What do you do to wind down your household?

In order to find what would work best for my little circus I needed to see what I was doing wrong. Let’s say that didn’t take long.

For one I would actually allow them to have some sort of dessert. Now that’s not bad but the serving needed to be decreased and when we ate later than usual it needed to be cut out all together. Unless they opted for hot chocolate.

Secondly I needed to push bath time back or forward rather.  The later they bathed the better. After having warm baths I noticed the kids were more subdued. (If the opted for showers then earlier).

Recently I started incorporating night stretching and yoga with them to further wind them down. I found a relaxing playlist on Tidal that works perfectly.

Now I need to stress that I’m not that mom, the meticulous one. No. I lean more on the hotmess side. Yoga was something I wanted to start for myself to elevate back issues and help promote better sleep habits. Plus I thought Baby J could benefit from some mommy and me yoga. Now he goes and grabs both of our mats and lays them out. 🤗

At the end of the day whether you work outside the home or in it you’re most likely exhausted by the days end and really looking for a few minutes maybe a couple of hours to yourself. These are just some ways I get my kids settled down.  The girls are usually out in 5 minutes tops. Baby j ask for about 3 stories I agree to two. 🤷🏾‍♀️ compromise

Don’t forget to take some time for yourself.

You and your spouse should be able to tackle bedtime together so neither one of you are overwhelmed. If you’re a single parent as I once was and you have older children, let them help. Certainly an older sibling can read to a younger one. This is great bonding time. You can do this!

Consistency is key. We do not skip night time baths as I did years ago when they were smaller. No I would be more of a frazzled mess  than I am now in the mornings if we did that. I rarely allow changes to their bedtime and we no longer use electronics durning the week. No judgement if that doesn’t work for you. I get it. We just started the “electronic free” weekdays this school years.

I want to thank my wonderful husband.  When he’s not working some nights I get to skip this whole routine (dinner prep included) and lock myself in the room with a book while daddy handles it all. Of course he and my son sleep on the sofa until after 1 am but hey I won’t tell him how to parent. That’s not my business 🤷🏾‍♀️.

Good luck making it to bedtime with your sanity intact.

Cheers,
S