We did a good job of maintaining the relatively cleanliness of the house after it was cleaned last week. Mostly we remembered to get the kids involved, and when we didn’t I picked up the slack (I KNOW I need to keep them involved or I will take on more and more of this, it’s becoming a habit to budget 10 minutes of cleanup into the bedtime routine, but slowly). It didn’t help that we had a lot of after school commitments last week that kept us out of the house until bedtime. Still, the reward of enjoying neat and tidy living spaces all week definitely renewed our commitment to picking up every single day.
{Side note: I don’t know how people who don’t get home until 6pm or after manage to get anything done before bedtime, let alone dinner and some down time. We have to start bedtime at 7pm to get our kids asleep by 8:00 or 8:30pm, which is really important with our 6:30am wake-up requirement (our daughter’s school starts at 7:50am). My hats off to all of you!}
I really struggled to get my head back in the game last week. I forgot about my staff meeting on Tuesday, even though it was written in my planner. The most annoying part was I also didn’t get my allergy shot that day, which I knew I couldn’t get on Tuesday because of my staff meeting. Instead of doing either one of those important things I just drove home, and it wasn’t until I was back at the house with my daughter by 4pm that I noticed something was amiss. Luckily my principal was really cool about it, but still, it was troubling.
I also forgot a lot of other really important details throughout the week. I finished the week off feeling frustrated at myself in a lot of ways, but I do think it was an adjustment period and that next week will be better. (I also gave myself a LOT of leeway to just chill out in the evenings, which I will not be able to do moving forward. I have to use that time more productively!)
Part of the reason I think this week will be better is that I have less on my plate after school, and I’m scheduling some catch-up in important areas to take place in those open spaces. I really need to get caught up on my grading, and the entering of those scores into our online grading system. I plan to do that on Tuesday and Wednesday, before I pick up the kids. And if I need to catch up more, I have an extra day the next weekend (woot!) I also need to get started on some stuff for our spring carnival, which will be here before I know it!
My husband and I went to our yearly SF SketchFest event last night, which was super fun but also ended the weekend on a busy note, and now I don’t feel as prepared for the beginning of this week. Everything is a give and take, I suppose.
Your post makes me curious what your bedtime routine looks like. A 60-90 minute bedtime routine would drive me batty, but maybe that’s because I don’t know what all is involved in yours? Ours is 30 minutes tops and that’s including probably 15-20 minutes of reading to them. Maybe write up a post about what you’re doing and crowdsource ideas of how to streamline that process and free up more time in your evenings?
I let some seriously important balls drop in the past month (like my passport being expired!), and after beating myself up about it, I’ve taken a step back, streamlined some things, taken off a few hats, and I’m feeling (slightly) calmer about it. I hope you can do the same. Just saying you’re not along in the ball dropping arena!
Our bedtime routine is theoretically short but lately my 5 year old has been dragging his feet and taking a long time to fall asleep after we say goodnight (and often calling for us) so it winds up being a 60 minute affair. And that doesn’t even include bath! Pajamas, teeth, medicine, books, goodnight. And then thirty minutes of checking in.
I’ve decided I am a parent who seriously slacks in the bathing department. My 5 and 7 year old refuse to take baths anymore, but they take a shower maybe 1-2x/week in the morning before school, never at night. Our kids share a room, and they definitely talk after we leave sometimes (usually we start bedtime at 7:30 and are out at 8pm), but I don’t care if they talk until 8:30/9 as long as they stay in the dang room. 🙂
My kids shower 2x/a week but really need to be showering at least once more. My son’s scalp still gets scaly and flaky and itchy if he doesn’t get his special shampoo and coconut oil treatment every couple of days, and my daughter is old enough now that she needs more frequent cleanings. 😉 It’s hard to fit showers in though! They seem to take way longer than they should.
Ours is also really 30ish minutes and then it takes them another 15-30 to fall asleep. They no longer call for us, but they don’t fall asleep immediately, so we need to be done with the routine by 7:30ish if want them actually asleep by 8ish.
You kept the picking up happening!!!! And the kids involved at all!!!!! Absolutely fabulous and a huge accomplishment. It always sounds so easy but the practice is hard to make a habit and disrupts so easily.
Getting back into routines is hard and with the schedule you run … brutal.
With the two specific children at your house I can easily see why it takes so long to do the bedtime routine. Some children simply are constitutionally unable to effectively get pjs on, teeth brushed, hair ready, before sleep toileting done in 10 minutes. This really is about the child not the parenting methodology. Managing to keep bedtime readiness moving forward with any semblance of peace is really hard for some children; the impact of one child hitting hysteria in parent or child on preventing the child from calming down and falling asleep is impossible for a parent who has not ‘lived there, walked that road’ to understand. I have put many children to bed regularly … some are easy, some are not. I am totally in awe of your patience in getting both children down and respecting the time it takes to make it happen smoothly for the children. But I am also totally open to learning more tips and reading ideas. (I had one child who took under 5 mins to be ready for stories, so it really isn’t my methods/routines.) Getting a child to calm enough to sleep is super super variable.
PS: I am sorry I was so depressed and depressing last week; doing better now.
K – I hope you realize I wasn’t trying to critique your parenting methodology. I just know I’ve learned a lot from other parents about their routines and then pick and choose what works for me and my children. Not saying my kids are the same as yours…
I know you weren’t critiquing my parentings. When I say we have to start bedtime by 7am to get them asleep by 8pm I was including falling asleep time because I really do want them asleep close to 8pm with our early bedtime. My son falls asleep fairly quickly these days, but it still takes me daughter a little longer. And she does her 20-30 minutes of reading before falling asleep so we have to account for that as well. So bedtime is around 30ish minutes, but it also feels like it takes longer than that a lot of the time. I will post more about it and see where people think we can change things up. I’ll also be watching where we lose time this week, because there are some weaknesses in the routine to be sure.
My kids actually aren’t that hard to get to bed, we just get distracted. I need to stream line the routine. I’m going to watch it more carefully this week and see where I can tweak it.