Once upon a time, my children adhered to a delightful bedtime ritual. They’d indulge in a bath, enjoy a show, engage in play, sing a lullaby, read a bedtime story, and then it was lights out. While it wasn’t flawless—my little ones didn’t always drift off the moment I shut the door—I felt reassured that I was following the standard parenting guidelines. Countless parenting books recommend a consistent bedtime routine, and mine felt as steadfast as stone.
However, when summer arrived, everything changed.
My partner, Alex, began working longer hours, resulting in later evenings for him. Consequently, dinner time shifted to later in the evening, which pushed bath time back even further. The sun, that relentless sphere of brightness, stubbornly hung in the sky until 8 PM. Before I knew it, my kids were heading to bed around 9 or even 10 PM, often skipping the lullaby altogether.
Suddenly, bedtime seemed like a running joke, and I came to appreciate the chaos.
Of course, there are evenings when I yearn for them to be fast asleep by 7:30. What parent wouldn’t relish that? And yes, the comfort of a dependable routine can be appealing at times. But rigid schedules are not always the solution. Even with a well-structured routine, there’s no assurance your kids will stick to it and drift off before you can catch a moment of relaxation. Therefore, instead of wrestling with them over sleep time, we chose to relish our evenings together.
Generally, my kids retire to bed when they’ve hit their exhaustion peak or when Alex and I have reached our limit of toddler tantrums. This flexible approach grants us significant freedom in our evening plans.
Late-night grocery shopping doesn’t faze us. We aren’t bound by the “We can’t go out after 7 PM, or the children will never sleep, and chaos will ensue” mentality. We simply gather the kids and venture out, as they aren’t constrained by a strict bedtime.
If Alex works late, the kids still get to see him when he returns home, which is invaluable for all of us. Should we find ourselves at a friend’s house enjoying good company, there’s no frantic glancing at the clock, dreading the impending chaos of getting the kids to bed on time.
The best part? They tend to sleep in until 8 or 9 in the morning, which has this mom feeling incredibly grateful. Gone are the days of 5 AM wake-ups.
Soon, they will enter school, and a structured routine will become paramount. Their bedtime will play a crucial role in their development and success. Academic responsibilities and extracurricular activities will dictate their sleep schedule, which will inevitably reduce our time together.
So while we have this fleeting period of carefree living, I plan to embrace it fully. I’ll cherish those late-night cuddles, relish sleeping in alongside them, and savor their presence while I can. Stressful bedtime rituals are a thing of the past, and I intend to enjoy this phase for as long as possible.
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In summary, while bedtime in our house has transformed into a flexible and often humorous experience, I have learned to embrace it as a precious time to connect with my children before the demands of school and routine take over.
Keyphrase: bedtime routine for kids
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