It’s been 2 months of a consistent 7:30pm bedtime after ALL of these years of 8:30-9pm bedtime (oh, and they still wake at 6am; same as before). I swear by a few things I’ve tweaked:
Of course, this will also depend on your kids age, time they wake up, and if they still nap. But a bunch of friends tried these tweaks and got it to happen as well!
1. I make sure we’re home by 4pm so they have time to play at home (they crave that home play so much, even though the play at school nonstop). So for us, it’s really important (and makes things less stressful) not to schedule after school activities later + sticking to after school activities AT school, so I can still pick them up at 330-4pm and they are done with soccer, gymnastics, ballet, dance…
2. Being home by 4 allows us to have dinner sooner: we used to have dinner 630-7 now at 530-6. This saves the snacks pre-dinner, and they eat a better meal too
3. If they watch TV (I’m ok with it) it’s during the 30min dinner time now. Earlier! And since dad gets home around 6pm, they are excited to turn off the TV and play w him (vs turning it off before bed, when we used to have more fights).
4. Dad gets them excited to play again for 30m before bath! Indoors in the playroom, or even outside with neighbors again.
5. Having bath time at 6:30pm also allows them to bathe for 30min (they love to play there) with no stress.
6. After bath, they have a do a pre bed snack (usually meat from daddy’s grill, a Greek yogurt with fruit….) since dinner is now earlier.
7. It helps that its fully dark by 730pm (and I’ll just get darker and darker now) so it’s been easy in that sense too.
Of course, you don’t have to do exactly what I do, but see if some tweaks can help you get an earlier bedtime. It’s so helpful to get more unwinding time & an earlier bedtime for me preggo & soon with a baby. I hope this helps you too!
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