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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
If you do family dinners...
What is your schedule like (as in what time do you/your partner get home, what time is dinner, bedtime, etc)? And how/when do you cook dinner? What does your kid do while you cook?
We do them as much as we can, but it doesn't work out as much as I'd like. My husband usually doesn't get home until between 6 and 6:30pm and our bedtime routine starts around 6:30pm with bedtime by 7pm (I'd love to move this back a little but it hasn't worked out). We have twins and even though I stay at home with our boys I haven't figured out a way to get a family dinner on the table most nights because I have zero free time during the day.
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Re: If you do family dinners...
DH gets home around 5 (he leaves at 4:45 AM). We eat around 5:30. I usually throw something in the crock pot and do most of the prep while DD is napping. In the last month or so DD has become more independent so I am finally able to make dinner without her hanging on me.
Have you tried cooking a freezing meals? That way you don't have to do any prep, just throw it in the microwave or oven.
I get home by 4pm. I nurse LO right away and then we play and do chores (empty the dishwasher, do laundry, etc.). I start dinner around 5 depending on what we're having. We eat at 6. My DH comes home by 5:30 so we trade off baby-wrangling to get the last of dinner cooked. Then it's bathtime, more nursing, playtime, books, etc. Bedtime is 8pm. It used to be 7pm but in the spring we took advantage of daylight savings and moved it. Now LO is definitely tired earlier but we keep her up. She naps 12-3 so she's awake ~5 hours before bedtime, which really is the max for her age.
We also did BLW so we've had this schedule awhile.
I SAH, DH gets home anywhere between 4 and 5:30, depending on if he has a meeting or is coaching a sport that season. We have a family dinner every night, and eat around 5:30. I cook 4 or 5 nights a week, and 2 or 3 nights I plan for leftovers. The girls bedtime routine starts around 7, so that still leaves us some time after dinner to spend as a family.
As far as having time to cook - it's not easy, but I make it happen. I use my crock pot once a week or so and prep that while my littlest is napping in the AM. If I'm lucky enough to get them down for their PM nap at the same time, I prep dinner during nap so I either have something I can just pop in the over or at least have ingredients laid out to throw together quickly. If DH is home while I'm cooking he will do his best to entertain the girls, otherwise I try to get DD1 coloring or doing play doh and give DD2 some pots or tupperware to play with.
DD1 Feb 2010
DD2 Sept 2011
There is a way to have a family dinner without dinner being together. On our crazy rush days, if I don't have anything put together for all 3 of us, I put J in his high chair with something to eat. DH and I still sit at the table (we typically are having some sort of snack) until he is done. It's still the family dynamic, even if our dinner isn't ready yet.
I think the biggest trouble you're going to have with that is that DH doesn't get home in time for dinner, obviously. Maybe instead of a family dinner, you can do something like a family story/playtime before bed.
DH gets home around 6:15pm and I have dinner ready then...........My 22 month old is usually right there by my feet the whole time....if she naps later in the afternoon then I'll get a lot of stuff done for dinner then.
We really don't have a bedtime routine ha ha But she goes to bed around 9ish
I can share what I do, but it's far from ideal (in my mind). DH and I both work full time. Our schedule sounds similar to yours.
4:30 pick up DS at daycare
5pm start dinner
5:45 DH gets home.
5:45ish eat
6:30 start bedtime routine
7pm bedtime
While I'm making dinner, DS will usually cry/whine to be honest. Some days he will eat a little snack, colour in his high chair, rarely play on his own. After daycare he is tired and super fussy.
Between the time I pick him up and the time he goes to bed, I'm in survival mode.
So some things that have helped:
A slow cooker. I was skeptical but I've found some good healthy recipes. Plus most recipes are huge and will feed us for two nights or I freeze half.
I try to cook every other night so we have left overs the next night. On the weekend I try to cook things that can also become freezer meals (so cook a double batch).
We always have frozen veggies in the freezer. I cook huge batches of brown rice and freeze it in meal sized portions.
Meal planning has become my friend.
Finally, I try and let go of the guilt that dinners aren't as wonderful as they were before DS!
Good luck and I give you major props for managing with twins!
DH works FriMon and is home around 4:30 or 4:45. He does M/F daycare pickup. I work MF and get home at 5:45.
We only cook on the days that one of us doesn't work. On the days we both work we do leftovers or big salads. So we only cook 34 meals per week.
We do dinner at 6 or 6:15, sometimes 6:30.
Start bedtime routine at 7ish.
DS goes down between 7:30 and 7:45.
bfp#4 3/19/2014 edd 12/1/2014 please let this be the one!
beta @ 5w0d = 12,026! u/s 4/22/14 @ 8w1d it's twins!
We both get home around 6, dinner is usually 6:15 or 6:30, depending on how complicated the dinner is. Usually A runs around while I cook or H entertains him. Bedtime is 8, so we usually have about 30 minutes or so after dinner to do bath, milk, brushing teeth, etc.
We do a lot of easy crockpot meals and freeze leftovers. I also cook and freeze some meals when we're both home on the weekend. In a pinch, Trader Joes' frozen meals are pretty good and relatively healthy.
We eat dinner together every night but Tuesdays, when DH gets home from class at 8:30pm.
He's usually done work around 5-6pm, we usually eat between 6:45 and 7pm. DD gets a bath around 8 and then goes to bed around 9, so we have a late schedule.
I do most of my dinner prep during DD's afternoon nap. I brown ground beef, chop veggies, boil pasta and put together casseroles, etc. I also get out any other kitchen tools and ingredients that I might need to put together dinner. I rarely cook anything meal takes more than a half hour to get on the table, with the exception being something in the oven or crock pot. If DH is home, he watches DD while I get dinner together. Otherwise, I put down the gates in the dining room, and she runs around in there while I cook. This actually works out really well. We keep things in there for her to play with that she doesn't get to have on regular basis (tupperware, boxes of pasta, table linens) so the items retain their novelty.
For me I make it one of my top priorities. Not because I feel that I "owe" DH a hot meal when he comes home, but because I enjoy the time we spend around that the table. That being said, making supper with a 15 month old at my ankles makes me want to cuss. There, I said it! I'm due with number 2 in January...eeek! And you have twins!!!
Here is what works for us...DH walks in at 6:30 to plates on the table.
-Nap time prep-chop, lay everything out, put together what I can. Example: Ex: breaded chicken can be breaded and in a dish ready to bake, veggies can be chopped and ready to throw in the steamer, fruit washed (seriously, hats off to you working mamas who manage to get supper on the table, too : )
-One night a week I do something very easy, like scrambled eggs and grits. Round it out with a fruit.
- Come January I plan to give DS a salad or steamed veggie around 5:30 while I cook/shush newborn. If a salad "spoils his appetite" I can live with that.
-If your twins will watch TV while you cook, do it. IMO. DS won't but if 20 minutes of tv is a trade off for time around the table as a family then I think that's well worth it.
Myself, DD and DH are all home by about 4:30, sometimes sooner. We pick up the house, clean out her lunch bag, diaper & clothes change in necessary, etc.
Then we play and have some relax time with her until about 5:30. I then start cooking dinner and we eat between 6-6:15.
I give DD a bath around 6:45 while DH cleans up the kitchen. Then I get her ready for bed and DH puts her to sleep while I shower. Usually she is asleep by the time I get down showering. If she's not, then I will occasionally take over in getting her to sleep.
Most nights by 7:30, we are done for the night.
I SAH so I try and cook either in the morning and then I put in the fridge until its take to put it in the oven or I cook in the afternoon. DS plays in the kitchen or the den, the two are connected so I let him wander. Now that's its fall, I'm taking advantage of crock pot weather!
H works nights so we don't usually get to eat with the whole family. I work PT so the days that I work and he's home with the kids (1-2 days per week) I get home at 5:30 or 6 and I have to either have something in the crock pot or leftovers because the kids like to eat at 5:30 on the dot and 6 is pushing it and H is usually too tired (since he works nights) to make something. On the days that I'm home with them I start dinner at 5ish and we eat at 5:30 and I pack some to send with H to work.
We do baths every other night at 6, in bed at 7:30.
Lately while I cook DD will stand on a chair next to me and "help" and DS will either watch a show or play in his room. He actually likes some quiet time to play by himself and sometimes will even shut the door to keep her out...they do really get along well though
I SAH and DH works the night shift. The way everything works out with his sleep and awake time we only usually have family dinner 2 nights a week when he's off. I do still cook though for myself and DD. DH usually takes whatever I made to work for his lunch.
Anyway, I will either make crock pot meals so all I need to do is throw everything in the crockpot in the morning when I get up. Or I'll make/prep (depending on what we're having) the meal while DD is napping. For example, the other night we had pork chops and of course I didn't want to cook them in the middle of the day and then have to reheat them later so I just seasoned and marinated them..basically did everything to get them ready to go in the oven so a little bit before dinner time all I had to do was pop them in the oven and then we were ready to go.
We're able to eat together but our schedule is pretty different. DH SAH, I get home around 5:30, and the bedtime routine doesn't start until 8:15.
Even then, however, I rely heavily on crockpots and freezer meals.
Both DH and I work full time. Before Daylight Savings our schedule looked like this:
5:30ish: Me and the kid get home, DH gets home. I walk the dog, depending on fussy levels maybe nurse the kid.
6:00: We head out. I go for a short run while the DH pushes the stroller on a little walk.
6:45: We're home and I heat up dinner while DH plays with our son.
7:00: dinner
7:30: bathtime and bedtime for my little guy. He's usually in bed around 8pm.
8:00: I make lunches and dinner for the next day.
Now that it's dark when we get home, I can't go for my run, and instead I use the time from 6-6:30 to make dinner while DH entertains the little one. Sometimes he "helps" me in the kitchen (like last night when he munched on some corn rounds while I grilled the veggies). This means we've been eating dinner a bit earlier and he's been going to bed a bit earlier too.
DH and I both work. We're all home by about 6:00. I usually stick DD is her high chair immediately and give her a snack so she doesn't lose her mind while dinner's cooking. Then she plays with DH while I warm up something I have in the freezer. I make freezer meals on Saturday, which I just started recently. It's kind of a bummer on Saturdays...but at the same time I feel pretty productive. And while it takes a while then, I can get a lot done at once and save time when it's more important. (I checked out a bunch of freezer meal cookbooks from the library and copied recipes. I even cooked enough for two weeks this last weekend since we're having family down this weekend and I won't be able to cook then!)
Then we all eat together when I'm finished with dinner! Then DD gets a bath and bed (we shoot for a 7 bedtime with her since she loves her sleep; but sometimes it's later)!
I prep in the morning and do the cooking at nap. I warm it up around 5:30 (or finish cooking) while kids are playing and we eat together around 6-6:30. I only eat a very small amount with the kids.
I save some for DH and eat with him when he gets home around 9-9:30. He works from 8:30am till 9ish
I am a SAHM too, only I have done it longer. Use your crockpot to cook dinner. You can start a meal at breakfast or naptime let it cook all day then add a salad or bread rolls and eat. You can also try cooking several meals and freeze them.
For us we eat usually at 7 pm but DH doesn't come home til then. Also we have several activities that keep us busy. So my crockpot is my friend.