May 2013 Moms

working moms: evening routine?

MOMama987MOMama987 member
edited August 2013 in May 2013 Moms
I've been back to work for a couple weeks now but evenings are still a challenge. I pick LO up at daycare at 6 and we are home by 610. He generally goes to bed between 8-9. We like to get a walk in, some play time, a bath every few days. and at least one bottle... but its so hard in such a short amount of time... never mind dinner, prepping for work, etc. I'd love to spend more quality time with LO and get to bed before 1130 but it just doesn't seem possible...

What is your evening routine?

Edited to fix typo
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Re: working moms: evening routine?

  • I'm not back until next week, but ill be leaving my moms house with LO around 5:15 and be home by 5:30 every day. DH will likely be responsible for dinner the 3 days per week ill be working initially. I imagine ill probably feed DS around 5:45. Eat dinner around. 6 or 6:30, shower, give LO a bath if bath night, pjs sing songs massage, feed and put him to bed by 8:30.

    Looking at that though makes me think it is going to be tight. Grammy may be responsible for tubby time lol.

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  • I've only been back for 3 days now and we are definitely still working out our routine but so far it goes like this: Done with work at 3:15, pick up LO at 3:30, pick up stepson at 4, home 4:15, around 5 feed LO, dinner about 5:30 or 6, clean up, prep bottles, dishes around 7, bedtime routine about 7:15/7:30, hopefully get LO down around 8, finish up any of our stuff and I'm in bed by 9. 

    Our day starts at 4 a.m. so it's not totally insane that I go to bed so early. We will need to figure out homework for school in there in a couple weeks too. Plus MH goes back to school too so I will be winging this alone then. Only doing baths every other day or so for my sanity. It always feels like a mad dash in the evenings plus I just want to spend time with LO because I haven't seen him all day. 

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  • Ugh. I've been running through how we're going to do this in my head. I go back next week so I don't have any helpful suggestions yet. But we'll be on a similar schedule. Maybe phase out the walk? I know it feels nice to end the day with a stroll, but with fall on the way it'll be dark by the time you get home anyway. I'm going to start looking for more crockpot recipes too. Set it and Forget it might be the way to go for a while until I get a handle on everything.
  • Yhea I hear you, it seems all the quality time I want to have is spent making, eating and cleaning up dinner.

    LO gets picked up from daycare by DH between 4 and 5, I get home around 5:15pm.

    LO nurses (then usually wants to take a nap since he gets so much activity at Daycare), so we make dinner and try to eat it while he is napping.

    6:30 to 7:30 try to get some quality time with him, playing, reading, etc.

    7:45 start bedtime routine of bath, eating and bed

    by 8:30 he is down and then I do all my bottle washing, pump, organize milk for the next day, repack his bag for daycare, etc.

    I try to get to bed by 9:30 since I am up at 5am.... blah!
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  • So, of course, as soon as I get into a routine, the routine changes, right? School starts on the 26th and my last day at my current job is the 14th.  I anticipate that my evenings will start a little earlier… my oldest son will come home around 3pm and I’ll help him get organized with homework… he tends to get a little distracted when it comes to having all his assignments together. He’ll probably work on HW for an hour or so, then either go for a run or use our workout room while I go pick up the younger kids. I’ll pick up LO around 4:15 and then pick up DS2 around 5:00. At 5:15, I’ll get dinner started while DS2 does homework at the kitchen table. Dinner on the table around 6pm, and then we set an egg timer for 45 minutes and everyone has to do some cleaning... get laundry together, take trash out, dishes, bottles, sweeping, etc. (The kids are expected to keep their rooms tidy outside of this time period, btw.) Ideally, it’s about 7:30 and we can take the dog for a walk, but it depends on the weather and if it’s dark outside yet. Our neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks and we are a little uneasy walking in the road with our dog and LO since people drive way too fast. Maybe we will play outside in the yard for a few minutes. At 8pm, LO and DS2 get a bath and the oldest one wraps up whatever he’s doing and takes a shower and gets ready for bed… he goes to bed really early even though he’s 15 because he gets up at 4:45 to work out (he plays sports). All the kids, even the teenager, are in bed by 8:45 during the school year (during the week). On Tuesdays, DS2 has soccer practice, so if we eat out or eat fast food, that will be the night. He’s done by 6 or 6:30 and we’ll pick up dinner. Also, in December, wrestling practice starts for the oldest one, so I have to pick him up from practice at 6pm…. Sometimes that throws the schedule off a little bit, but it just means DH and I have to divide and conquer. Nights I pick up all the kids late, he makes dinner.  On days that DH is on call (he’s a physician), everyone just makes do—laundry and dishes may get left, or we may order pizza.


  • It's definitely a new routine and a life adjustment, but I am trying to take it in stride. We'll get through it and the world won't end if it's a little rough for a while.
    Yeah, I think that hits the nail on the head. It just hit me last night how little time I actually get to spend with LO now (which I knew would happen, since it's not 24/7 anymore) and then realized that now that he's going to sleep earlier, and sometimes needs a nap in the evening... our time together is getting too short. :(  I like taking walks with him since he's inside all day at daycare and LOVES the outdoors; I figure I'll keep them up as long as we can. Thankfully my husband is really good about making dinner (he works from home so doesn't have a commute), but I'd like to start doing my share. Someday I'd like to figure out how to work out again, too... but no real rush on that one. haha
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  • So I've been back to work for a week now and we still haven't gotten this one nailed down, but it doesn't help that we just moved over the weekend and still have to finish cleaning the old place. Last week before the moving craziness, DH would pick S up from school around 5 and feed her a bottle if she wanted one when they got home. If it's a bath day, he'll give her a bath too. I usually get home around 6 and take over while DH gets dinner ready. If we're lucky, she'll let us eat before we put her to bed, otherwise I'm on boob patrol and don't eat dinner till after she goes to sleep, usually around 8:30 or so. I do miss getting all that quality time with her, but I get her ready in the mornings and stuff so I make up for the evening time with time in the mornings.
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  • The only routine we really have is at 8 when we start getting ready for bed. I just wing it each night. I try and fit as much play time/tummy time/walks and everything else in. What I can't seem to find time to fit in is when to clean the house, do laundry and get it all put away. I want to spend time with LO and dont know when I am supposed to get all the other stuff done!
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