Issue link: https://fredparent.uberflip.com/i/68665
Listen for the Dadvice by B101.5's "Chris & Dee in the Mornings" ChRIs CEnToRE 9:30 PM...on a Tuesday...Get Back In Bed! This scene was playing out way too many weeknights. Our bedtime routine was becoming more of a bedtime torture, usually starting about 7 pm and wrapping up around 10 pm. The routine was running us. Having two children with different bedtimes is challenging; getting one into bed while the other is still up, then putting the older one down fifteen minutes later without disturbing the younger. One wrong move and it's routine reset. There have been nights when it's a cycle of one kid up one kid down, over and over. Most nights, we weren't eating dinner until nearly 9:30 pm, and rarely uninterrupted. (This is especially fun when I wake at 3 am for work.) Don't get me wrong - my wife and I enjoy the bedtime process. We both love reading to the boys, telling them stories and tucking them in. They both will sleep through the entire night and stay in their rooms. We've never let them sleep with us, and they are generally great night time kids. It's just bedtime and getting them to go to sleep. We've tried a few tricks we learned through the parent grapevine, to no avail. I'd have them running circles around the house at 5 pm and still couldn't wear them out after dinner. So we finally decided to just push everything back 45 minutes and put Young N.C. and A-Bomb to bed at the same time. We're giving them the old double team; we each take one to bed. You know what? It's starting to work! After three weeks, our bedtime routine runs about 20 minutes shorter and we're eating dinner at a far more reasonable time. (If you're wondering why we don't all eat at once, my wife does the NoVa commute. Most nights she's home just in time to help with this process.) With the days becoming longer as we get into summer this will become more of a challenge, but as parents we're going to keep enjoying the small bedtime victory while we can. And the best lesson we've learned? Man-on-man defense always works best at bedtime! www.fredericksburgparent.nET 9 MomStops Tip of the Day, with Kristin Nash, each weekday at 11:55 on B101.5.