Today I’m excited to announce a continuation of my partnership with Allstate, an insurance company dedicated to keeping families in good hands. Last year, Allstate made it possible for me to continue my Monday Morning series, documenting moms across the country to show their unique morning routines. We met Anna in LA, Shaneka in Chicago, Diane in DC and Kristen in Houston among many others.
Now, we’re taking it to the evenings! Wednesday Evenings is a brand new series that aims to show the beauty in every family’s evening routine. From dinnertime to bedtime, we’ll capture a typical night for 12 featured families.
The goal of Monday Mornings was always to show that no matter how chaotic or stressful your mornings feel, there is beauty to be found as well. I’m betting the same holds true for Wednesday Evenings.
This is the time when most parents come home from work, have dinner, play and then put the kids to bed. Right in the middle of the week when no one is still adjusting from the weekend or looking forward to the next one.
Just a regular night with the kids.
As different as everyone’s morning was last year, I think evenings have the potential for even more variation. Bedtime is open-ended. Instead of seeing people head out the door by a pre-determined time, evenings give opportunity to see different bedtime routines and parenting styles.
We are looking for parents who put their kids to bed early, parents who put their kids to bed late, parents who work an evening shift, parents who stagger bedtimes, parents who deal with tons of homework, parents who make sure their family all sits down for dinner together, parents who let their kids fend for themselves, moms who do it alone, dads who do it alone, etc.
Before I tell you how to enter, I’d like to show you a bit of my Wednesday Evening, documented as always by lifestyle photographer Raquel Langworthy. When the shoot was originally planned, I wanted to capture Mike and I both coming home from work, because the kids run to greet us with kisses and hugs and it’s always one of my favorite moments of the day. I also wanted to show our nanny Ruth who I always felt was missing from my family’s Monday Morning shoot. Unfortunately, Ruth got sick in the middle of the day, meaning I had to come home unexpectedly to watch Harlow.
Mike picked up Mazzy from school and because of the change in schedule, he decided to take her for a slice of pizza. Pizza is the NYC version of fast food, after all. He brought back a slice for Harlow as well.
By the time Raquel arrived, the kids were already home and fed. Not exactly a typical evening. Such is life.
Mazzy and Harlow spent the first twenty minutes of the shoot running around the house doing Mazzy and Harlow things— like putting on jewelry, playing musical instruments and jumping on the couch.
The plan was to take the girls for ice cream as we often do if they have had a good dinner. But then we learned the elevator was broken, which put a kink in our plan. We live on the 12th floor.
Mazzy did not take the news well.
I guess you can’t introduce an ice cream trip and then take it away.
We took the stairs.
Then we had an ice cream shop debate which I lost. I like Davey’s which has real ice cream homemade in the back, but Mazzy wanted 16 Handles which has pink spoons and a toppings bar.
I’m glad Mike is “keeping it real” and looking at his phone during our family moment.
Here he is trying to negotiate a spoonful.
Also true to form was Harlow putting on a show outside the yogurt shop. I should just set up a cup for money and maybe she could pay her own way through college.
Then we headed home.
Harlow dropped her ice cream on the way back. Obviously, I had to snap a picture. I’m sure you’ll see it on @insta2yearold one day soon.
Harlow handled it remarkably well. I was proud.
Then we headed back up twelve long flights of stairs. There was no whining which was a nice change.
When we got back, it was time for PJs and tooth brushing. Even with ice cream in their bellies, this never goes over well.
Mazzy is fully capable of putting on her pajamas herself, but unless I want her to go to bed at midnight, I usually give her a hand.
Harlow is the tougher of the two because she’s quick and squirmy.
“Where’s Mike this whole time?” you might be wondering. He’s making dinner for the two of us to eat after the kids are in bed.
This is something he does to be helpful and also because he prefers it to wrangling the children.
Notice Harlow’s half-eaten banana on the table. Not a night goes by where she doesn’t request one right before bed.
Once the girls ate their last minute snacks, they went to the bathroom to brush their teeth.
Where’s Mazzy? Oh, still in the living room, deciding what jewelry she wants to wear to bed.
MAZZY!!!!!!!!!
Then they picked books for bed time stories, while I checked something on my computer. It wouldn’t be a real portrayal of our evening if I wasn’t standing by my laptop at least once.
Mazzy picked the Official Guide to Frozen, which is the longest book ever written and definitely a present from one of the Grandmas.
Harlow picked “Iggy Peck Architect” because she likes to scream “GET OFF MY LAWN!!!” when the neighbor is standing there in his underwear, even though it does not say that in the book. I think Mike must have taught her that.
Mazzy asked to sleep in Harlow’s bed which I will sometimes allow. I told her “okay” but if they weren’t asleep in 15 minutes, she would have to move to the top bunk.
Then I hugged and kissed everyone goodnight. Their new request is “as tightly as possible”.
After I left the room, I quickly posted a photo to Instagram (because that’s what I do).
And then Mike and I sat down to dinner, just the two of us.
Except it wasn’t really just the two of us. Not quite yet.
I wish I could say that was the end of our evening, but Harlow got up and out of bed about 15 more times after Raquel left. That will be the subject of a future post, I am sure.
If you’d like to be featured in Wednesday Evenings, please leave a comment below starting with your city and the ages of your kids. Then give me a brief description of your evening with any details you think might set you apart from everybody else— even if that detail is feeding the kids frozen fish sticks 365 days a year.
We’ll be scouring the comments to find 12 families from four different cities, so if you know anyone in your town who might want to participate too, it will definitely up your chances to have them enter!
A HUGE thanks to Allstate for coming back for round two. I can’t tell you how much continuing this series means to me. You are in good hands, I promise!
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This post was sponsored by Allstate, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Photos by Raquel Langworthy.
I just have one little one, Emma 1 years old, and we live it what I like to call Jerzy. We really live in one of the mose rural areas of New Jersey…Hunterdon County. Wednesday night is about the only night my husband and I are home together in the evening. We both work, as most parents do. I’m a social worker and my husband works at a school (he’s not a teacher). I have my full-time job, do private practice therapy for children, and am working on a mommy blog with my best friend. Never a dull moment here! My husband spends the afternoons with our daughter, since I don’t get home until 5:30-6pm. I do everything I can to get out of work early or at least on time. I drive an hour and get crazy in the car because all I want to do is get home and spend time with my little girl. Right now, we are practicing walking…her first steps just happened the other day. While this is going on, I get dinner ready for Emma, try to prep later for couples dinner, feed Emma, take a bath and read books all before 7pm. The child starts to melt after 7! You never know how much you can jam into such a little time. Time is precious and I try to make the most of it. My husband and I will eat after Emma goes to bed. I then work on all my side jobs and all the other fun things like laundry, packing lunches, and maybe a workout if I’m lucky.
Maybe my simple life can be a part of others…we would love to have our lives captured!
My husband Andrew and I live in Austin TX with our two boys, Emmett is 3 and a half and Benny is 8 months old. Hopi the dog is about 8. We are both musicians. We took Emmett on the road with us for his first 18 months where there was no routine. Now we have dinner at 5:30, bath at 6:30, books and bed. Unless there’s a band rehearsal in the garage, or a musician is staying in our guest room, or we are playing a show on concertwindow.com. Then all hell breaks loose!
2 kids: 6-year old son, Lukasz, and 3-year old daughter, Julia
in Bridgewater, NJ – a suburb about 45 minutes from NYC
Our “evenings” usually begin with the mad dash for pickups around 4. Even though I’m a HS teacher and my day “ends” at 2:30, I typically stay and do work for as long as I can because I know I won’t get much done at home. So unless I have errands to run first (at least once a week), I rush to pick up my daughter from her daycare, then drive across 2 towns to get my son from his aftercare. Luckily, my corporate-manager-husband works in the same town where we live, so we make it home close to the same time – usually 5ish. Once the day has been unpacked, the kids unwind while we start dinner – most of the time it’s my husband, to be honest, but I pitch in when I can. Occasionally, he picks up dinner on his way home (my favorite nights!). I call us the “early eaters” because we’re almost always eating around 5:30-6:00. We always sit all together at the dinner table (well, if you call what a 6 and 3-year old do “sitting”). Depending on how quickly they eat, the kids play or we run errands or go out for a treat like ice cream or a walk around the neighborhood.
Then we start the bedtime routine! Baths, if needed, though rarely on the same times. We stagger them (in part because Julia is so little, but also because Lukasz is impossible to put to bed some days!). Julia goes to bed around 7 – her routine takes about half an hour, but she’s pretty easy to put to bed. My husband frequently criticizes her routine (changing, teeth, a book, 2 songs and some cuddling) because he can’t really do it (he doesn’t know the songs!). But this half an hour really is my absolute favorite part of every day. I know my baby won’t be little for ever, so I enjoy my alone time with her!
While I’m putting her to bed, Lukasz is getting his homework done. Sometimes he’s still working when I come back down, so, as the teacher of the house, I help out. Then it’s a last minute when-Julia’s-not-around-I-eat-everything snack, and off to bed with daddy. He’s a procrastinator at bedtime, but his routine is far simpler (changing, teeth and arguing over tomorrow’s outfit lol).
While little man goes to bed at 8, my housework begins. I jump into cleaning up from that day, prepping lunches for tomorrow, prepping clothes, etc. That’s the minimum. At least 3 days a week I also squeeze in going to the gym or running, and now I’m going to grad school so I somehow have to find time to get MY homework done.
Oh…and remember I’m a HS teacher…an ENGLISH teacher. So when (and IF) I have time, I grade papers or do lesson plans – whatever didn’t get done AT school. I usually fall into bed around 11, but it’s not out of the question to be up until 2.
So, we have very hectic, go go go evenings!
Falls Church VA (8 miles outside of DC)- awesome small town next to big city. Wednesdays are nutty- we have 4 girls (twins, age 8, a 5 year old, and an 11 month old). School bus and preschool pick up around 4 pm, followed by snack, homework, and park visit or trampoline jumping in backyard. Inevitably a game is created involving a queen, a princess, or a witch and imaginative play with the three older girls can last awhile. Baby usually tries to keep up or sits in awe of the chaos. Dinner is pieced together during all this, end result varies on how well everyone is playing together. Dad gets home around 6pm, chases everyone around and wrestles any one really messy into the bath. Tag team on baths, final dinner prep, chore reminders (one kid sets the table, one picks up bathroom towels, etc.). Dinners are usually highlight of my day- water will get spilled, someone will hate the meal choice, but its the one time of the day we can all just *be*. Books, teeth brushing, nurse baby, pick out outfits for next day. Address any “big feelings” that still remain (i.e. one twin was invited to a birthday party but other wasn’t), remind 5 year old she can’t wear ballet leotard to bed, and hope last minute craziness doesn’t wake baby. Crash on couch next to husband and likely fall asleep while reading a book. Beautiful chaos every day.
I live in Eugene, OR (Go Ducks!) and have a 2 year old, energetic, dynamo little boy. Our evening routine always feels like a sprint. I do the picking up from daycare since my husband works later but by the time we get home it is 6:00. Bedtime is 7:30 with bathtime at 7 so everything is go, go, go. I am not a cook but want him to eat something healthy (not just bunnies and fruit strips- his preferred diet) so fixing food stresses me out. While I’m doing that I also need to get our dog taken care of and take little guy out on his evening scooter ride. After bath it is a masterful game of Naked Boy (consisting of him running around and doing “tricks” on our bed), shoving a lotioned child into pajamas, teeth brushing, fluoride, two books, two songs and then… Bed.
My family lives in Stewartsville, NJ. My family consists of me/Dana (mom), Ryan (Daddy), Shea (4), and Sadie (just turned 2 yesterday:)…Oh and our overweight puggle, Eddie.
We are full time working parents (teachers) so everyday is a struggle with balancing work and family. Every day and night is always different…no night is every the same with the kids:) For example, tonight we had lots of tears from the 4 year old because the 2 year old got Birthday Barbie for her birthday (from our babysitter) and was actually playing with it.
One thing is consistent, I have to lay with the girls at night for them to fall asleep…I do it because if not they get up a gazillion times or lots of crying!
I’m Robin. I am a 39 year old former teacher, but now I am a first year SAHM homeschooling our 7 and 4 year old boys, Dodge and Truett. My husband is also a teacher and he is a musician. During the school year daddy gets home around 4:30, but with summer approaching, freedom for us all!!! Wednesday evenings for us include hiding from Stephen as soon as we here him pull up, then daddy time! We chat about our day and make dinner (that can vary from salmon and veggies to chicken nuggets and fries) as the boys either watch a show, color/draw, or play some form of super heroes. Stephen and I are trying to lose weight! So, for the last month after dinner clean up we head out for scooter or bike rides with the boys. Then we do T25 while they do Star Wars yoga on YouTube. Baths, books, music, and prayers, with tears over who lays down with mommy or daddy to cuddle…every night….bedtime is never smooth…ever… We either fall asleep in their beds and then stumble to ours, or they are out quick and we go watch a Hulu show, get on the computer or have a glass of wine and chat. Life is blessed!!!:)
Oops! We live East of Dallas, in a small town, Wills Point, TX!
I’m a SAHM of three kids ages 6, 3, and 14 months. We live in Rose Hill, KS a small town outside Wichita. My husband and I have been married for 10 years, we were high school sweethearts. He is a demo pilot for Textron Aviation which is strictly a traveling job. His schedule isn’t consistent and can change day by day so our nights are sometimes unpredictable. My son has baseball twice a week right now and during the school year Wednesday nights are our busiest. I pick my oldest up from school, drive 10 miles away to pick up 2 girls from our church who babysit for a group of us during our Bible study sessions. After bible study, I drop my son at church for PSR (Catholic classes for kids not attending Catholic school). Church lasts an hour and a half. If my husband is gone I take my younger 2 kids to the library or Target to kill time before picking up my son. It doesn’t make sense to take them home for an hour.
I would love to be chosen for this photo shoot because I rarely take pictures of myself with my kids and you have to admit Kansas doesn’t always get a lot of attention especially the small towns.
my name is mykeah and my daughter’s name is aven. she is just over 2 years old and we live in boise, id. i am a single working mom, but even amongst all the chaos, i try to make sure that evenings are a time for us to relax, laugh, and have fun. i am usually pretty good about bedtime being consistent, although with summer in full swing, spending 15 more minutes in the yard sometimes wins out! we have dinner together at the table…well, until she kicks her chair away from the table and insists on eating 5 feets away from it. then we play and get ready for a bath. new thing here is that we have started incorporating showers into the mix, which is nice because they are quick and effective. then we get jammies on and read books, which she picks out. there is almost always a dance party mixed in there somewhere! once we read what sets out to be 2 books but ends up being more like 4, it’s lights out, followed by 2 songs, some rocking, and then to bed. after that, watch out! oh you thought i meant i had some fun? if by fun you mean washing dishes, preparing lunches for tomorrow, and picking up the house, then heck yes it’s fun! once i throw myself into bed i generally treat myself to an episode of……vampire diaries. #nojudgement
even if we are not one of your chosen 12, just spending these few minutes reflecting on our evenings together was a nice reminder that i love my kid and am ever so grateful she is a part of my life. best. thing. ever.
ROHNERT PARK, CA (WINE COUNTRY)
KIDS : ALEXIS 7, SKYLAR 5, AND HOLLY 3. ALL GIRLS.
I’m a single mom. We eat at 5. The younger 2 often help prepare meals or sit on counter to watch.
After dinner, we play games and do a little bit of homework.
At 6:30 we begin our bedtime routine. It starts with stories. Each child gets to pick a book. Sometimes they read to me too. Then we watch a few music videos on my phone from all spectrums and time periods. I call it music education.
Teeth brushing and pj time.
Right now I’m tucking them all in a queen bed together and I sit next to the youngest until she falls asleep. The older 2 have their own beds in their own room. I stay until around 8.
Scituate, MA (the South Shore of Boston)
2.5 yr old daughter, 9 mo old twin boys, 10&12 yo bonus kids (my husband’s from a previous marriage that are typically not with us on Wednesday night)
I am so excited that you are doing an evening series! I loved your Monday mornings but since I’m a doctor and out of the house before anyone is up, I’m only present for the morning routines on the weekends.
Anyway, Wednesday is a unique day in our house: it is typically the day of the week that my husband has the 3 kiddos all day (he’s in custom home improvements and right now takes at least one day off a week to be with the kiddos, the other days we have a wonderful nanny) and then when I get home he has soccer with the older kids and is out of the house, so I am solo for the evening routine.
I get home around 4/430 and am greeted at the door by my daughter who always wants to go outside and play! I try to get some one on one time with her and go outside before the boys even see me while my husband starts feeding them their food and prepping for the evening (he gives the boys their medicine and so much other prep work, he doesn’t get the credit he deserves). We play for a bit and then come in and the controlled chaos starts!
My husband has to leave around 515, so the next hour is me doing bottles, diapers, and pjs for the boys while simultaneously getting my daughter dinner. We stagger bedtime, boys go up around 6, so sadly I have to admit that my daughter usually spends the last half of her meal alone with the iPad or Curious George on the tv. Ugh.
Once the boys are in bed (same 3 books/song right now!) I come back down and we have one on one time until her bedtime around 7. (We are true believers in early bedtimes for babes!) She hates baths so I usually don’t choose to tackle it on a solo night; so we brush teeth, read a few books, say prayers, sing songs and bed.
I make the boy’s food myself and Wednesday nights is usually the night of the week I do it so while I’m making dinner I am simultaneously steaming/baking etc. So once the kiddos are in bed I clean up and purée baby food. By this time I’m so exhausted I usually just snack, and my poor husband is on his own for dinner! He typically gets back around 830. He has school Thursday nights so I help him with his homework and head up to bed around 930. He chills out and comes to bed around 11.
So nothing extraordinary, just busy!
Middleton, WI. (Close to Madison, WI) Henry just turned 4, Norah 17 months. I work from home the kids still go to daycare. I’m fortunate that I can make dinner before they get home. My husband picks kids up and texts me when he is leaving daycare. Some Wednesday’s I’m solo because he has a meeting. But if dinner isn’t on the table when they enter the door Norah will cry historically because she can eat more food than I have ever seen a child eat. After dinner Norah gets a bath and bed. Henry will watch a show while I put Norah to bed (if dad isn’t home) or he will play with dad. Then it’s Henry’s bedtime and he is 4 so it goes as well as you would think. These kids are only home for 2.5 hours before they are all in bed and it feels like an enternity.
Bakersfield, CA. Kids are 4, 2, and one on the way!
I’m a SAHM and all three of us eagerly await the arrival of Daddy. Dinner is ready right at 530 and afterwards it’s wrestling time with Daddy to get out all of the sillies and pent up energy from spending all day with quiet Mommy. 🙂 We read lots of books all day so the boys like some action after dinnertime. Nothing stands out much about our routine.. But Dad does put the boys to sleep together in our family bed sleeping situation. We have been cosleeping since the first was born and after the second we just sidecarred a crib so we all still sleep together. After the boys fall asleep we get some downtime which is usually reserved for tv shows like The Flash or Game of Thrones.
We recently moved to Linton, Indiana from Indianapolis to follow a dream of opening a restaurant. Our kids are four (Eva) and two (Thomas). A complete change in career path for my husband and moving to a small town from a big city has been difficult to say the least. We take turns spending evenings with the kids so that one of us will be at the restaurant to oversee things. Sometimes it’s very hard to step back and see the magic in the mundane (or in the midst of crying and screaming!), which is why I think this is a fantastic idea for parents. I appreciate your time and consideration. Have fun and good luck!
Hi, I’m From Colleyville Texas (right in the middle of Dallas and Fort Worth). I have a three year old (going on 12) toddler boy and a thirteen year old (going on 20) teenage step daughter. Our nights are pretty chaotic but we wouldn’t know how to handle anything less. My sons witching hour starts at about 4:30 so the last two hours before my husband gets home feel like 5 hours. I make sure we eat dinner together right when my husband gets home from work. He sends me his ETA and I have dinner prepared and on the table as he is driving up. My step daughter lives in California so my husband flies out there every other weekend for visitation but she is with us most of the summer so that makes my toddler extra crazy! After dinner we are usually playing outside with neighbors and the animals. We have a lot of animals and they all seem just as needy as my kiddo.
We live in an amazing neighborhood that gives you the feel of how our parents grew up. Kids are outside playing until dark, parents all interacting and playing along (not on smart phones) and no thru traffic. After that we go (AKA drag) my three year old inside for bath time. After that we read a book (sometimes two, if my toddler wins), three songs while we rock in the rocking chair and then literally tuck him into bed (like a burrito).
After that my husband and I (sometimes my step daughter if she is in town) crash on the couch like we just ran a marathon. Which sometimes it feels like!
I hope to hear from you!
Our little family of 3 lives in the little beach town of Santa Cruz, California in our little cottage a block away from the ocean! Our daughter Reese (13 months) keeps me (SAHM) busy in the evenings as I chase her around the front yard waiting for Daddy to ride up on his bike getting home from surfing or teaching lessons (he owns a local surf schools). I try to whip up something healthy but the little won’t have any of it…. She lives off fruit and yogurt! We then pop baby in the ergo and walk the beach to mellow out. Getting home we then take a family “bath” in our hot tub followed by a quick outdoor shower. We wrestle the babe into Jammies and read stories. Then we all pile into bed at 8pm where Reese falls asleep only on the boob and we are all stuck in bed until morning since our little hasn’t figured out that she’s no longer attached to mommy! This is best case scenario honestly. Most nights don’t run this smoothly but we go with the flow!
Elizabeth wilder, omaha, ne
Brady (9)
Everett (3)
Porter (7mo)
I am a sahm, my husband mike is a recruiter for traveling medical staff. We have two dogs. Our sons are very active boys- sports oriented. Every day is filled with sports of some sort. The older two play as many organized sports as they can fit into their day. Which means practices and games approx 5 days/week all year long. We still make a point to eat dinner as a family. Even if that means I start dinner at 3pm & we eat it on the sidelines of a soccer field. Bedtime routines almost don’t exist. We do always make our way upstairs around 8, get ready, all the kids come lay in our bed & get off to each of their rooms around 845-9.
Would find it interesting to be featured because I often get caught up in the chaos & need to be reminded of the little moments.
My name is Noralee and I currently live in Virginia Beach, VA. My husband is in the Navy on a ship and I have a 8 month old daughter. Our Wednesday nights are full of cuddles, books, dinner, bath, more cuddles, nursing, and bed, and then me picking up from the chaos from the day, finally getting myself something to eat and winding down. Being a sahm but also a single mom most nights is hard but rewarding. My husband is my daughters best friend and when he does get to be home, they basically ignore me! Lol it’s hard to find the beauty in such a hectic and “mundane” situation but I’m so happy that this every day part of life is being captured!
Hello! My name is Kelsey and I live in Seattle with my husband Pat, my miniature dachshund Sammy, and my energetic 21 month old son Brody. Our Wednesday evenings are definitely a juggling act. I never know what time my husband will be home from work (he’s an anesthesia resident) so typically I try to get Brody fed and cleaned by 7 in case Pat gets home before Brody’s 730 bedtime. It is not unusual for Pat to get home to witness Brody throwing his dinner on the ground for Sammy to eat (poor dog has gained a bit of weight) or witnessing our game of how many binkies can Brody hold while I attempt to put his pajamas on. Like many families we always end our nights reading books and singing twinkle twinkle. I love my hectic nights with my family and would love to share!
Hi! We da Webbec’s (as my 4 yo old would say). We live in El Paso IL. About an 1.5 hr south of Chicago, amongst millions of corn and bean fields.
We have Bella, 4
Graham, 6
Also starring in this circus are my nephews, Dylan (1), Dax (5), Wylie (11), and niece, Lana (6).
Our Wednesday nights go somewhat like this.
I am a stay at home mom and auntie. My nieces and nephews are herw daily. Their parents arrive somewhere between 4:30-5:30 and we bribe them to leave. There’s usually about 10-20 minutes spent searching for lost shoes, socks, shirts, and dinosaurs, or begging for a snack for the 3 min ride across town. We end up sending a kid home with cousins or keeping a cousin about every other day. Daddy arrives home around 5-5:30 and we may say hello how was your day before digging in the deep freeze for dinner or debating on pizza yet again. My niece and nephews bargain to stay depending on their liking of the menu. My dad comes over for dinner a few nights a week and we all sit down to eat together. The dog takes his stance under the table waiting for scraps. We sing our prayer and my 4 y old screams at Papaw to join in. “SANG PAPAW”. You have to hear it in her voice. We laugh. And have been for months.
We usually have a fight over what’s for dinner from thr 4 yr old and threaten to send her to her room if she doesn’t cooperate. After dinner we like to play fetch with the dog, work outside in yard or take bike rides to one of the 5 parks in our small town. Occasionally we go for a DQ treat in one of Papa’s old cars. And deliver any stray kids to rheir respecitve homes. Then bedtime routine is one show per kid. Bella gets hers first. My husband does bedtime when he’s home. They brush teeth and potty then He enjoys the time with the kiddos unwinding, reading and sharing their prayers. They usually have a funny story or two to try to stall bedtime. Graham snuggles me on the couch while daddy is putting Bella down then he goes up when his show is over and Martin repeats the process. Graham has started reading a bit of the bedtime books to Martin since he learned to read this year in Kindergarten.
If all goes well, everyone is tucked in and sleeping by 9. Then mommy and daddy binge on Netflix.
You had me at, “parents who put kids to bed late!” Our Wednesday night routine is anything but the norm. We live in Atlanta, GA. My husband works most nights so it’s typically just me and my 3year old son, Anderson. He’s an expert napper and prefers to take long late naps while the rest of the world, or at least what I can gather from Instagram and FB, makes dinner and sends their kids to bed by 6:30pm. I’m okay with our wacky schedule though- we have fun. We typically head out to a city park around 6pm, play until we are covered in mud and famished and then it’s dinner either I’ll cook or we grab a bite from our favorite spot, Farm Burger ( note my son will only order grilled cheese, which I could make of course but it’s just not as good as the $10version…) then it’s likely a bit more biking in the driveway as the sun sets and my son cries…”no!!” As if his begging can somehow save the day from ending. It’s a big bath party- as my sons plays hard and gets super dirty! Bedtime is piling up in Mommy’s bed, stories and he still nurses to sleep( there I said it…). It takes a bit of work to get hm down but it’s worth it and he’s always gone to sleep in my arms. If my husband is home the night is pretty much the same except we both do bath and stories are a big time. Oh, and we sleep in a bit…up around 8am…to do it all again! Wouldn’t change a thing!!
Hi! I am one of the candidates you tried to have on Monday Mornings, but I forgot to leave my email so this time I am making sure it’s there! (kristindavenport10@gmail.com) We live just north of Houston and we have an almost 6 year old and almost 3 year old. Our wednesday night are interesting because it’s the only night that I, as a full time stay at home mom, work out of the house. So our Wednesday evenings aren’t as laid back as our other nights. My kiddos are VERY mommy dependent so it’s always a woosh of excitement once I walk in the door to who gets mommy first. (and I was typically only gone a few hours!) We normally have some sort of rushed Wednesday night dinner and then we try to get the last of the “energy out”. We are VERY close to all of our neighbors, (we have an entire block of best friends) so we are almost always out with them for a bit playing and just chatting. Once the bedtime routine starts it’s crazy. Depending upon when my husband gets home (that varies day to day.. I never know when its going to be 5:30 and when it’s going to be 9:30) we try to conquer bath and bed together, but notoriously our kids fight over who gets mommy. My poor husband!! He’s really such great dad, so I often feel bad for him. We read the kids two books every night before bed and always have a tuck in ritual. It’s wild, chaotic, sometimes down right exhausting, but I do love the evenings. After the kids are down, my husband and I tend to find ourselves spread out on the couch staring at each other in the silence trying to figure out how we got through the day. Then it’s about an hour of ridiculous conversation before we realize we were up too late and the morning alarm is going to come too soon. 🙂 That’s us! 🙂
Oh and fun extra tidbit. I’m pregnant with our third. Soooo I’m a box of fun over here. I don’t know how we will handle the evening with 3…
My name is Micha and I live is San Jose, CA. My husband is a lawyer who works long hours and I am an ICU nurse that works part time evening shift so I can be home most of the day with our 2.5 year old son, Cole, and 4.5 year old daughter Quinn. My kids are rowdy and full of energy, so even though I’m home most Wednesdays, evening time is always crazy. My husband works long hours, so I never know what time to expect him home, which means it’s usual just the kids and I for dinner. I try to get dinner started around 5pm since I will get interrupted a million times to helps someone with some thing or break up a sibling squabble or attend to a boo boo. Sometimes I sit at the table wih the kids, more often I feed them at a little table while they watch a show. My son is a picky eater and currently will only eat filet minon or ham, on a good day. Meal time typically has me running back and forth to the kitchen a dozen times while trying to eat my dinner, get the kids to eat dinner, get hubby’s plate made, and clean up the kitchen. I usually consume a glass of wine or two to get through meal time. Then it’s up for bath, which usually entails arguments about who gets to get in first and who gets to turn the water off. My kids love bathing together, but having one of each gender has led to some interesting bath play and conversations, there is also a lot of splashing involved. My daughter loves animals and will usuall decide bath time is a good time to preten to be an animal learning to swim. Hubby May or may not be home by this point. If he is, then we each take a child to get pj on and read books, otherwise I put my daughter to bed first and then my son. Some nights every one cooperates and other nights the little one keeps coming in and disturbing the older ones book time. Both kids really look forward to this as mommy cuddle time. After books and songs and cuddles, it lights out for my daughter. I lay on her bed with her and rub her back while she listens to music. Once she has calmed down, I do the same process with my son, only I rock hima bit since he is still in a crib. There are usually plenty of cries for one more hug or one more minute of rocking. Both kids are usually out by 8:15-8:30pm. Then I finish cleaning up the house and try to get stuff ready for the next morning and try to spend some quality time with hubby before we are passed out on the couch from exhaustion.
West Des Moines, IA – Elena (4), Genevieve (3)
Wednesday is our only consistent night together as a family. On other days, my husband is either on call or working late to finish up notes at the hospital (he’s an MD). I’m a SAHM. We have a dog, cat, and two rats, so the bedtime routine includes feeding them. I think we’re a pretty average suburban family in our area – the kids love to play outside and help me garden, we play with Lego and color pictures, I cook a lot. Bedtime is jammies and stories and giving the dog a hug and singing songs. And getting out of bed 100 times.
I live near Pittsburgh, Pa. Our wednesday evenings are about as fun as monday mornings!! My parents watch my boys that day (My boys Lance age 2.5 yrs and Russell 5 months). Typically i pick them up from my parents farm. I hear all about their exciting day on the farm from feeding the new baby cow milk to picking eggs and helping pappy make a door for the new chicken coop. Next i take the boys home and start dinner. My husband works shifts and this week is on second shift so i am flying solo! During making dinner my Toddler rides his bike inside/outside the house plays with the hose on the back porch or some other activities. The dog tries to stay clear of him bc sometimes the toddler either tries to run him down on the tricycle or turns on the hose and sprays him. The baby goes between the bumbo and little gym mat on the floor with his toys. Once dinner is done i wrestle the toddler up to the dinner table to eat and feed the baby while inhaling my dinner usually i let the toddler watch tv so i have a little time to eat and feed the baby. Next i finish dinner dishes while baby on floor while hos brother entertains him. We all go outside and since we live in the country we had a water balloon fight. Except the toddler doesnt throw them he sets them on the ground and stomps on them until they bream. We have to do our chors of watering the blueberry bushes, pumpkins, corn and my flowers. Then we all go for a walk or whatever the toddler wants to do. Next is snack time followed by bath time and the bedtime. Busy but fun evenings with my little men.
2 working parents of a 3.5 yr old Mae and 2yr old Viv living not far from you on 5th St at Bowery. They may know Harlow from Susie’s. On 4th on Wed morn. 6:30 arrive home from work, usually to dinner cooking, leaving a few minutes of play then dinner as a family, pyjammies, teethbrushing, 3books, a little “binkie dance” in their shared room to my A Capella serenade, and that is blissfully it!
We are the Gomez family
An “American” -Irish/Cuban/Nicaraguan family living in:
Miami, FL
Gianna is 4 going on 15
Savannah is 2 going on 4
I’m an auditor and work a 9-5, my husband is a police sergeant and works the night shift (11pm-7am).
We split the responsibilities of picking up the kids. He gets Gianna at her catholic school at 2:45pm I get savannah at the babysitter’s house on my way home from work. Most days Im home by 5:30pm.
Most nights, Jason has a BBQ dinner ready for us; and we eat dinner as soon as I get home. After dinner we usually take the kids out back, push them on the swings or hang out by the pool while the kids play in the jungle gym. Around 7 pm we start the bath-time-tug-of-war. The kids run around the house naked singing, screaming and laughing (BTW, I noticed you didn’t mention bath time in your post). Sometimes (most nights) my mother stays at our house. She gives me a hand with the girls while my husband lays in bed, watches TV and relaxes before heading off to work.
Then the kids brush their teeth and go potty before begging to sleep in the extra room with my mom. Most nights she gives in, stays at our house and we let them sleep with her, all three of them in a queen bed!
Reisha here a SAHM in Corvallis, OR to my very spirited 4 1/2 yo Kaylyn and my spunky 19 month old Coen. Dad is typically working so on most Wednesday evenings it’s me and the littles! I struggle to put a decent meal on the table (because I love to cook) but they never really seem to eat that much! We spend time together playing outside or in the living room doing some Waldorf sing alongs and play before we head to bed where I attempt to put them both down simultaneously (this rarely works)! I read to Kaylyn while Coen either nurses or tries endlessly to end this thing called story time with his sister! Coen sleeps in my bed and not for long periods of time. I try my hardest to put them both down so I might I have some alone time or even a few moments with my husband.
I’m a sahm to four boys: ages 4 years, 19 months, and twin 2 month olds. We live in Richmond, VA. Our evenings consist of dinner when daddy comes home from work, some playtime, and then daddy does bath time: first for the older two and then the younger two, followed by reading time/play time/ Thomas the train time. Sometimes daddy bakes a dessert with our 4 year old or he’ll let them play drums for a bit. After the boys have their bedtime snack, they slowly trickle off to bed. In the meantime, mommy and daddy try to talk and spend some time together while tending to the twins who usually fall asleep by themselves around 11:30. This happens almost every night starting around 6pm. And it will be our life for the next five years lol
I live right outside of greensboro NC and have two boys, Davis 3.5 and Charlie 21 months. We both work and get home around 5:30 and just kind of wing it when it comes to dinner or evening plans. Play, workbooks, walks and maybe a beer for the adults. And some kind of dinner will be thrown in there eat some point. My youngest has always been early to bed so our oldest gets some good alone time with us usually later than I intend it to be.
I really loved Monday mornings. Seeing how other families and parents do their thing is really interesting to me. Thanks for having great segments like this.
LOCATION: Missoula, Montana (just south).
OFFSPRING: One child named Maysa (pronounced like Mesa) 6 years old.
WEDNESDAY NIGHTS (summertime):
Me➡️Yoga after a 10 hour shift as a Detective.
Hubby ➡️Team Roping or working a graveyard shift as a Deputy.
Maysa➡️ Tagging along to the gym or the roping while reminding us she is hungry/doesn’t want a bath/has a huge project due the next day that we haven’t started/thirsty/too tired to be nice.
CHORES: Feeding the three horses, two goats, two dogs, two cats, and the cow. Cleaning all the ribbon/hair ties, small toys, and pet fur from the Roomba. Packing lunches. Picking out clothes for the kiddo and me for the next day- up at 5am! To work by 7am. Check Instagram. To bed.
Over and out.
We are the Harwood Family out of Fresno, CA. We have 4 kids, 3 boys 13, 11, and 9 and a girl, 4. Our typical Wednesday evening is transitioning since my last class of the semester just finished up. Before this week, my husband took my kids out to eat at restaurants with servers. Our typical evening is me arriving around 5:15 to usually 2 of my children vying for first access to my ear. My husband usually has dinner started. He and I chat a bit between the chaos of kids asking questions, arguing with one another, etc.; just enough to do the hand off. He heads off to his tattoo studio where he works evenings and weekends. The kids and I either sit at the table and eat, or, on particularly exhausting days, we watch our shows on HULU or Netflix… We refuse to pay for cable. There is homework, of course, mandatory reading, showers for at least 2 of the kids and our standard bedtime routine. The boys get prayed over and the girl double dips by getting prayer in the boys room and a second time in hers. She also gets 2 songs. Usually the ABC song, and lately Oh, Holy Night. Before that it was Jingle Bells. She keeps that holiday spirit all year round. After they’re in bed, I do homework, laundry, clean up a bit (sometimes) and then try to catch an episode of Scandal and force myself to sleep. Good times!
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Dylan and Devyn, almost 6 year old twins, Sol, two-year old
I’d love to get our Wednesday nights documented! It’s one of my favorite nights because both my wife and I get home from work relatively early, there’s no baseball or soccer or swimming, and we just play and hang out. The wife makes dinner while the kids and I walk our old Rottweiler up the hill. We get home and usually play a game or build Legos. The little one is obsessed with water and usually heads out to the deck to play in her sink. We eat dinner together pretty much every night. My wife does Dream Dinners once a month and hooks us up food-wise. After dinner is a dance party, yoga stretches, or something physical… Tag, streaking, ninja training. Bathtubs is after and I honestly can’t describe it. It’s always a dramatic experience… But could go either way positive or negative. There’s a lot of dividing and conquering with the twins and the little feisty one. Some nights bath time is the best most peaceful fun time together, other nights the kids can’t even be in the same room together nonetheless the same bathtub! Bedtime is also divided- i take the little one to snuggle and read her books in Mommy and Mamas big bed,, the big kids go with Mama to read longer chapter books in their room. The wife and I do the chores and chill on the couch watching HGTV and I grade papers. And so we get over the hump.
I work part time as a doula and my husband works ungodly hours for motion picture. We have a 2.5 year old boy and a 10 month old girl. We live in Los Angeles CA.
Our schedule is so inconsistent that we don’t have a regular routine. What we can consistently count on is that our son will ask for a spray of whipped cream in his mouth every night and that my daughter will have a least 3 different scraps of left overs from the floor in her mouth that I’ll fish out every ten minutes. I like to pretend that I’m going to make organic, free range, gluten free non gmo, kale chips for dinner every night but I usually end up making quesadillas with a lot of sour cream for dipping. One kid is usually wrapped around my leg and the other is making sure that I lose at least one Tupperware lid by dumping out the entire drawer. Someone cries at least once between 5pm and 8pm, sometimes it’s me. Although we have sleep trained both of our kids we always have one that is being retrained. IT NEVER FUCKING FAILS. It’s like they take shifts. So one almost always goes down easily and the other makes us question our sanity by stalling, avoiding, and refusing the bed time routine. Once they are both asleep we try to get in a quickie before one of them wakes up and then we watch Netflix and enjoy our space on opposite sides of the couch.
Pinole, CA and my daughter is almost 2. Even with just one child our evenings are busy: I work part time from home and my husband has a long commute; we are excited to see daddy pull up on his motorcycle. My husband usually takes our daughter out to the backyard to collect eggs, pick berries/tomatoes/other veggies, play with the dogs and cat on our small (rented) homestead near San Francisco. During that time I always finish preparing dinner (we eat as a family and 99% of the time I cook everything we eat from scratch), and also cook the next day’s breakfast, lunch, and snacks. Eat, bath (pump bath water onto the chicken pasture since we are in a drought), books, nursing, bedtime. My husband usually works on a carpentry project in the garage (he is building us a family table that converts to counter height to expand kitchen workspace). I clean up, maybe work some more, and take a bath. Everyone is asleep by 10 latest.
Our Wednesday evenings at our house are pretty hectic, and yet probably the most relaxed of the weekdays. My husband and I have two daughters, ages 3 and 5. My hubby owns a film production company, which he runs in the evenings because he teaches film to at-risk high schoolers during the day. He typically comes home around 7pm, leaving me to run most of the evening show. I run a family child care out of my home, so my job blends into my evening with my girls. They’ll have a late snack, do homework, play with playdough, etc. The kids have fun together until the last few get picked up around 5:30pm. Then it’s dinner time. My 5 year old loves cooking and often helps me in the kitchen. My 3 year old comes in and out. Dinner is usually ready by the time my hubby comes home. We enjoy a late dinner, and girls enjoy a story and then to bed. I finally tidy up the “classroom” for the next day, and enjoy some alone time finally at around 10. It’s late, but we’ll survive the lack of sleep. It’s only a Wednesday. 🙂 Sometimes we do two dinners, sometimes it is takeout, sometimes it’s piano lessons. Such is life! Gotta enjoy it however it comes!!
I have a daughter Ka’ili (6) and a son Kawelo (4). If you haven’t guessed by their names, we’re Hawaiian living outside of San Francisco (San Bruno). I get home from work early and pick my kids up from my mom and dads house, which is only five blocks away from our house. My parents our an important part of our lives since they watch our kids while we work. From there, we head over to hula/Tahitian practice for my daughter. We watch her dance and my son plays around with the other kids or I drop him off for a little while with my mother in law. During this time my husband leaves his job at the hospital to go to yet another basketball team that he coaches.
When dance practice is over we head home so I can cook dinner and the kids usually play on our huge trampoline that we bought them for Christmas (we couldn’t let Santa take the credit for that gift). After a little while daddy comes home and the kids go ballistic. Let’s just say, we love when our daddy comes home. There is usually screaming and dancing around him from all three of us when he walks in. Then our 6’7″ daddy will turn into a puddle of mush around his kids and he will become an even bigger kid. While they play, I get dinner finished.
Only thing on the tv at this time are sports! That’s it!
Then bedtime starts. We read books in mommy and daddy’s big bed, then playtime in their bunk beds while mommy and daddy get a good hour of alone time before mommy falls asleep on the couch.
I love this so much!! I live outside Salt Lake City with my family; my husband and our two boys, ages 5.5 and 1. I’m a WAHM and my husband works full-time. I pick up our oldest from school ar 3:30 and we go somewhere to get a snack (which is really a second lunch). Occasionally our oldest has a taekwondo class on Wednesday evenings, but only if he missed a class earlier in the week. When he doesn’t have class, I cook on Wednesday evenings, usually wearing my 1yo on my back because he likes to nap in the early evening. During the summer my oldest is usually playing in the backyard, over-watering our plants, digging in whatever dirt he can find and playing with our next-door neighbor. Occasionally he helps me cook. If dinner doesn’t take very long to cook, then I go outside to play with him (baby still on my back) or we go for a walk if it’s cooled down into the 80s. If it’s still too hot outside, I may try and do some laundry (try).
If dinner turns out yummy, we take a photo for Instagram and my 5yo LOVES to photobomb. Does it count as a photobomb if the photographer is okay with it??
My husband comes home from work between 6 & 7 and we all sit down to eat together. There’s usually a little chaos as the 1yo has discovered his voice and the 5yo just LOVES to talk. We FaceTime with a set of grandparents or my sister during dinner, so it’s like our tables is fuller. My husband’s family is Chinese, so sometimes we work on some new Chinese words. I’m learning just as much as our boys are.
I do the dishes while my husband plays with both boys in our “baby jail” which is a fenced-off part of our family room that’s safe for the 1yo to explore. Sometimes, I play while husband does the dishes. Sometimes the dishes are left for the next day.
After dinner, if our 5yo had a good day, we hit up a local food truck that sells Belgian Leige waffles topped with a variety of decadent toppings. Depending on where the truck is, there’s sometimes a spread of grass for the 5yo to run around on and practice his taekwondo moves and cartwheels.
After dessert we go home, both boys get a bath (usually together). My husband takes the 1yo and gets him in PJs (which is a fun challenge because he tries to run away whenever he’s naked) while I finish bathing our oldest. If he still has some wiggles to get out, I challenge him to 3 minutes of non-stop jumping on our small trampoline (that usually does the trick). Once he’s dressed, we brush our teeth together. He HATES when I brush his teeth, but he can do a decent job if he’s following my moves.
Then my husband and I trade boys. He reads a book to the 5yo and I nurse the youngest to sleep. Sometimes I’m the one reading because the 1yo is too rambunctious to fall asleep so he sits with his daddy and they watch Sesame Street music videos on his phone. It’s pretty rare that we can all read a book together… 5yo gets distracted and 1yo tries to grab the book and chew on it.
5yo usually goes to sleep without issues between 9 and 9:30. We never know how or when our 1yo will fall asleep these days. Sometimes on me, sometimes on my husband. Sometimes he falls asleep at 8 and wakes up at 11pm thinking he just had a nap! Either way, we transfer him to the crib (if we’re lucky). I go make a lunch for our 5yo for school the next day and lay out his clothes. If there’s laundry to be put away, I try to do it then. Then I look around and wonder if I will get a chance to sweep the floor or vacuum tomorrow (probably not). If it’s not midnight by now, then my husband and I will sit and watch a little TV together. Sometimes he will watch one of his shows while I go work in my office (I’m a freelance graphic artist). Around midnight or 1am, the 1yo usually wakes up to nurse again and he ends up in bed with us.
My name is Jaclyn and I’m a SAHM to a 7 year old son and a set of 4 year old twin girls living in Clovis CA. Wednesday’s are a great night in our house because my husband typically travels Monday/Wednesday and he comes home that night. Our weekends are usually crazy with sports, life, and birthday parties so Wednesday’s have a fun “Friday” feel to them in our home:) I’m a bedtime natzi and my husband and I have our routine down!
Not sure anyone would ever want to see what a Wednesday evening looks like for us let alone 24hrs. Ha ha however there may be hope that one other parent could relate to my home that is in constant need of a douching, or may have a son who’s high spirited personality has me constantly looking like a MMA fighter who loses every fight yet keeps coming back for more.
There is no typical in our house, every might is a surprise. Not even I know what to expect. However now that our apartment buildings community pool is open we spend a lot of time there attempting to extinguish some of that spirited 5 year olds flame. We might BBQ or mom might whip up somethingcrazy like pb&J. Other nights I’ll go for a jog and leave dad to fend for himself with both kids. ( ages almost 1 and 5.5) or we might all go on a family walk to our local park which is a half mile walk through the woods to a beautiful ponds and playground and allow the kids to get messy and run around. ( see we leave the house lots so we don’t have to deal with walls as a restriction or the mess that is smeared everywhere. ) other nights we play noard games while waiting for dad to come home at who knows whay time. Is he working over time today… its a surprise. Lots of surprise to go around at our home..like who peed all over the bath room toilet cause they were too lazy to lift the lid? Surprise
Apologies for the errors and spelling. My phone surprised me by tweaking as I was attempting to type. Ha see even my phone is on the same level as this home.
P.s. we live right outside Boston in a beautiful town. We are a family of 4 and our children are 5 and 11.5 months old. I teach preschool which has ended but I am also a massage therapist which I find work for over the summer. 🙂
Well, I have a 15 month old, Josephine Hope, and we are learning the ropes together every day. My partner and her papa is a chef, so us gals make dinner, tubby time, reading time, last minute playtime, put shoes on in the 11th hour time, and bedtime happen on our own. I try to be the best mom possible as I wrestle my alligator into her owl pajamas, and often forget to give her her vitamin D drops, and never really remember to brush her 7 teeth, but we have fun and keep it real and read The Very Busy Spider and eventually the house is a little bit quite as my nugget sleeps. We’d be a fun duo to visit and hang out with for an evening.
My name is Marcy and I have two girls – Lila (4.5) and Ivy (2.5). We live in San Francisco. My husband and I both work full time in the tech sector – he’s at a startup and I work for the large social media company you love to love. I commute to my job most days (1 hour each way), either by car or by a company shuttle. We currently have a full time nanny, but starting this summer, my mother is moving in with us Monday through Friday to take care of the girls when they aren’t in camp. Should make for an interesting summer to say the least. Wednesdays are interesting because I typically get home from work a bit later than I do on other days due to a regularly scheduled meeting later in the afternoon. The girls are usually bathed by the time I get home and, if all went well, they have already eaten or are in the middle of eating. And by eating I mean they have tasted the food and then run around like lunatics stopping back at the table for bites every once in a while. We then try to take a family “wagon walk” down the street – the girls sit in the wagon and we stroll to a neighborhood house that has random toys out front for kids to play with. It’s not much of an activity but it gets them outside, which usually helps to tire them out, something that is critical for a successful bedtime.
As far as bedtime goes…it isn’t easy in our house (we are likely not unique in this regard). The girls each have their own room…we typically do a divide and conquer bedtime but sometimes they both insist on having one of us put them both to bed and so then it’s staggered and that gets tricky. They are usually both sleeping by 830 or so (knock wood). That’s typically when we eat “dinner” (tonight my husband had a bowl of cereal and some popcorn and I made some broccoli for me).
After dinner we are both back online for at least an hour…the internet never sleeps, as you know!
We are from Abilene, TX and my children are 14 months apart. My oldest just turned 3 and my youngest is about to turn two. They are the same size so we regularly get asked if they are twins.
We just built a house in a pasture next door to his parents and grandparents. Some people think we are nuts for living so close to them. Like Everybody Loves Raymond, but it works. There is no telling what’s going to happen on a Wenesday night for us. We usually have a standing hang out with some friends who are expecting thier first child. We play Heads Up, ride the Golf cart, eat dinner, watch Survivor, or lately because of all the rain, play in the mud. Living in the country means you don’t have much of a yard but our two boys love it. I like to laugh my way through parenting. We are always up for a good time and making memories!
We live in Des Moines IA my Eve is 5 and son Michael is 3 I’m not sure we have a routine anymore so It would actually be interesting to see what the camera captures. Since our infant son died of SIDS in November we kinda let the kids fall asleep wherever and carry them to their bed then I check on them a million times while they sleep, but before all that there is usually art projects and Taekwando practice book reading and playing outside in our tiny lawn
Hi, I’m Tara… 40 y/o mom to 2 girls under age 2 – Mimi (20 mos) and Carys (8 mos) – Irish twins.
We live in Bergen County, NJ, right outside of NYC where I stay home with the girls and daddy works nearby.
Our Wednesday evening routine is much like every weeknight, a chaotic whirlwind! I will never pretend to be mom of the year, and when 5:30pm rolls around, it’s time to start getting my munchkins ready for bed. Daddy does not get home until 8, so I’m solo on the bedtime flow – and since hubby and I don’t eat dinner until much later, I always fix Mimi something different than our meal. Once she’s fed I change both babies, brush teeth and grab a book to read them before giving them each their milk and then trying to get them into bed by 6pm.
Once they are down, I pick up the mess, feed our 3 dogs and fall onto the couch crying (kidding) and watch the news for 20 mins or so until it’s time to prepare dinner for me and my husband.
Hello! My name is Kenda. I am a SAHM with my three kiddos aged 4, 2 & 9 months. My husband & I own & operate an upholstery restoration shop and he usually gets home somewhere between 5 & 6, depending on the project. Our evenings are simple but chaotic. With three littles it’s always guaranteed to be unpredictable. We make, eat & clean up dinner, play with the kids, read books, bathe them if needed, then bedtime. Usually at bedtime, one of us takes our boys (4 year old & 9 month old) & the other one takes our girl (2 years old) and prays, sings songs & turns on their nightlight stars. Once the bigs are in bed, I nurse the baby & put him to bed. It’s usually 9:30 by this time so my hubby & I spend time together & then go to bed between 11 & midnight. Easy, beautiful moments. 🙂
Fun! We live in Asheville, NC with Atlas,4 and Rosie 18month. My husband and I run a vintage rental and event venue in west Asheville- we rarely know what day of the week it is but our evenings are spent in the kitchen,garden,front yard,porch, back yard, pillow fort, table, bath, big bed, little bed, bathroom break and then if we are lucky the couch. If it’s a night at the building, just replace the above with big wheels, take out, and keeping Rosie from injuring herself. Both involve a lot of laughter and tears and joy and food and general exhaustion!
I told you all about our routine but I forgot to include where we live. It’s 1:00 a.m. I’m tired. Ha!
We live in Oklahoma City, OK. 🙂
My husband and I, and our almost 5 year old son Chase, live New Orleans. Wednesday’s at our house are the most difficult to predict. I work full time and my husband travels Monday-Thursday every week so Wednesday is my last night each week to keep everything together before I get the reprieve of having my husband back to help. When I get home I usually have a couple minutes of starting (figuring out what we are going to have) dinner before our nanny Katelynn leaves, then its just me and Chase. I try and do sit down dinner every night, not meaning gourmet dinners just that I got two meals to the table at the same time and we sat down together, which is not always easy. Wednesday is usually the night if we can pull it off that we have “Skype dinner with Daddy” and I put my husband on the ipad eating in his hotel room on the table with us, this is one of my favorite activities when we make it happen. After dinner we typically play a game (uno with just two people is not as exciting as it would seem but he loves it) or take the dog in the backyard together or whatever else we can get in before bedtime depending on how fast dinner went. If Chase is having a good night we have a lot of time, if not I just sat through potentially a lot of whining and so not much playtime. Then we start upstairs for bed, sometime between 7:30-7:45. It is 50/50 chance that Katelynn has already given him a bath while I was starting dinner, if not we do that. Then teeth, books (he can pick put I dictate diameter, Mondays usually 2-3 books but not going to lie by Wednesday I usually am at a board book and a song) and a little cuddle time. This is my favorite time, we started a while ago a little game where we hug and squeeze our different body parts from our toes to our nose as tight as we can before we relax each we call it “getting our wiggles out” and now it is a must in bedtime routine. If we didn’t Skype earlier this is when we call my husband for a last minute goodnight. Then the red light goes on the alarm clock and almost every night we yell back and forth “see you in the morning” until I make it to the last step downstairs and I have to say, ok now really go to sleep! On a good day it is 8:30 and I am have the next 1 1/2 – 2 hours to myself and you can find me with a glass of wine or hot tea (most likely a glass of wine) curled up on the in the back living room reading a book that I am behind on for book club or watching a show just trying to unwind. Then I head to and hope for a full nights sleep for all but on many nights like tonight we have a middle of night something (needed to go potty tonight) and it is usually quick on his end and I get an hour or so on the internet then back to bed for me too.
Hi! I’m Kristen and I am from Demorest, Ga (about an hour north of Atlanta). My husband and I have a 2 year old daughter. I am a nurse and work nights (3 nights a week). If I have to work on a wed night I either have my daughter with me until I leave for work, or I pick her up from daycare/family around 4. I then make dinner or pick up something. My husband gets home around 545 and we all sit down to eat before I leave for work at 615. If I don’t have to work that night, then we usually will go outside and play together. If I’m working, my husband handles bath, reading books, saying her bedtime prayer, and getting her to sleep. If I am at home, then we tag team with the bedtime routine. Some Wednesdays are hectic while others are peaceful- and it changes week to week!
Hi! My name is Katie and I live outside of Jerusalem, Israel with my husband and two kids. Boy age 4.5 and girl age 3.5 with a baby due in a month. I am originally from the Midwest and moved to Israel when I married my Israeli husband. I work for a publishing company and my husband owns his own business so evenings can mean anything! Phone calls, deadlines, etc. I try to be “on” with my kids from 3:30-7 (bedtime). Who knows how this will change with a new baby!
WEDNESDAY EVENINGS
Princeton, Tx (outskirts of Dallas); Emery is Almost 3 years old.
I normally give Emmy a bath before dinner, because baths give her an extra kick of energy, which is asking for a death wish if given too late. (You can already tell where this entry is going, right?) We don’t have a bath tub, just a tiny shower, so I bathe her in her infant bath tub on the counter. I make dinner for our family of 3, but Emmy normally eats before me and my husband, who walks through the door around 6:30pm. After dinner we throw dishes in the sink (no dishwasher) and we pretend to be kitty cats (kitty ears and all), or Emmy rides my husband like a horsie while she is the princess, me and Emmy will dress up in princess dresses (with heels, tiaras, jewelry and all), we play barbies, or we tickle each other. My husband doesn’t get to see Emmy much through the week, so this is truly our devoted family time. We laugh and play, because this bond is so important to me. Then we start the bed time procedure. So buckle up! Emmy puts her 4 bracelets on (they all represent her favorite people: me, my husband, herself, and a baby, which is wishful thinking on her part), her house slippers, and then her tutu, all of which she sleeps in. I hold Emmy for her bottle (Don’t judge!), then we brush teeth, say prayers, get unnecessary Disney character bandaid, read a book, and then my husband takes her potty while I wait for her on the bed. This is my special time with Emmy. We sing 2 paraphrased songs of her choice, and then I hold her for a “few” minutes before laying her in bed. During this time, my phone is off and I stare at this little body that isn’t so little any more, and where I experience feelings of wanting to join my husband on the couch to detox, but also feelings of just wanting to soak in this moment until I stop breathing. Emmy was not planned, but my gosh, she is the most demanding, stubborn, strong willed, funniest surprise gift we’ve ever received. Emmy has to play with my hair to fall asleep, and then I have to unweave her hand from my ponytail as I lay her in her own bed. Although we start getting her ready for bed at 7:30ish, I sometimes don’t walk out until 9:30pm. What makes this all interesting is that we don’t live in an actual house, it’s more of a “barn/shed” type home. We have one room and that’s all, no doors except to the bathroom and our closet. So bedtime can be an adventure. But once Emmy is asleep, she will literally sleep through anything. We still watch movies on surround sound. We roll with the punches. This living space was only supposed to be temporary, but temporary turned into 3 years. This is where I could really play the victim, and if my marriage to my husband and my role as Emmy’s mother wasn’t strong, I don’t think I could do any of this. It’s a humbling experience, but I truly feel blessed with my little family. I’d really love to be one of your Wednesday Evening families.
Six beautiful acres in Shingle Springs, CA!
Daughter Addyson who is 5 yrs old.
Son Jaxon who is 10 months old.
Hey there! I am an RN who spends 50% of our Wednesday evenings/nights caring for other people’s family members instead of my own. It’s what I do, what I love doing and what I was born to do. I have the best husband ever who takes over those nights.. and boy do I ever wish there was a camera there for most of them! Let’s just say… Spaghetti on the walls, Daddy playing dress up (what a good sport!) and wild pillow fights covering my bedroom in down feathers. EPIC. My awesome family will not let Wednesday Evenings down! I guarantee it.
Central Arkansas – I am a mom to Carlie (2) and Carter (8 months). Whoa…already sounds exhausting right?!?! I work full time as a manager of 11 people. Which simply put is just glorified babysitting. My commute is about an hour on a good day. My car time is my favorite. I can listen to the radio…something I actually want to or have a real conversation with an adult that isn’t being paid to talk to me lol. For a little over two years I was the one who dropped and picked up our daughter from daycare. Recently we switched to a school closer to home so my husband could share those duties. My husband is a Special Agent for the Fed Gov and is able to work from home. It is easier for him to grab the kids than me having to mad rush and drive like a bat out of you know where :). The hubby normally waits till the last min to go get them (I actually caught him the other day by passing him on my way home and his way to the daycare). When they get home Carlie immediately wants a snack because the daycare did NOT feed her anything all day. So we start the all you can eat buffet with two choc chip cookies. Then we normally have a piece of bread, yoyo (yogurt) and a squeezy (fruit pouch thing). All washed down with a cup-o-milk. Mean while daddy is cooking. He always handles making dinner and I love him so much for that. I am normally feeding the baby at the same time. I am weaning him or so I tell myself that. Reality is I weaned myself from the pump and he is just night nursing lol. Then dinner is ready. We all sit at the table and Carlie refuses her food and wants to sit on someone’s lap and eat from their plate. We eat and Carlie whines. Then it is bath time! Once bath is done we watch a little TV aka scroll through the DVR list of Carlie shows reading off titles and she says ‘nope, nope, nope, nope’ until mom makes a decision for her. Then Carlie plays with her bracelets. She has like 100 of them and they are her new obsession. Bubby is normally asleep during all of this. Around 7:30ish we try and all go to bed. Mom has to wake up at 4 to start her work day. So night night loves and off to our bedrooms. We coslept with Carlie so she is learning to sleep in her big girl bed. Daddy puts her to sleep and I go to our room where Bubby is. Depending on his mood he is either in the swing, pack n play or our bed. I hurry up and go to sleep b/c I know the night is only beginning for me and little dude. He still doesn’t sleep through the night and 4 comes early ❤️
Such a lovely idea! Can’t wait to see you the new ‘Wednesday Evening’ series! 🙂
http://en.emoi-emoi.com/
I’m Kelly, living in Knox, Indiana. I’m a SAHM to a neutotypical 13 year old daughter and a 16 year old boy. My son has autism ad epilepsy, both very severe. He’s still diapered, mostly nonverbal, has a g-tube and is on a ketogenic diet. Enough back story.
My husband and I are old fashioned. He is the breadwinner, the man of the house, I do the cooking, cleaning, and the like. Yet, we are both tattooed and pierced. My studmuffin gets hone from work shortly before my son gets off the bus. Our evenings are spent with me making dinner, trying (usually unsuccessfully) to sit together and eat. The goofy conversations, laughter, chasing of the boy child who doesn’t like to hang out at the table with us. Card games, bathing my oldest, consoling my overly dramatic princess when she fangirls too hard. Playing with the dog, playing (being ignored by) with the cat, possibly some sportsy type stuff depending on what my youngest is obsessed with at that point. Then, tucking the kiddos in bed. I still try to sit on the bed with my daughter and talk before bed. I put my oldest to bed with lots of sensory time. Back scratches, head rubs, sometimes even hugs and kisses! Finally, my husband and I shower together. That’s our ‘how was your day time, sometimes, he plays the guitar for me while I clean up, sometimes he and sit down and play video games, or just lie in bed and snuggle and watch tv. My life is amazing!
My husband and I have three kids (almost!) – Theo, 3; Henry, 2; and baby girl, arriving in July. Starting the first week in August, we will be living downtown Silver Spring, MD (just outside of DC) in an eighth floor two-bedroom apartment. My husband is a pastor who will be starting a new job in DC so between that and the addition of a new baby, I’m not sure what our evenings will look like. If he has evening meetings, which are frequent, I do bedtime alone. With three kids under 4, it will for sure be a staggered bedtime. I work from home and do a lot of my work once the kids go to bed. My boys are ACTIVE so bedtime is chaotic, although it does follow a set format and normally happens at 7 for my 2 year old and sometime before 8 for my 3 year old. This is my favorite series on the blog and I would love to have these insane, everyday moments in my life captured in pictures.
Hi! It is now 3:07am in Sacramento, CA and it’s feeding time! I am a mom of 4. I have 4 yo son and 4 month old triplets (two boys and a girl). I’m an only child raised by a single parent and have no idea how to raise a large family! I’m a social worker and will be returning to work part time next week. Married to a lovely man, who in addition to demanding career is also a Sr Pastor of a local church. I’m an obsessive to-do list maker and am late to everything but learning to enjoy this journey called parenthood amidst the chaos.
Our family lives in Gatlinburg, TN, near Knoxville. Our little family, Silas 2, Buckley(fur baby) and my husband and I live right on the edge of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. When I pick up Silas we usually head straight home to do some playing on our deck during the summer months.
Our deck has a beautiful view of the mountains and is covered with boy toys and a little wading pool . Both Silas and the dog love this. I cook dinner whilee my husband hangs with the dudes, and if it is nice we eat dinner on the picnic table on our porch because Silas really likes to “have a picnic” right now.
Then we play a bit more and roll into bath and books. We usually read for at least 30 minutes before bed. Then bedtime for Silas around 8 and a glass of wine or a beer for us… Sometimes on the porch but often on the couch.
We live in Minneapolis, and have a five year old starting kindergarten this August.
Our lives are routine focused – we have a five year old who started sleeping 12 plus hours a night when she was two weeks old. She hasn’t looked back, and still goes to bed between 6 and 630 every day. She has no siblings and my husband and I just married a year ago which means they are still getting to know one another. Prior I was a single mother with loads of help from fabulous friends.
Our daughter, Elsa (named prior to the Frozen craze) has a best buddy in lew of a sibling – Polka Dot. Polka Dot is our full grown five pound toy maltipoo puppy – Elsa and Polka Dot are closer than peanut butter and jelly and is our constant companion. Elsa and I get home by 430, my husband varies but typically by bedtime at six for tuck in. We play, usually involving some art, horses or dance parties, put Jammie’s on, watch a show/eat dinner, and head off to bed. But, I won’t lie. There are days we come home so exhausted we have an instant cuddle and regroup before bed. Elsa goes down easily (girl loves her sleep), Dan and I have dinner, catch up on work, run errands or cycle.
I live in Fayetteville NC and am an army wife to two little ones ages 4 1/2 and 1 1/2. Our evenings we never know what to expect especially because we never know whether daddy will be home or not. The nights he is gone tend to be more chaotic than others because wrestling my 4 1/2 yr old to bed is like wrangling cattle. Most nights consist of Mac n cheese or quesadillas and then I eat after they go to bed. I then cuddle up on the couch or fold laundry to keep myself busy until 10pm. If the hubby is home we try to have family meals but that usually doesn’t happen just because of the energy of out kids!! We’d love to be featured on your Wednesday night feature!
The Parthemore clan resides in gorgeous Sandusky, Ohio. Said clan consists of myself (Julia) my husband Chris, our 15 month old little girl Emerson, and two horrible (not in the fun way) cats Martini and Cuba. Wednesday nights in the summer are special for us! Once our work and/or coaching commitments are filled for the day it is a race to see who gets to pick Emerson up from day care. After a quick nap we pack up the stroller and head for the lake for Regatta night! We pick a spot to grab dinner then spend the evening watching sailboats and playing in one of several waterfront parks. Once we have had a sufficient amount of fun it’s back to the house for bath time, snuggles, bed time and patio sitting for the grown ups. Not a bad way to get through the mid week!
I live in Stafford, VA with my husband Jesse, 2-year-old son Callum, and playful dogs Max and Tucker. My husband is in the Air Force and works close to Wahington, D.C. which means his commute can be pure hell. He usually gets home between 6:00-6:30. I’m usually working on dinner in the kitchen, but Callum gets so excited when he sees his daddy’s truck pull into the driveway! Jesse takes Callum upstairs with him to change clothes and get ready for dinner while I finish up. We eat together as a family (the dogs are under the table waiting for Callum to drop anything) every night. Then one of us cleans the kitchen while the other puts Callum in the bath (sometimes we paper-rock-scissor) before all meeting back in the living room for a movie. I usually put Callum to bed while Jesse gets ready for work the next day and then we get a little time to ourselves before bed . . . ice cream, please!
I’m so grateful that my husband is my partner in all this. I’m so proud of what he does during the day, but I’m more proud of what he does for our family at night. When he’s overseas or out of town for training we miss his most in the evenings.
I live in Elverson, PA. My son is 9 and my daughter just turned 1. Wednesday night is always soccer in the park with Pottstown’s Park and Rec. This is actually for my boyfriend, but they always let the 9 year old join. I work as a GM of a limited service hotel in Pottstown and my boyfriend is a stay at home dad. Getting us all to the park in time, in appropriate attire, hopefully fed, and with everything we need to keep our daughter entertained takes an act from God. Getting us all home in one piece without someone (usually me) having a temper tantrum takes an even greater miracle. It’s hectic and dirty and sweaty and we fight over the shower when we get home, but it’s usually the night of the week we all look forward to the most.
We live near Cleveland, OH, and have one daughter – Meredith Grace. She is 18 months old. She had open heart surgery at 11 weeks to correct a defect, so we are a little extra careful with her. The great part is seeing how active, smart and happy she is despite what she’s had to overcome.
My husband and I work for the same company now, so we pick her up together. We give her dinner while O cook for us if nothing was in the crock pot, but she still wants our food once it’s done – only if she can eat it off of our plates.
Getting pajamas on is one of her least favorite things, and she’s quick and squirmy. Tooth brushing is even crazier.
Once she’s ready for bed, we have quiet time in her room, and she usually goes back and forth betweenu husband and me giving smooches for 5 minutes.
She runs in circles and babbles like crazy, then makes a last bid for “mum mum – cra cwuh?” (Num Num crackers), then pops into bed with her My Pal Violet and Mooshka doll.
My husband and I watch a show and prep our lunches for the next day, then bedtime for us.
Thanks for your consideration!
I’m Brooke, in Philadelphia. I am a SAHM to; Awesome (almost 5), Christmas (3 1/2) and Moon (almost 1 year). Our evening depends on if my husband works or not.. But usually, we try to convince the kids to eat dinner, so we can get Awesome to his Karate class. Sometimes the ice cream truck has perfect timing and we get to enjoy that, other times he doesn’t and the kids get pretty mad that we dont have time for it. Karate ends at 7, so when we get home it’s time for snacks, a TV show if the kids have a meltdown insisting on one.. Teeth brushing. Stories and bed. During all of this, I’m breastfeeding and wrangling the fast crawling and just started standing by herself, Moon.
Jack-8
Liz-7
Alice-3
Iowa City, IA
My husband is a junior high principal and I’m a prof of math education. My husband and I spend all day being patient w other people’s kids and then find ourselves at our wits end by the time we get to spend time with our own!
We live in Fairfield County, CT and have one son, age 2 and 4 months. Typical weeknight evenings include picking him up at daycare, taking him home to be sniffed by/covered in kisses by our dog, and then playing outside for a bit (we often walk next door to Grandma’s house to sit in the pickup truck). Dinnertime is always a negotiation for my picky eater, usually with 5-6 toy trains joining us for the meal (we’re very into Percy right now but last week was an Emily phase). My husband comes home and we give our son a bath and put him to bed, which is where it really gets interesting as right now he’s going through a big sleep regression (molars? growth spurt?). While one of us puts him to bed, the other takes care of the dog, cleans up and packs his lunch for the next day, and starts our dinner. When he’s finally asleep and the parent in charge has crawled out of the room ninja-style, we eat our own dinner and watch some Netflix and try not to pass out before 8:30.
Woodstock, GA (45 mins North of Atlanta) – Caroline, 17 months old. 2 dogs ( Golden and Pit Mix).
I pick up Caroline from daycare around 4:45pm. We get home by 5pm and as soon as we are in the kitchen she starts heading over to the highchair crying and pushing it to the center of the kitchen. She is ready to eat! I don’t even have time to let the dogs out – they are staring me down as I attempt to feed the hungry child. She has been super picky lately so I start with something I know she likes (grapes) and then figure out what else I think she will eat that evening. It ends up being dinner lotto – sometimes I get a win and she eats what I have fixed but most of the time she is crying in frustration cause she is pissed about my dinner choices for her! Around 5:30 or so I will either get a text or phone call from the Husband asking if he needs to stop at the store for anything. While Caroline is eating I go and change. I turn on cartoons also. Husband is usually home by 5:45/6pm. He changes clothes and we try and make it out the door by 6/6:15pm for a nightly walk around the block with the dogs and Caroline. Recently she hasn’t been a fan of riding in the stroller so we start the walk out by her walking with us. But that quickly changes into her wanting us to hold her. That’s when the tantrums ensue. A walk that normally takes us 20 mins can quickly turn into an hour because of her tantrums. It’s exhausting!! When we are back at the house – depending on how long the walk took – we will spend another 10 mins or so outside on the driveway blowing bubbles while daddy drinks a cold beverage…Then it’s inside for bath time. Daddy does bath time while I run round getting her PJ’s and everything ready for when she gets out of the tub. Then daddy drys her hair and they brush their teeth together. We alternate who reads to her each night so whoever’s turn it is the other person will have lotion and PJ duty. Then Caroline says good night to everyone including the dogs and we go into the nursery and sit in the rocker and read about 5 books. Then in the crib she goes. Goodnight Caroline. Finally it’s adult time. Dinner if we are even hungry, and some TV time…it’s an exhausting routine especially if Caroline is super moody but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!
I live in a suburb of Minneapolis, MN. I have two boys- Dominic (3 years) and Reed (1 year). My husband and I both work so the boys are in daycare full time. Our routine is flexible depending on whether my husband is working from home or out of town. I generally pick the boys up at daycare at 4:30 and then it is a marathon of playing, getting dinner ready, and then bedtime routine. We try to dinner together but sometimes Reed eats too early so he gets feed solo while I or my husband make dinner. Our oldest likes to play outside until the last possible moment so we 3 eat between 6-6:30. Reed usually goes down for bed between 6:30-7 (he is daycare tired) and Dom goes to bed at 8pm.
My family is in Louisville, KY. My husband and I have two boys, 2 and 4. We both work, but I bring the boys home from daycare and fix them something quick to eat (scrambled eggs, pasta) in front of the t.v. (I know, terrible parent, but you asked for truth).We go outside and play. The hardest part of the night it when my husband comes home from work, which is usually just before bed time. The kids are excited to see him and they usually spend time wrestling, getting thrown in the air, tickling- all activities which are opposite of settling down for bed. We take the boys to the room they share to read books, then spend the rest of the night trying to get them to actually sleep. Usually involves me laying in the floor with them. Zzzzzzzz.
My name is Amanda and I live with my husband, Scott and our 3-year old son, Judah in the Kansas City suburbs. The real reason I want to do this? I have zero professional photos of our family. Also, since I’m normally the photographer, there aren’t many photos of my son and I together. Our routine seems similar to yours, actually! Two full time working parents. By the time I pick up Judah from preschool/daycare, it’s about 6 o’clock. Then it’s normally trying to squeeze in some quality family time – playing on the hammock, family walks with the dog, and dinner for the little one before his bedtime. We alternate putting him to bed every night (the other cooks dinner for the grownups) and we eat late at night after he’s asleep.
My husband and I live outside DC with 2 daughters, ages 3 and 5 months. My husband commutes into the city for work and deals with traffic getting home every day. When we both get home after work (I pick up the girls) we juggle working out, making dinner for ourselves, feeding a picky toddler, and breastfeeding the little one. Bedtime for the toddler is 8ish but is always a struggle and the 5 month old goes to bed around 7:30. Bath time is somewhere around 7 which, for toddler, typically ends up in shower time with one of us. Then we clean up all the toys from after work play, and if we have anything left, watch a sports game on tv before bed.
Hi. My name is Julia Kendall. I live in NYC with my husband and our son, who is 9 months old. I am a full-time student and my husband works as a lawyer, we live in a tiny on-campus building. Our evenings are a hodge-podge. I am currently home, but my son is starting daycare when I go back to school next month. Usually in the evening, it is just me and my little one until my husband gets home. Then I hand over the boy and try to come up with something to eat for dinner. After dinner is silly family time and a bath (some days). Depending on bedtime, my son either falls asleep nursing or we take him out in the carrier for a bedtime walk to lull him to sleep. Our home isn’t big and fabulous, we don’t do anything special most nights, but I like to think that we are doing okay as two new parents in New York City.
Hey-I’m Maggie. I live in Richmond VT with my husband 6 1/2 year old daughter, Zoey and 4 year old son, Emmet. I only work part-time but I have meetings 2-3 Wednesday afternoon/evenings. Zoey (during the school year) has dance and has recently had softball after dance so our Wednesday nights have been CRAZY!! Typically I try to prep dinner before I leave for my meeting-I scramble together to figure out childcare for my son for an hour and half until my husband gets home from work (he’s a special educator)-on short meeting nights I et home hust I time to grab a glass of wine and eat. We try to eat as a family most nights! Since its been nice we have been eating outside and then our children insist on playing just a little longer with our neighbors who we basically share a backyard with—-then we drag our children inside, wash the dirt off of them and attempt to put them to sleep while using blackout shades and any other thing we can think of to convince them it’s not day. One of usually is on cleanup while the other works on bedtime. Then my husband and I usually snuggle on the couch and watch a show on Netflix!
Hi there!
We’d love to be featured. We live in Roselle Park, NJ and have two children- Benjamin (5 in August) and Zoe (2). I just became a SAHM so our Wednesday’s are all new to us! In between late afternoon crankiness and/or snuggles I try to get dinner ready. Sometimes we’ll make the short drive to pick Daddy up from the train station after his commute home from NYC. Both kids like to count how many ppl come off the train before they spot daddy.
We usually always try to eat dinner together. It’s something my mom always deemed important and an important part of our evening routine. The kids like to stand in their chairs and/ or run around the do if room table because dinner is an all star sport. The dog hides under the table hoping for crumbs and rogue chicken nuggets.
After dinner we like to watch TV- often jeopardy or wheel of fortune. Ben likes to guess crazy answers and giggles over competitive mommy and daddy guessing the clues. If it’s an easy going night we’ll have a dance party in the living room or laugh as we watch the kids race back and forth across the room.
When we are sufficiently exhausted or all-cranked out and unreasonable we march upstairs for bath time. The kids argue over who gets to lead the way up the stairs and immediately jump in our bed tossing accent pillows across the room. They like to hide under th comforter and scream and giggle when we finally “find” them.
Sometimes the kids bathe together if we are really needing bedtime to come ASAP. Other times we split up and each wash a kid. Next comes story time- we pick 2 books and many nights Ben reads to us! Then it’s “hugs and kisses” and Zoe tucks Ben in just like a little mother and they are off to sleep. We try to have everyone in bed by 815.
After that is a mad dash to finish housework, respond to emails and sometimes sneak a quick work out in. We hop in bed between 10-11 and start the whole routine again at 6am.
Buckeye, AZ (outside Phoenix)
Boy (1)
Girl (threenager)
I am a SAHM and Hubby recently got out of the Navy and started a new job. Our family just spent about 18 months apart between a deployment and the kids and I living with my parents while I recovered after fracturing my humerus. We have only lived under the same roof as a family of 4 for two months! We’re still adjusting and trying to find a good balance between routine and family time so our evenings can get a little crazy.
Summit, NJ – Claire and Rachel twin 5YO girls – Hi! My name is Katie Jesionowski and I am mom to Claire and Rachel, 5 YO twin girls, wife to my awesome husband Mike and Co Founder of MySuperFoods Company, a healthy food and lifestyle brand for kids and families.
We play games. We eat organic food. We have dance parties and wrestling matches. We practice kindness. We say negotiate and compromise. A lot. We celebrate. We hug. We talk about our day. We pray before dinner and then say what we’re thankful for. We run outside. We ride bikes. We laugh. We wipe away tears. We save band aids for blood. We make up silly stories and songs. We watch TV while mom cleans up or checks email. We know which MySuperCookie is Rachel and which is Claire. We stick to a schedule. We don’t compromise bedtime. We brush our teeth while humming the ABCs. We recognize that Claire and Rachel have never slept in different rooms. We aim for individuality. We give butterfly kisses and whisper secrets before bed. We have a dinosaur nightlight. We sometimes facetime family who live far away to say goodnight. We sit outside after the girls go to sleep. We love our life.
We live in NYC (UES) and have 7 year old twins (boy & girl). On Wednesday nights are schedules are super rushed – with after-school classes getting us home close to 6pm – that’s when the FUN begins. But, now that after-school is coming to an end –we are super grateful for the extra couple of hours we will be getting back. So, everyday we try to go swimming in our building pool (but sometimes we have to skip that depending on time). Once we are home, I start dinner while the kids bathe, do homework, read, dance, jump around on the couch, kick the soccer ball around the living room and read. All this while I chat with my husband for a couple of minutes if he’s on the road; text/email friends/family. My husband travels constantly – so often times, it’s just the kids, our dog and me. When he is home, I usually end up having to make different things for dinner. Kids and husband are all picky eaters, so I sometimes have to make different things for each. We try to eat together as a family – but it doesn’t always work out that way. Sometimes the kids eat by together and then my husband and I will eat together once kids are in bed. Other times we just go out to dinner. But given everyone’s schedule, it’s hard to get this all to work out as planned…but we do try. Getting kids to bed can be a battle – constant negotiating with them to get them into bed by 8pm sharp (doesn’t always work out that way though). They play up until the very last minute and then its teeth brushing time and then we pray together, before the lights go out (all this while my dog is jumping all over me). Kids also cannot go to sleep unless they have music playing – so they take turns picking out a song every night. After they’re in their beds, sometimes my daughter will get into her brother’s bunk or vice versa and chat. Other times they have dance parties in the dark. And every single night, they come out after they’ve been in bed to get yet another glass of water or go to the bathroom. Sometimes its seems they’ll never get to bed – and then finally – they’re sound asleep. After all is done, it feels like I’ve run the marathon…but it’s always worth it!
I am a sahm to my 2.5 yo daughter Grace. We live in a small town about an hour outside of Pittsburgh, PA. My husband travels for work so most of our Wednesday evenings are handled by me. Grace usually naps till 4 so once she is up for the evening, we spend a little time watching tv/playing while I get dinner ready. Some days we eat the same meal, other days I make something for her and something for me. We don’t cook a ton when my husband is away because I hate cooking and my daughter has a milk allergy so it’s easier to just do quick and easy. After dinner time we spend the evening playing either outside or inside, sometimes we take a walk around the lake located a few miles away, sometimes we swim in the pool in our backyard or Grace plays with the 5 and 10 year old neighbor kids. Usually between 8 and 830 pm it’s bath time. After bath time she gets to pick a show on TV and have a snack (usually popcorn or fruit snacks). Then it’s brushing teeth, reading a story, saying our prayers, then singing and tickling in bed before shooing the monsters and alligators out of her room. Then she lays in bed and talks to her stuffed animals and babies before falling asleep while I relax on the couch with the baby monitor and phone, TV, laptop or a good book (after cleaning up the mess hurricane Grace has caused throughout the day). When my husband is home the routine is pretty much the same, except he usually cooks and might do bath time while I straighten up the house. Which leaves us free to relax together after Grace has fallen asleep.
My name is Kasandra. I live in Oceanport NJ. I have 3 children (7 y/o boy, almost 5 y/o boy, and a newly 3 y/o girl).
We eat dinner between 4 and 430. My husband gets home from work anywhere between 5 and 8 pm.
After dinner we ride bikes or just play in the yard. Baths and teeth brushing take place at around 530 and books are read by 6. My youngest is in bed by 615. I finish reading books with the boys and scoot the into their room for playtime until 7, at which time it’s lights out.
The house is always a mess, but it’s balanced out by all the fun and laughter.
I’m Chelsea, single mom to 3-year-old Addison. Wednesday evenings usually consist of me cooking dinner for Addison, myself, & my boyfriend Joe, who we live with. While I’m not technically “single,” I do still consider myself a single mom. While Joe can pick up & go out of town or go to the movies by himself whenever he wants to without consulting me or verifying that I’m available to watch Addison, I cannot do that. Anywhere I go and anything I do will always include my daughter and I my schedule revolves around her. But I digress…. after cooking dinner on Wednesdays, I usually let the TV babysit for a little while so I can work on orders for my Etsy business, KickinLegs. Then I handle the bath time & bed time routines on my own, and I finally get to relax at about 10pm after taking care of a few tasks around the house and for my business, and putting my daughter back in bed usually around 3-4 times each night. Joe, on the other hand, is watching TV & checking his Facebook the entire afternoon!
P.S. I’m in Austin, TX
Hello! My name is Mandy. I live in Winfield, IL which is a Western Suburb of Chicago. My daughter Eloise is almost 3 years old and my son Preston is 3 weeks old. I work full time as a social worker at the VA but I’m currently on Maternity leave. My husband Brad works in medical sales and lives the life of a surgeon as he is on call 24/7. Because of my husband’s schedule, I often feel like a single parent. There are some days where we rock at being parents because we can tag team everything but then there are days when he is gone early & home late where I thank God for the iPad or Disney Junior so that my toddler will leave me alone so I can get dinner started or nurse the baby without simultaneously playing wrestle mania with her. Many nights I opt for letting Eloise “pick out her dinner” which includes providing her with a choice of 3 different types of lunchables to pick from. Seriously, there are probably 10 different lunchables in my fridge as we speak. When this dinner selection game doesn’t work, I go for the ultimate bribe of letting her make her “special coffee.” This is hot chocolate from the Keurig that is loaded with sugar but sometimes mama has to eat and this is the only way to get it done. Besides my 2 kids, we have a crazy dog Piper who regularly steals food from the high chair, counter or literally right out of the pan. Dinner time has started to feel like a spectator sport between battling the dog, negotiating with the toddler and soothing the baby. After dinner, we pretty much let Eloise do whatever she wants until bath time. Her top choices are resuming her iPad watching or requesting that her Dad chase her “in the tunnel” aka around the corner into the dining room with the lights off. Every night we try to get her excited for bath time by asking her, “Eloise, guess what time it is?” In unison, we all say, “Time for a lovely, bubbly bath.” My husband normally carries her upstairs in some crazy way – on his head or piggy back style. He gives her a bath while I try to nurse the baby to sleep while scrolling thru Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. The chasing continues with her running around naked and hiding under her covers. They sing all sorts of songs – real and made up. It’s like a variety show in there. Once she is out of the bath, I join the fun by wrestling her to put her jammies on – a princess nightgown of some sort. We comb out her curly hair and brush her teeth. As a final encore for the evening, she stands at the top of the stairs and sings to her Daddy below. 9 times out of 10, she is singing a song from Frozen. Once she has been read her stories, she requests a variety of songs from me. She likes to “sing Sunshine together” which involves me singing You Are my Sunshine and leaving out words for her to fill in. She requests this about 3 times before I can actually close the door to say goodnight. With the hour or hour and half left before we go to bed, we try to watch some TV or I work on my latest blog post. Every once in a while, we get called back upstairs by our toddler for a variety requests – potty trip, placement of covers, or more “Sunshine.” My husband jokes that we have a war with sleep in our house that we are desperately losing. I always tell him that we will sleep in like 10 years when they are teenagers!
Hi there! Chicago, IL mom to an 18 month old girl and currently 3 months pregnant. Our Wednesday nights involve my husband picking up our daughter from daycare – bringing her home and making her dinner – I arrive at about 6:15 pm, just in time to clean her up and give her a bath – after bath time, I read her a book (or 2), brush her teeth and rock her to sleep. This is a bad habit that I got into due to feeling guilty for the lack of time I get to spend with her at night. As she’s getting older, she’s getting better at doing super cute things to keep me laughing with her in the rocking chair for up to an hour! For someone who can’t talk yet, she’s great at negotiating for extra time with mama. In the meantime, my husband is downstairs making us dinner. I usually come down around 8:15, we eat and clean up dinner. I then make her lunch for daycare because I’m a health freak (only when it comes to my daughter) and I refuse to allow her to eat what they serve at daycare. My husband shakes his head at me the whole time while I’m cutting up fruits and veggies and making animal shapes out of cheese, but I know she appreciates my hard work! Notice I didn’t say anything about cleaning up the house. That’s because we have what I like to call a “happy, but messy” home. Definitely not the type of home where an unexpected visitor could stop by and we wouldn’t completely freak out!! We’re excited, but nervous, about the changes coming this winter when our newest family member arrives! In the meantime, we’re trying to soak up these last couple months with our only child. She’s the most independent, stubborn, bossy, silly, but shy, 18 month old I know!
Midland, MI – daughter Olivia (6 weeks). I’m currently on maternity leave heading back to work in a few weeks. Right now my Wednesday nights are filled with waiting for my husband to get home and then starting dinner and catching up with him. Once dinner is made I make him change a diaper and currently he is splitting time between studying for an industry exam and spending time with Olivia. Once I go back to work (mid-June) my mom will be watching Olivia during the day. Oliviais her first grandchild and she is a teacher so she has graciously offered to watch her during the summer for us. Having my mom there when I’m at work will definitely make my nights much easier and low key. She still spoils me so I know Olivia will be well taken care of and loved and also I won’t have to worry about running as many errands or starting dinner (my Mom has plans to do that for me). It would be amazing to capture this time in our life as she is our first child so this has been life changing in so many ways to our schedules and routines. We have two dogs so I’m used to having to coordinate with my husband on making sure one of us gets home to let them out at a reasonable time, but obviously that is not how it works once you have a child!
Little Rock, Arkansas: Cannon is 4 and Jasper is 21 months. David brings Jasper home from daycare and I get Cannon from GiGi’s house, which happens to be right across the street. We greet our two dogs and I usually start dinner. Cannon goes to “work” at his desk making elaborate drawings. When David and Jasper get home, the wrestling, chasing, and all the other rambunctious things little boys do ensues. We eat dinner, in which Cannon complains about the food and Jasper makes a huge mess, devouring every bit of his dinner. We play in the backyard with the water table or swing set, or cuddle up on the couch and watch TV. Bathtime results in a momentus amount of water on the floor from countless cannonballs and body slams. Kids are dried off, floor is mopped up, and books are read. I usually lay down with Cannon and David lays down with Jasper in their matching twin beds, that are only about 6 feet apart. If were lucky, my husband and I don’t fall asleep too, and we get to spend some time together afterwards.
My husband is a SAHD to our two kids- daughter – 4, son- 1 and we live in Apex, NC. Wednesday evenings are funky for us, because I leave early from work so my husband can go tutor local high schoolers in calculus. So, my Wednesday afternoons are spent trying to get quality time (what does this mean?!?) with my kids, while prepping dinner, answering work calls and generally cleaning up some kind of dog or people bodily fluid. My husband rushes in right as we set dinner out and we have family dinner together. We have the two BEST eaters on the planet, so, dinner honestly takes an hour or more because they eat (and TALK!) SO MUCH. My husband and I finish our meal in less than 15 minutes while the kids eat and eat and eat and eat. So, we drink beer and listen. We never want to rush them out of family dinner because they both seem to enjoy it… and we do, too. Ten hours and seven servings of edamame later…. we typically walk the dogs or do “fire crystals” (sparklers) and then hit the hay. Bedtime routines involve excessive and extended child nudity, princess stories and “Good night, sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite”. And checking for wolves (?!?!) under beds and in closets. Are there even wolves in North Carolina?!?
I’m a 30 year realtor with a 2.5 year old daughter Penelope and a 4 month old son Kelly. My husband works in the mental health field. Our evenings are crazy and ALWAYS different. We live in a Jersey beach town so we love taking the kids to the boardwalk! The only common scheduled evening event is bath time, but for the summer, we go really relaxed on the rules. Lots of dancing and music and outdoor fun!
Little Rock, Arkansas: Cannon is 4 and Jasper is 21 months. David brings Jasper home from daycare, and I get Cannon from GiGi’s house, which happens to be right across the street. We greet our two dogs, and I usually start dinner. Cannon goes to “work” at his desk making elaborate drawings. When David and Jasper get home, the wrestling, chasing, and all the other rambunctious things little boys do ensues. We eat dinner, in which Cannon complains about the food and Jasper makes a huge mess, devouring every bit of his dinner. We play in the backyard with the water table or swing set, or cuddle up on the couch and watch TV. Bath time results in a momentous amount of water on the floor from countless cannonballs and body slams. Kids are dried off, floor is mopped up, and books are read. I usually lay down with Cannon and David lays down with Jasper in their matching twin beds, that are only about 6 feet apart. If were lucky, my husband and I don’t fall asleep too, and we get to spend some time together afterwards.
hey, it’s worth a shot!
live here in boise, idaho, w/ my husband matthew and our four and a half year old, nathan. I am a paramedic, and i work my second 12 hour shift of the week that day. during the school year, my husband goes to bible study at church, so after i leave work, i go and grab some food to shove in my face hole, then i go pick up nathan, because our church is very close to the station i was working. if i get off late, which happens frequently, then i just grab food and he takes him home. we try and get nathan home as early as possible to start the endless going to bed transition sooner rather than later.
nathan gets his clothes(or at least his pants off), eventually, then we wash up, brush teeth, floss(it’s scary, mommy), get him in jammies. my husband and i sometimes alternate who does this, depending on the mood of the child. we read two books, a bible story, the bible, then sing. i usually go in and cuddle with him for a bit where we talk about the day, sing “i love you forever”, talk about what we are going to dream about. lately, he wants a “short” book read as well. he also has to “get a toy”, despite the millions in his room.
then, i hand him off to matthew while i go take a bath. if, for some reason, i didn’t get to eat, i then go eat something fast for dinner. matthew will come and sit with me while i eat so we can talk(usually eating ice cream)
matthew goes for a walk/jog after he puts nathan down(who has been sleeping on the floor lately, for some reason). nathan usually uses that time to get up and come to the bathroom and ask me random questions to stall, or ask for bandaids for the red mark on some part of his body. he will usually stay in his room after that. after my bath, i usually go in and cuddle and chat a bit more if he is still awake, then go and brush teeth and talk a bit with the husband before going to bed. then up again at 0530 to get ready for my 24!
it’s exhausting, but i get 4 days off a week, so it is a good schedule for the days i don’t work!
fingers crossed! =)
Pittsburgh, PA – Mila, 15 months and one on the way – due in November! No evening in our house is ever alike. Most days my husband, Michael, picks up Mila from daycare around 5 pm and gets home around 5:30 – when I typically meet them there or arrive shortly after. Once home we change into comfortable clothes and figure out what to eat for dinner. Mila is still nursing so we have to find something quick and easy for her to eat or else she’ll start grabbing at the boob and scream until we feed her something. This is usually a hot dog, pasta, veggies or soup. Or sometimes she opts for crunchers or puffs and that’s that! Michael and I typically split the roles – if I’m getting Mila’s dinner ready he’s getting our dinner ready and vice versa. Once our dinner is ready we sit down and eat together (sometimes at the dining room table or just in the living room) and Mila normally snacks off of our plates as well. After dinner we usually only have an hour or so before Mila’s bedtime so we either quickly do the dishes or wait until after Mila’s in bed to do them so that we can get some fun time in with her. Now that the weather is nice, we’ll either go for a walk, go out and play on our front porch, sometimes our niece will come over (she lives right next door with my brother and sister in law) or Michael will take Mila over there to play. After we’re finished playing we give Mila a bath and she’s ready for bed by 8. I always put her down b/c she’s still nursing. So I nurse her and rock her until she falls asleep – some nights it’s faster than others. She’s always asleep by 9. While I’m putting Mila down – Michael cleans up the bath stuff and does the dishes then we just hang out for the rest of the night until we both go to bed! Of course our evening is intermixed with temper tantrums, belly laughs and poopy diapers!
Bethel, CT… Sean 5, Sarah 2 1/2 and Beau 6 months. Their dad usually puts something together for dinner and then leaves for work, so it’s up to me to get them to sit down and actually eat it, get them bathed, in their jammies and asleep. My goal is to stay calm and patient, some nights I’m successful and some nights I’m not. We also have a Great Dane that needs to be fed and let out and a flemish giant rabbit that the kids like to let out to “get some exercise” in the evenings. When we head upstairs to bed our routine involves brushing teeth, reading books and sometimes a puzzle, and sometimes I want to lay down and nurse Beau so Sean and Sarah make a big pile of pillows and take turns jumping into them yelling “cannon ball!”. Some times this gets them a little wired and sometimes it really tired them out. Then we all lay down together… most nights the four of us fall asleep together but sometimes I get up and get on my lap top for work or fold laundry or have a bowl of ice cream all to myself as a reward for getting them all to sleep!
In our house, Wednesday night=DADDY’S NIGHT!
I am Katie, a working mom to daughter Claire 21 months. MTTF I pick up Claire at about 4pm from daycare, we play, we stroll, we tantrum, we cook dinner, we throw dinner on the floor and so on.
BUT on Wednesday Daddy picks up Claire! I use this time to work late, schedule a doctors appointment, maybe a mani/pedi! So while I would like to give you some insights on what happens on Wed evenings, I too am often in the dark! But I come home to a happy girl (probably because she had a dinner of tater tots and watermelon) and that is all that matters! I would love to get some images of Daddy Daughter Wednesdays so I can get a behind the scenes look 🙂
ps: I am in Chagrin Falls, Ohio (outside of Cleveland)!
Hi! I’m Claire and I live in St. Louis, Missouri. I have four kids, Gus age 7, CeCe age 6 and George and Charlie age 3. The math is confusing but they are all less than four years apart (I had four kids under four years old when the twins were born). I recently quit my job as a trial attorney to stay at home.
Wednesday nights at my house consist of avoiding the ER, convincing my kids it is 8:00 p.m. at 6:00 p.m., answering one million questions and trying to make sure every one eats something for dinner, reads a book, and that at least 50% brush their teeth and have pajamas on. We laugh a lot, cry a lot, and are all doing the best we can.
I would love the opportunity to document the craziness because when all the kids are finally asleep and I’m watching Bravo and guzzling a glass of wine, I worry that I’m not going to remember it and that the chaos may be over-shadowing the very best moments of my life.
Thanks, Mommy Shorts, for considering us! I’m off to explain why the dog doesn’t want to sit in the water table and why a “magic charm bracelet” really can’t make you fly…
Falls Church, VA (suburb of DC)- 1 boy age 2.5 named Charlie. On Wednesdays my husband picks up our son at daycare and arrives home around 5:30. Now that it is summer time they typically spend the next hour running around in our cul de sac “playing baseball” (aka running in circles while holding a glove and giving high fives). If I am lucky I get home by 6:30, but since I am an attorney in DC with a close to 1 hr commute (car or bike and metro) it can sometimes be closer to 7. On good days I am greeted like a returning hero. On bad days I may be told to “go back outside”- which is really tough for a working mom to hear. Sometimes dinner has been made for Charlie before I come home. Sometimes they are so busy having fun that I end up putting it together upon my arrival. C eats dinner with one of us usually sitting with him talking about his day at school and the other cooking our adult dinner for later. Then we decide who feels like doing what (cooking / bedtime) and split up with some more playtime interspersed. Either way the cooker always ends up in C’s room giving “family hugs” before bed time. I would really love to have someone capture the warmth and sillyness that I know must exist during our Wednesday nights when sometimes it just all feels like a 1hr blur of activity between coming home and bedtime.
Our family of 5 includes Daddy, Mommy, a 9yr old mommy in training, a 6yr old drama princess and a 1 and 1/2 yr old drumming stunt devil. As you can see, it’s high energy from sun up to sun down.
Wednesdays in Clovis California are early release days from school. Although there is an early release for the students there isn’t one for the parents. The school day is shortened but that means longer days for mommy and daddy. Our Wednesdays usually consist of after school activities/extracurricular activities/programs for the two girls such as Good News Club, Drama Club, Dance, and a Sports gathering depending on the season. After all of that, we usually go home, freshen up, grab a quick bite to eat, do homework and head out for a Wednesday night church service. After church, we are heading back home to get ready for bed and to get some rest to start the next day. Yes, being a stay-at-home mommy of younger children, it gets tough with with all of the tasks inside the home but even more so with all of the extras outside of the home. My daughters arguing and fighting like teenagers, my son beating on everything like its a drum even our heads and jumping, climbing and flipping from everything, laundry, meals, errands, all the programs and extracurricular activities and trying to make everything stretch from peace and quiet to the finances so they can be enjoyed longer is all apart of our Wednesday routine. Reading my comment, you may think my Wednesday evenings aren’t as beautiful as Monday mornings but they are. Each day is a gift and is different. I have learned to be liquid/flexible to the nature of the day and the planned/unplanned, scheduled/not scheduled tasks/activities of the day. Monday mornings may not be as hectic as Wednesday evenings but that’s what makes life more interesting. Appreciate each day as if it were your last.
Hi there,
I am a working mom with a 7 year old lil boy and a 9 month old lil girl. Our evenings are pretty simple – I usually pick them up from school/sitter and we head home to relax and play. If its a soccer or baseball practice night for my son- then its a little more rushed to get home, get changed and head to practice. But if its a normal night and pretty we will sometimes walk down to our neighborhood park or creek (my son loves to throw rocks in creek and explore). Many nights we just sit on floor and play with baby sister. She is getting to that fun interactive stage. My husband is a soccer coach – so he typically has practice at night so many nights it is just me taking care of the kiddos. After we relax and play for a bit – I will help my son with homework while I feed the baby. Then we will get ready for bed – bath for baby/shower for older one and I will put baby down first and then spend some cuddle/TV time with big brother before his bedtime. Once they are both down then I start dinner for my husband and me. Like I said, our evenings are pretty simple, but its our life and we love the comforts of being home after a long day of work and school. The evenings are the only times I get with my babies during the week so I cherish every evening even though I am tired! When my husband is able to be home and not working – its even more cherished! Thank you for your consideration!
Guess I forgot to mention we live in Dallas, texas!
I live in Frisco, TX (suburb of Dallas)
2 ½ year old daughter, Ellie
My husband picks her up from school around 5 and takes her home and then we have a text conversation about what to feed her for dinner. There are only about 3 meals she eats, fish sticks, peanut butter and jelly… Well, okay 2 meals she eats. If we eat together we do try and give her what we are having. She eats around 6 and I get home from work around 5:45, so if possible we all try to eat together but often I have to make something for us and she’ll eat something else while I’m cooking. After dinner I try to just focus on her for at least 30 minutes. We play for as long as we can or try and take a walk as a family and then it’s bath time between 7-7:30. After bath the bedtime routine begins. It usually starts with the naked running through the house and eventually we get her to her room for “quiet time” That’s usually books but can also be coloring or some type of play with mommy and daddy. Lately if daddy isn’t in her room with us she starts screaming for him to join us. At some point, usually around 8:15 we say it’s officially bedtime and turn out the lights. This is my favorite part of the day because it’s mommy and Ellie time. We turn off the lights and sit in the chair in her room. She usually wants to look out the window for bugs first and then we have little silly games we play together. Giving silly kisses and making goofy faces. I usually don’t rush this but she’s caught on and now tries to make it last forever. But once I lay her down she’s pretty good about going to bed, I think that silly time helps and makes her feel like she’s had a chance to push bedtime back. Once she’s down it’s my first chance all day to have a minute to myself so I try and just sit and chill with the husband before bed.
I loved the Monday morning series but am super excited for Wednesday evening because I think that is when many families really have their together time and it’s not quite as scheduled or structured.