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.
Hi there!! My name is Ashlee and I am a stay at home mom to a very wild 3 yr old and very sassy 5 yr old. We live in bonney lake, wa (east of tacoma, south of Seattle) I wish I could tell you about my picture perfect totally routine Wednesday night, but that would be a lie!! My husband works for the railroad, which means he is gone a lot. Usually gone 2 days, home for 1. He is “on call” so there is no saying when he will be going to, or coming home from work. That being said, we don’t have a “Wednesday” night or a weekend for that matter. Most of the time I don’t even know what day of the week it is. We recently moved from a 3 bedroom house with a back yard and a full size garage to a 3 bedroom apartment. The transition has not been easy!! Since it rains a lot here our days mostly consist of the kids driving me absolutely bonkers. If we happen to have a sunny day, we go to the pool or the park which is right outside our apartment. If my husband is home on a Wednesday night, it goes a lot smoother. We usually spend the day out of the house doing something as a family. We eat dinner together but currently don’t have a dinning room table, so the kids sit on the floor and we sit on the couch (horrible, I know) if my husband isn’t home dinner is usually mac and cheese or grilled cheese. I dine on whatever the kids don’t end up eating with a glass (or two) of wine out of my box. We are straight class is this house 😉 I try to keep the kids at a consistent bedtime, but we all know how that goes. Unfortunately it doesn’t get dark until after 9… So getting the kids in bed while it’s still light out is a hassle in itself. Since we downsized so much, we are currently using our sons room as a storage room, so he has been sleeping in his sisters bed with her. Once I fiiiiinaaaaally get the kids teeth brushed, Pjs on and get them in bed we read stories and have hugs and kisses. And then they talk, laugh, fight and get up about 100 times before they finally fall asleep. I am usually totally exhausted so I just crawl into bed and read (or attempt to since I’m up every other minute putting the kids back to bed). If my husband is home he puts the kids to bed where they actually stay put and go to sleep. So my Wednesday night is either a nice smooth transition to bed, or a totally exhausting, wanna sit in my closet and cry while my kids terrorize each other. My kids are very spirited (to put it nicely) so my days are loooong and demanding. They are the sort of horrifying days that are straight out of a book. Although I couldn’t make half of it up!! Currently as I am writing this, my son is eating a whole canister of oatmeal off the floor that he “accidentally” spilled :/ (yes I did take a pic to Instagram later ;)) well I should probably wrap this up and go vacuum before it spreads any further :/ hope to get to share my wild and crazy life with people so those parents out there who feel like pulling their hair out or let their kids watch tv until they pass out cause bedtime is just too much to handle, don’t feel alone 😉
fairport, new york [suburb of rochester]
lorelei – 6
ben -3
i am a newly [as of last september] sahm and my husband is a manager at a local appliance store. we moved to rochester from buffalo i september due to my husbands job. he works until 9:00 on tuesday and thursday nights, but wednesday is his constant day off in his schedule. a typical wednesday night during the school year is my husband makes dinner while the kids run around and i make the kids dinner of noodles and nuggets. wednesdays are also bath night which is always an adventure. we start putting the kids to bed around 7:30 on school nights [later if it is the summer]. once they are in bed we either watch a movie or i go to my friends house for “craft night” and my husband has guy movie night.
My husband and I have two children, Thomas – 2 1/2 & Annaliese 4 months old.
We live in woodbridge, VA – a suburb of Washington DC.
WEDNESDAY EVENING – wow!
So the first thing that sets apart is that my husband works during the day & I work overnights. I stay home with both little boogies & have somehow “trained” (begged and pleaded) my two kids to nap for 2+ hours in the afternoon so that I can have some sleep during the day. 😉 we all nap together & it truly is my favorite part of the day.
So…my husband gets home & we verbally wrestle over who will do what, but somehow my toddler gets fed & bathed & baby sis gets…well…she sometimes just tags along.
Then we tag team bedtime. My toddler is in his own bed finally & baby sis is bed sharing. I put her down which means sometimes I get back up, sometimes I stay in bed for the night. Oh yes & mealtime is eventful! We sometimes eat as a family or sometimes my husband & I eat after the kiddos go down. Even if that’s at 10pm. Either way, I’m on call at 11:30pm. There’s never a dull moment. I love that our choices allow me to be at home with my kids & I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Except maybe being independently wealthy.
Thanks for reading. 😉
I live in Columbus, OH with my husband, three children, Sadie (6), Colin (4) and Elise (1) and our 60-pound dog, Jake. We have five humans and a dog in a 1,200 square foot townhouse…it’s cramped and cuddly 🙂
I work while my husband stays home with the kids and goes to school at night. Our evenings are chaotic and exhausting. The baby goes to bed at 7 and the older kids typically around 9.
I work for an organ procurement agency, so I deal with death every day. I feel that it gives me better perspective on how crazy my life is. Seeing children who have died in numerous ways makes me hold my children more tightly and let some things slide a little. I love my life and invite you to take a peek!
My name is Amber and I’m the proud, full-time working and single momma of Mason, age 3, and we live in Woodbury, MN, a suburb of the Twin Cities.
Our Wednesday evenings are crazy. Mason has parenting time at his dad’s until 5:30 pm and then I pick him up. Sometimes we head straight home for bathtime and books but other times we try to take iin a quick evening adventure. It could be anything from a quick visit to the local aquarium, library or even checking out a new playground and following that up with popcorn or ice cream. Other times our Wednesday evenings might include a walk around the block with our two crazy dogs, Lexi & Beemer (named after the Lexus & BMW we’ll never own) and then visiting with the neighbors. Mason usually likes to try to sneak in some cuddle or tickle time in with his Papa, who we also live with.
Then it’s off to brush teeth, read stories and often listening to Mason stall bedtime in 4,983 different ways. Pre-bedtime snuggles are often my time to have heart to heart chats with Mason. We talk about our days, our “best parts” (of our day)and how our hearts feel and why. I truly cherish these little moments checking in with him and learning more about him and how he expresses his emotions. After Mason goes to bed, I usually clean up, start some laundry and either take in a little me-time with whatever book I’m currently reading or whatever Netflix show I’m currently (binge) watching! (Disclaimer: my “me-time” only happens if I’m able to stay awake and often pre-bedtime snuggle lead to me asleep sooner than Mason!) Despite all the beautiful chaose, we love our Wednesday evenings as a little family of 2 and we would be beyond thrilled to be a part of the series!
Fingers and toes are crossed! 🙂
Westlake (Suburb of Cleveland) OH. 2 girls ages 1 and 3. I don’t know what Wednesday night will be like this summer. My husband is a Special Ed teacher and does Daddy Daycare over the summer (which starts in 2 weeks!) I work full time as a Physical Therapist. We almost always eat dinner as a family, then play time. My husband and I both give the girls their baths so we sit on the bathroom floor and chat while the kids play in the tub. We each take a kid for stories and bed time. That way we have some free time after the kids go to bed to do relaxing adult things like working out and watching TV!
So glad you’re doing this. Every time I read the Monday Morning posts I thought ‘the evenings are WAAAYYYY more stressful and chaotic (or as my husband prefers: a cluster F*&K!) in my opinion’.
I don’t usually get home until 6:30 – 7pm from work so my husband picks our two daughters up from daycare (Gwen is 2.5 and Merryn is almost 7 months old) by 5:45pm and then attempts to play and potentially fix dinner before I come home. Which usually results in me getting home to one of three scenarios:
1.) they are all sitting down eating dinner (1 % chance of this);
2.) him feeding Merryn a bottle with no dinner in site and our 2.5 yo running around crazy with some magical reserve energy that was somehow not expended at daycare (95% chance of this);
3.) Gwen playing/entertaining Merryn while he bounces back and forth between preparing dinner and playing with the girls. (4% chance of this)
I never know which scenario I will come home to. But when I do come home I know I’ll have to go from working mom to super mom for the next 2.5-3 hours to get through the dinner/play/bathtime/play/bedtime/a final attempt at play routine for both of them before getting the chance to sit down for the night.
I can’t wait to read how the evenings are for other folks! Thank you to both you and Allstate for keeping the series alive and allowing us to share these challenging, funny, frustrating, loving, loathing, joyful, and chaotic moments with each other.
Hi, my name is Kelly and I live in Algonquin, IL (Northwest Suburb of Chicago). I have a 3.5 y.o. girl and a 1 y.o. boy.
Both my husband and I work full time, and the kids are at a private daycare. I usually get home around 5 pm and my husband’s schedule varies because he is a mail man and his day ends when all the mail is delivered. But most days he is home by 5:30.
I think we are pretty typical, we rush to get dinner on the table as quickly as possible, which is then a fight to get my daughter to sit still and eat. After that we have the rest of the evening to play and just hang out with the kids. Bath for one kid (they alternate evenings) at 7:30 and then a quick tv show just before lights out at 8:30 for my daughter. Each parent will take care of getting one kid down, and that changes depending on the night.
I don’t really think that we’re exceptional, but I’d love to have something like this done because I don’t always feel that I take enough time to appreciate what we have together with all the hustle and bustle. And like most mom’s, I’m never in pictures, I’m always taking them. I’d love to see an outside view.
Yay Algonquin! My husband went to Jacob’s Highschool and I grew up in Crystal Lake. We are in Kansas City now though.
My husband and I live in Bedford, TX with our almost 20 month old son, Ray. Our evenings are fairly typical…dinner, bath, play/reading time with Daddy, then bed. I suppose the fact that Ray co-sleeps with us is atypical…have no plans to stop any time soon. He and I go to bed around 9 pm.
Joanna Osborne, Flower Mound, TX (suburb of Dallas / Fort worth)
My daughters Madison and Hannah are 5 and 3.
We both work outside of the home and my husband also goes to night school to finish his degree. On nights when he has school, I pick up the kids from daycare (or my parent’s house) around 5:15 and the chaos begins. I’d be lying if I said I cook a well thought out dinner for them when we’re alone. I typically choose something I know they will eat and not complain about such as bean burritos and fruit cups or macaroni and cheese with chicken nuggets or hot dogs. While they eat I make myself something to eat, usually scrambled eggs, a salad, etc.
I try to sit down and eat my meal as they are finishing up theirs and take this as my opportunity to learn about their days. I’ve learned that if I ask “what did you do at school today?” they typically respond with “nothing.” So I often try to ask them specific questions like, “what book did your teacher read to you?” or “who did you play with on the playground.”
After dinner, I send them off to play or watch TV. If my oldest has homework I keep her in there with me so she can start it while I clean up, feed the dogs and make lunches. Then it’s off to the bath (if it’s a bath night) and into PJs. At this point I earn my worst parent ever badge as I let them veg out in my bed and watch a TV show so I can grab a moment of peace. While I should spend this time sitting and catching my breath from starting my day at 4:30 a.m. (the only time I can get in a workout), I usually fold a load of laundry, pick out options for school clothes for the next day or some other mundane task.
When the show is over we brush teeth and get ready to read our bedtime story. Every night I tell them 1 story and every night I get roped into three or four. We’re very into the Mo Willems Pigeon books, so it is less about me reading and more about their creative interpretation and performance of the book. At this point they are requesting to sleep together even though they have two perfectly beautiful and large rooms, so I kiss them and tell them to be good and go to sleep quickly and quietly.
Then my favorite part of the night: standing outside their door listening for them to start giggling after they feel like I’m safely across the house. As much as I want them to go to bed, the stories and giggles that come from the two of them is the best part of my day. I often wondered how much they would fight being only 20 months apart, but taking a moment to listen in on their little world when they are trying/failing to be quiet helps re-charge me to set that alarm for 4:30 a.m again the next day.
Love Flower Mound area!! We lived in Lewisville for two years and in Dallas for five. I miss TX!
We live in Harford, WI (near Milwaukee) and we have two girls…Sloane who is 6 (going on 20) and Amelia who just turned one. My husband is the stay at home parent right now. I sneak out of the house in the dark around 5:45am as quietly as I can so I don’t wake anyone.
As for Wednesday nights…I generally get home around 5:00pm and my husband usually has dinner ready. After eating it is a mad rush to check on the six year’s old school stuff, play with both, nightly walk (which consists of me holding a leashed dog in one hand and a stroller in the other while screaming at the 6 year old to not cross the street as she races ahead on her bike), baths/shower (the 6 yo will whine for ten minutes about having to shower, then tries to negotiate moving the shower to the following night and then once in the shower…refuses to get out because she is having so much fun!) and then bed. And when I say “bed”, I mean I put the 6 year old to sleep and she walks out into our living room at least 3x with horrible excuses such as needs water, may or may not have hit her head and needs an ice pack or had a horrible nightmare. That is my favorite because she clearly has not even fallen asleep yet.
While I get my quality time (sadly only about 2-3 hours) with the kids my husband works on his homework since he is going to school for his MBA. Once the kids are in bed(8-9ish)…my husband leaves to go to the gym and I relax on the couch. Or to be honest…most nights I fall asleep as well since I have to get up early the next morning again. However, for two months over summer, Wednesday nights will include tball for the 6 year old so our schedule just got fuller and crazier 🙂
I live in Northport, NY (on Long Island) with my husband and our 16 month old son. I loved your Monday Morning series (and Raquel’s photos) and am so excited you’re back at it, with a twist! I work at home and my husband commutes weekdays almost 2 hours door to door to Manhattan for work. On a typical Wednesday evening if I’m not out of town for work, I pick up my son at Grandma’s daycare around 5:30pm and we head home, usually after I’ve spent too long chit chatting with my mom. We recently moved out to the burbs from the city and miss a lot about our city life, so if the temp is above freezing and it’s not raining we almost always go for a walk when we get home (just like we did in NYC). We live really close to Northport Harbor and Main St. so it’s a nice place to stroll around or go to the playground. My son looooves to be outside and these walks are a highlight in his day. My husband doesn’t get home until 7pm, so it’s all on me to get dinner ready for our son, while he follows me around the kitchen trying to climb my leg for attention/dropped crumbs/to be picked up. He’ll eat around 6:30 and is usually finishing up when Daddy makes his grand entrance. Evening is the only time during the week that my husband has with our son, since he leaves early in the morning before the baby is awake. Usually daddy takes over so I can clean up and start preparing our dinner. Daddy will take the baby out for a walk in our yard to water the gardens or “rough houses” on our bed to give me some free time. The best nights are when we’re both home for bedtime. It’s our only family time during the week so we typically both get involved. It’s fun neither of us want to miss out on. Our son spends a lot of time on the changing table while we apply his lotions, play peekaboo, point out body parts and change into PJs. Then one of us gives him a bottle and reads some books snuggled on a chair while the other straightens up the bedroom. It seems my son’s favorite time of day is bedtime (I know so many parents are jealous reading this) because he gets the hugest grin when we announce it’s time for bed and bring him to the crib, around 7:45pm. He seems so jazzed about going into the crib you might wonder how he’ll even fall asleep, but as soon as the sleep sack is on, thumb goes into the mouth and the door is closed we rarely hear another peep from him! We lucked out with a consistently great sleeper which allows us to relax in peace together the rest of the evening. Our night doesn’t end there though since we still have to eat dinner ourselves and usually there is a home project on our to do list – we bought a 150 year old home that needs some TLC, so the projects are never ending. Perhaps by the time you’re shooting this series, I will have organized myself well enough to make dinner for all 3 of us to eat together at 7pm and I won’t have a caulk gun and painting supplies strewn about 😉 #goals
The hubs and I have 2 daughters…they are 9 and 10. We live in Hermosa Beach, California, a tiny 1 1/2 square mile beach town in southern California. I feel a little putting in my humble entry for this contest, but, I just can’t not enter. This will sound crazy, but I am actually a lifestyle and portrait photographer. I’ve been doing this about 5 years, and absolutely love what I do. I spend time with families documenting their lives, and capturing their love for each other. Like I said, I absolutely love my job. The reason for my entry here today? I so want to be on the other side of the camera with my people. We have had photos taken of us before, but not like these. I want someone to come in and grab some images of me loving on my kids and hubs. I want to be in the picture. I have been working on my own family albums recently, and am realizing that I am just not in very many photos. I have handed my camera to my hubs, but it just isn’t the same. My kids are growing leaps and bounds by the minute, and I just can’t wait any longer to grab any opportunity I can to be in the pictures. I so appreciate the opportunity. Missy
I’m Emily, single working mom to an 18 month old – Charlotte – in the Raleigh area. My dad keeps Charlotte on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, so on Wednesdays I pick her up shortly after 5. Our apartment is across the street from daycare, so we are home in no time. The evening is full of playing outside, lots of cuddles and dumping dinner on our head 🙂 and bathtime and running around until bedtime at 7:30/8. We will also usually FaceTime my mom (Nana) during the evening, which consists of Charlotte grabbing the phone or iPad and running around the apartment with it, so all my mom sees is her head bouncing up and down. It’s a short period of time we get together at night, but we have a ball and I love that it’s just the two of us in our own little world!
I have one child, a girl that just turned 19 months old. We also have an urban zoo with dogs, cats, fish and chickens! It seemed like a good idea before I was pregnant. I work from 8:30-5:30 pm. If my husband is working he can be out of town days at a stretch, if not weeks. Yeah I know, I barely maintain sanity. He works with Ironman Triathalon events. I cherish those girls’ nights but love when he is home for the extra help! That and of course I miss him. BUT if he is not on the road working he is a house husband. Those nights I come home to a mostly clean house and he has started prepping for dinner. Score!
Wednesday nights start with a banana. Every night starts with a banana. If we are out of bananas it will start with a temper tantrum. Next we walk to the edge of the yard to check on our urban chicken coop and look for eggs. We like spending a great deal of time outside as Columbia, South Carolina weather allows that. Bubbles, front porch chalk art or a dip in our pool is a must in summer time. We live downtown so if I think its too hot to cook (that is a thing in the south), or we didn’t get it together in time to make dinner, we walk to a local restaurant. If we decide to cook then we feed our daughter my best attempt at a rounded meal but ultimately ends up as Annie’s Mac n cheese and some peas. When he is home, my husband starts dinner for the two of us during bath time. Usually he pauses long enough to scoop her out of the bath and diaper her which now ends up in chasing a not yet potty trained, naked child around the house for 10 minutes. I take this opportunity to clean up bath toys, and swig wine or eat chocolate. Yep. I really do.
Bedtime routine is consistent but consistently late. We shoot for 7:30 but it has been known to creep as late as 8:30. We give her a bath, and then pile in mommy and daddy’s bed to read, snuggle, and laugh before mommy sings the good night song. I cannot sing but she loves my voice so I’ll continue to do it as long as she wants it. The song is her signal for bed time and she immediately puts her head down and thumb in her mouth. If Daddy is in town he is the one that carries her to bed while she blows kisses to mommy. When he is out of town I get the shoulder shrug with an incredulous “Da?!” as if I am incapable of carrying her to the room.
Once she is down for the night it is dinner time for mom and dad, which during baseball season is on the couch in front of the TV. If we did happen to have dinner out then I’ll sip more of that wine from earlier while my husband floats in the pool and tells me about the no-hitter so and so pitched that could or could not have been from a recent game. I pretend to listen while thinking about all of the things that need to be done tomorrow. If my husband is out of town then substitute Skype for a lot of that interaction as he really misses his girls when he is gone.
I have 3 boys under 5 so basically any night of the week is utter chaos. My boys are 4, 2, and 6 months and we live in NYC on the UWS. The hubs works in the restaurant industry so his schedule is never consistent. If he is home at night, it’s often right when we’re sitting down to eat, but most nights it’s just me and the boys. I work full time as a college administrator and come home to relieve our babysitter around 5:30pm. I’m greeted by my boys with smiles and hugs and sticky fingers and it’s one of my favorite moments of the day.
The first thing I do is pour myself a glass of wine so that I can be chill enough to get myself through the next few hours and start panicking about dinner. I am NOT a meal planner or one who enjoys cooking (I definitely missed that class when preparing for adulthood). So each night, no matter how many times I tell myself the Sunday before to plan ahead, I stare in my fridge and slowly panic.
While cooking I am juggling my 6 month old and negotiating with my 2 and 4 year olds. “No, you cannot have a snack before dinner.” I only sometimes cave. Who can handle crying and cooking at the same time? Where’s my wine? We eat, usually with my 2 year old saying repeatedly “I don’t like dinner” while my 4 year old requests a pb & j. I’m juggling eating my dinner and spoon feeding my 6 month old his pureed food (the one thing I can cook and not screw up). All the while we’re talking superheros and I find myself saying things like “please don’t touch your penis when you are at the table” or “please get your dinosaur out of the butter” or my favorite “is that Nutella or poop on your chair?” Boys. We get through dinner and I have to corral them into the bathroom. At some point in my parenting I made a game of chasing them before getting into the tub. You have no idea how much I regret this now.
If I have my life together enough and we’re not bathing that night, we may go to the park after dinner or grab ice cream or scoot around the neighborhood. But if it’s crazy and baths need to happen, we’ll play a bit before bed. My oldest son has Autism and we often find that he does some running in our apartment after bath and before bed so we let him let off some steam before reading books. Once it’s bedtime we all snuggle up in bed and read our superhero stories or (if I can help it) any other book that doesn’t have an action figure of some sort. Then they request songs and bedtime stories and we snuggle for a bit. As crazy as my todder and pre-schooler are, they melt my heart at bedtime.
And then I tend to my 6 month old. Poor kiddo. He’s a typical third child–go with the flow, good natured little baby. Once he’s in bed I turn on the TV and am typically asleep within 5 minutes. It’s an exciting life but someone has to do it. xo
We live in East Haven, CT (New Haven area). We have three boys, ages 4, 2 and 3 months. I’m a SAHM/part-time writing teacher and my husband teaches high school. Because of his schedule (he’s home around 3), our “evenings” are geared pretty early; we all eat an early dinner together around 5 and the kids go to bed around 6:30. We’ve found that a later bedtime just does not work for our kids! So my husband and I spend three hours tag-teaming the kids: taking turns prepping dinner, entertaining the 4- and 2-year old, feeding the baby and putting him down for a late nap, eating/cleaning up dinner, etc. It’s a whirlwind. The kids all want alone time with their dad and I’m usually in desperate need of a break! It’s hard to manage everyone’s varying wants and needs. It’s by far the most stressful (and my most-hated!) time of the day. I would love to be able to see some sort of beauty in the crazy dance we do every weekday trying to get our kids fed, played with, bathed and put to bed.
I live in Mesa, Ariz., with my husband and two girls – the oldest is almost 4 and the youngest is 17 months. My husband and I both work full time, although he works more than half of his hours from home. Almost every night we sit down to dinner together. We have two dogs who now have to go outside while we eat ever since the baby learned to share her dinner with them. Our routine changes a little bit depending on how late we get home and whether we’re cooking or having leftovers for dinner. Sometimes my husband takes the girls to the park, sometimes just a walk to the mailbox, sometimes out front to play with the neighborhood kids while I get dinner ready. Sometimes it’s just a dance party or everybody-tackle-daddy in the living room (especially this time of year when it starts to heat up). Most nights the girls get a bath, but not always. The baby goes to sleep between 7 and 7:30 and her big sister at 8. The has a chore chart so before bed she puts the stickers on what she’s done for the day. She likes to have “special time” with me, something that we started when her sister first came home that has stuck. It’s 10 minutes of one-on-one time after her sister goes to bed that’s her choice – often she likes to pretend she’s doing my hair and giving her a face painting, and then I do the same for her. Both girls get a story for bed, sometimes together, and sometimes one on one. My husband usually works from home Wednesday nights, so often he goes into the office after we clean up from dinner.
We live a crazy perfectly imperfect life where I try to be content in the chaos of raising 3 very diverse children. Mary Margaret (the drama queen) is 11, Harper Jane (the fashionista) is 7, and Jack (mostly called Jack-Jack and always wearing some sort of boots, even in the heat) is 4. You might find me ignoring the 10 loads of clean laundry yet to be folded and put away so I may enjoy the craziness of spending time with my family. With it being summertime for this part-time teacher, you would find us collecting golf balls out of the creek behind our home, running through the sprinklers, catching “lightning bugs”, and watching “American Ninja Warrior” while Jack-Jack builds his own obstacle course out of every pillow or cushion in our home. And of course, staying up a little late except for the Daddy because he has work the next morning. We live in Oneonta, Alabama, a very, very small town north of Birmingham. We seem to be mostly “home-bodies” in the summer and live for our PJ and board game days. My “sweet 3” love to camp-out in our den. It may sound simple but it is love to me.
I’ll be brief! I am Alex from Plainfield, il (Chicago suburb) and my sons are Knox (3 1/2) and Nash (18 months). Our typical Wednesday evening may or may not involve my hard working husband, but now that the weather is nice we do early dinners on our deck. I play defense fighting off our 120lb Great Pyrenees making sure she actually lets the boys eat their food. Then we transition to playing water balloon basketball and get messy with sidewalk chalk. Once were all dirty we head in for bath time where the boys draw all over the tub with bath crayons. Milk, cartoons and bedtime quickly follow. I stay at home with them so bedtime is when I am ready to “clock out” and head to the couch to watch “Teen Mom” and drink wine!
First may I just say how reading your Wednesday night made me laugh out loud on the Long Island railroad during rush hour…not only because it was hilarious but also because I can totally relate. We have Sophie who is 4 and almost a half and her sister Grace who is 2 1/2. I sometimes call her little bruiser. A typical Wednesday night would involve me rushing from work to be home by six to relI’ve the sitter who picks the girls up from school. no adjustment period…just a straight to managing kids wanting food, trying to figure out what to make that’s healthy and they’ll eat, and keeping them occupied while I do. Somewhere around 6.30 I’ll look for a text from my hubby to gage how long I’ll be flying solo. Depending on that I brace myself for the long haul of making sure they eat something to bath time, so try time and the eventual tears and ups and downs of going to bed. oh I forgot to mention the surprise visits from my mom, sister and nephew that I often come home to. Anyway we’d love to be featured…or have a playdate!
Hi! My name is Emily and I’m mom to Laine (4.5) and Lucy (2.5)! We live in Visalia, Ca (the Central Valley), a town that both myself and my husband grew up in so our family is always close by. Wednesdays are great nights for us. My mom usually picks up the girls from pre-school and will be working on dinner when we get home around 5:30 (give or take). The girls usually are dressing up in dresses that ‘twirl’ or are outside picking veggies from the garden. My husband, mom, and the girls and I usually eat dinner together, then we leave the kitchen a mess to clean up after the girls go to sleep. In the summertime, the neighborhood kids are usually out and everyone plays outside (we once counted 19 kids under the age of 10). We live in a cul-de-sac and when the kids are out, there are swarms of scooters, bicycles, and other modes of small-child transportation in the street. If the kids aren’t out, Laine can usually persuade us to ride our bikes to get ice cream or popsicles from the mexican bakery a couple of blocks away. Bedtime usually comes around too quickly and we each take a kiddo for the nightly routine of teeth brushing and book reading. Lucy has Williams Syndrome, which is a rare genetic disorder. She doesn’t eat by mouth so we hook her up to her feeding tube at bedtime and she’ll fall asleep in her rocker ‘eating’. When the girls are asleep, my husband and I get to catch up over a beer and some kitchen clean-up and we gear up for Thursday- gymnastics day! I love, love, love the idea of seeing how other ‘normal’ families tackle day to day lives and would love to be a part of it!
My husband, 2 year old daughter Lilly, and I live in Aurora, IL (outside Chicago) with our dog Dash. We’re expecting our second child this July. We found out we were expecting #2 in November, and at the time, my husband worked a regular M-F, 8-4:30 job, but with his commute and traffic, he was gone anywhere from 12-13 hours a day, which didn’t leave much time for him to see our daughter. I work from home and with another baby on the way, we decided it would be best for him to find a job working second shift, so he can be home during the day with the kids. He started his new job in January, working Tuesday – Saturday nights. We typically try to eat dinner together as a family before he has to go to work, so that means we eat early, around 3:45-4 PM. Then he leaves around 4:30, while I finish up work. At 5, I’m off, and it’s just me and Lilly until bedtime around 8:30. Being pregnant, I struggle to find the energy to do much of anything after I get off work, so we do a lot of playing, reading, flashcards, and sometimes we bake or make a second, late dinner around 7, if she didn’t eat well earlier. If the weather is nice, and I have the energy, we walk to the park, but it’s hard to chase her around. Sometimes we sit in the backyard and play, blow bubbles, etc. It’s been a struggle to find our “new normal” and now, five months after starting the new job, we’re still struggling. I know it’s going to get harder with another little person to take care of. After bedtime, I spend a little time cleaning up around the house, doing dishes or putting them away, and then either heading to bed myself, or reading/relaxing and watching Netflix. It’s lonely at night, and I definitely miss having my husband home when I go to bed, but he gets to spend lots of quality time with our daughter (and soon to be new baby) so in the end, it’s worth it.
Lindsay, mom of 16 month old boy, Wynn. Live in Arlington, VA right outside Washington, DC. I work full time for a nonprofit that provides year round programming to middle school students in under-resourced communities in DC. Wednesday evenings are often pretty calm as long as I don’t have a work event, and center around daycare pickup, walking our rescue pup/mutt Lottie, talking to neighbors, Wynn eating dinner, bath time, books and bed for Wynn. After that, my husband and I typically eat/relax in front of TV and sometimes do more work. Our evenings are typically much more calm than mornings and the thing that probably sets us apart is that our son loves bedtime haha so while that doesn’t sound super interesting, I’m still amazed by it every evening. He goes from the craziest, goofiest, wildest toddler to the sweetest, calmest, sleepiest baby ever between 6:45 and 7 pm. It’s amazing and I love it 🙂
I’m a SAHM in Bally, PA (near Allentown) with 2 beautiful children. Forrest is 4 1/2 and Kaylan is 10 months. On Wed evenings my husband has Jujitsu so I’m on my own. It’s (homemade) pizza night to keep things simple and they’re unlikely to take baths unless the day’s activities make it necessary. My 10 month old is walking and breastfed so her needs are pretty constant. She eats like a champ and then I usually take her to bed and let Forrest watch a show. On a good night there is time for us to hang out once Kaylan is asleep. Then he gets ready for bed, brushing his own teeth and pretending he can’t change into his PJs. If he doesn’t decide he sleeping in his clothes. Haven’t figured out what that’s about yet. Then Forrest picks a book to read and I cuddle with him until he’s close to sleep. After that I get about an hour to myself, though I’m usually to tired to do anything very interesting. Wednesdays are long for me, but as long as I stay focused on how cute they are, we make it through just fine!
We live in Southern California. With 2 1/2 year old GGB triplets.
My husband does all the cooking in the household. We wait for him to come home from work and make dinner for the five of us.
I clean up the kitchen so that he can spend some time with them (I’m a stay at home mom and I’ve been with them all day). We play with them in their play room letting them direct the play.
Around 7:30pm, we get them dresses in their pjs and have them brush their teeth.
We all go upstairs and let them pick out a book, dance or sing. Then we put each kid in their beds and say goodnight. Each one requests different things at that point.
Then we go down stairs and clean up their playroom, since it’s impossible to do it while they are still awake! 😉
We live in a very rural town in southwest Wisconsin, where the population is roughly 4000. We have 3 boys, 5 years, 4 years, and 2 years old. We just added a puppy to the mix to keep us on our toes. I stay home with the boys, while running an online business. Any my husband works numerous hours as well as owns 2 businesses. To say we are busy is an understatement! Our night time routine varies based on the day. If naps are skipped it’s an early bedtime. If everyone is getting along and is playing nicely, it might be a late bedtime. Sometimes we tag team bedtime and sometimes it’s a solo effort. I’d love to see how our crazy nights look in still pictures!
Dahlonega, Georgia. Hannah is 2 years old. Max is 5 weeks old.
Our evenings start with me cooking dinner while trying to make sure Hannah doesn’t climb in her brother’s rock and play with kids while she sings “Let It Go”. When my husband gets home, Hannah and I meet him at the door so she can run into his arms. Then we get ready for dinner. Hannah helps set the table while my husband and I get everything to the table. Sometimes all together. Sometimes Hannah and Daddy eat at the table while I feed Max in the living room. Dinner always has to have “sauce” aka ketchup, ranch dressing, gravy, anything Hannah can dip her food into. Her dad got her addicted, and I don’t argue as long as she takes a bite of food with her sauce.
After dinner my husband and Hannah feed all the animals (two dogs, two outdoor cats, and a betta fish). Then we all either play in the kids room with Hannah or watch a little TV, usually Frozen, depending on how draining dinner was. By bedtime, it’s time for me to feed Max again. Hannah goes with Daddy to change into pajamas and brush her teeth. After Max and I get settled on the couch, Hannah will come up and give both of us kisses good night. Then she’ll give our two dogs good night kisses before “turning into a cat” crawling and meowing to her bedroom. Being a kitty cat is now the only way you can get her to her bedroom to go to sleep. After Miss Kitty is in her bedroom with her dad, she turns on her night light and bedtime music herself. She and my husband goof around a little longer before he gives her a cup of water, gets his good night kisses, covers her up, and leaves her to sleep. Some nights she will call me or my husband back to her room to recover her or refill her water. Other nights she will laid down and sing and talk to herself.
After Hannah is asleep, my husband cleans up from dinner while I finish feeding and changing Max. Then we watch TV for a little bit. It’s always either one of my girly shows like Grey’s Anatomy or one of his survival shows. After about an hour or so of TV amd catching up on Facebook, we head off to bed too, always before 10:30pm.
My name is Vanessa. I have a 5 year old daughter named Gabriella. I’m a single mom who moved in with my mom and grandma. So now us 4 girls are one big happy family Wednesday nights have been hectic bc gabby has to get ready for dance class as soon as she gets home from school then home to eat dinner , play a little, bath , 30 min of her fav shows and bed. In between that I’m running around packing lunches, picking out outfits, and catching up with both Grammies about our day. Then our favorite time together is story time before bed. I wouldn’t change it for anything in the world!
I am from New London CT
Life as a single mother of 2 yr old b/g twins living in Miami, a whole country away from any members of my family has been been exciting, hectic, scary, full of challenges, but also rewarding. I read books, magazines articles, periodicals, and everything and anything i could get my hands on to prepare me for their birth and growing up years. Yeah, right!!! What none of those articles say is that they would become the bosses of my every minute, that they would team up against me, that they will say “no, mama” when I say its time to sleep and then they will decide to jump, climb, break, and disregard my many commands with a laugh and a hug that melts me into the shapeless mother who cant do anything else but join in their laughter and share their world!
My 7 day, 15 hr shift starts at 8am when I still havent had enough rest to hold me erect for what the day surprises me with. I have a king size bed that becomes to small to hold the three of us for the nights sleep. Im crammed in the middle of my son on the right of me who has to rub my eyebrow forever until he falls asleep, and to my left I have his twin sister whos curling up on the pillow she insists we share. This is what i look forward to at 11pm when I cant keep my eyes open one more sec and they still have the energy to start throwing their pacifiers out of the bed to see whos goes the furthest! And this is by no means a one time game but a half hr procedure!
A normal day finds me waking up to two pairs of hands poking my eyes and calling “Mama Mama”! I kiss and hug them and am rewarded by the best sloppy kisses ever!! Throughout the day there are broken candle holders, paint being splashed on the walls bc they tend to think its part of the paper i gave them, temper tantrums to try and solve, and disappearing acts: i have come out of taking a shower just to find my daughter has put her twin brother in the play kitchens oven…AGAIN!! And then there is the challenge of trying anything and everything so my son eats something other than white rice in a whole days worth!! You may think its chaos but its just a pair of twins discovering the world and learning how to best pull mommys strings and get away with it! And what a great job they do!! Haha On average there is at least one time every 15 min when I feel like jumping off the balcony, and the only string pulling me back is the access to facetiming my mother back home in PR!!!
They are oh so close but so very diff. My son couldnt be anymore “boy”…all he wants are planes, cars, balls, and to throw absolutely ANYTHING!! Then my daughter is so so girlie…already showing maternal instinct way ahead of her age while she cares for her baby doll, and her brother. They also have an unexplainable “twin” bond…theyll do the weirdest thing at the exact same time and twin talk what theyre next “plan” will be!! Everyday I think about the simple life I left behind, the days I could take a relaxing hot bath, eat sitting down, go to the bathroom in privacy and without it being destroyed in a matter on seconds, when I could watch my fav TV show without just wanting to go to sleep instead, and lets not forget about when I could go to the supermarket without it having to be an adventure each time with one throwing everything i put in the cart out, and the other trying to do whatever it takes to open the bags of food and eating it..and then ill ALWAYS get the question “Are they twins”?!! And then its followed by, “Youre so lucky, I always wanted twins”!! Lol I now always seem to leave the supermarket with 2 balloons and an array of candy bars…but at the end of the day I wouldnt change my two bundles of love for the kind of boring, stable life I had before.
I think I should be chosen bc im a survivor in a world Im just beginning to understand. To love and be loved, unconditionally, is what this journey is all about and Id enjoy sharing it with you.
I’m Kristin from Syracuse, NY. I’ve got three kids: boy age 7, girl age 5 and boy age 2. My husband and I are both engineers working at the same company. Our weeknights are chaos, each of us going in a different direct taking a different child to sports or music or scouts. But it all comes together around bedtime, which is a ritual of reading books and snuggling in beds and one-more-hugs. We may not have dinner all together every tonight, but there is so much packed into the bedtime routine that makes my heart full.
Nicole, a single mama in Wichita, Kansas. My son is Thomas and he’s a bit over 2. I’m not sure if it sets us apart, but we’re a routine little family. I pick him up at 5 from my former in laws (which it feels very set apart to me) then we head home to make dinner, usually with him helping. We eat and depending on the night either head to the park or run an errand. In the summer, I rush dinner so we can go to the Y for pool time! In bed at 8 then I have mommy time before bed and get in a 20 min workout and tea with my fav show. 🙂 Either way, looking forward to seeing some lovely families!
HI! We’re in San Gabriel, CA (Los Angeles/Pasadena area). We have two girls, ages 6 and 2. Bedtime is crazy for us because my fiance and I work long days. I’m a work-from-home consultant (working until about 6-6:30pm every evening) and he coaches baseball so he comes home even after bedtime at times on game nights. Wednesdays are slightly calmer this time of year because there’s no evening activity to run our older daughter off to. Still, once I’m back from picking up the girls from their grandparents’ house, it’s usually already 7:30 and we haven’t even figured out dinner yet. If the girls haven’t eaten with the grandparents’, it’s a mad panic to get them fed. Not going to lie, one of us usually picks up dinner on the way home on a nightly basis or it’s something quick or frozen (fish sticks, lasagna, tostadas with a side of veggies and/or fruit.) We hate that, but that’s life for now and we at least make sure to all eat together! Usually I’m also scrambling to give the girls a quick bath while the food is heating up and I just have to pray that the little one doesn’t put her dinner in her hair post-bath! Anyway, dinner is always quick and very loud. haha.
As for bedtime routine, the 6yo is good at getting herself dressed in PJs and brushing/flossing/mouthwashing when asked (unless the TV is on then it takes a couple demands). The little one will only let mommy brush her teeth and even then it’s a battle initially and she often rediscovers her cup of milk post-teethbrushing. Argh. She does start to cooperate when I go through learning her vowels as I brush her teeth, though, something I started when her sister was a baby. The 6yo then picks a book (it’s been Harry Potter for the last couple months almost nightly) and lately the 2yo does, too. If daddy is home, the four of us cram onto the 6yo’s twin size bed and listen to me read while daddy tries to corral the 2yo every time she gets up which is a lot. Once that’s done, the 6yo leads the bedtime prayer which is often super sweet and simultaneously comical (i.e., praying for family member to get over the stomach bug that gave them diarrhea and other gems like that). Daddy then gives his ‘hug, kiss, squeeze’ to each and leaves. I stay behind and sing a couple little songs. I have a completely mediocre singing voice but I’ve been singing to them nightly since they were born and the 6yo insists they can’t fall asleep without a song. They are no longer in separate bedrooms and are now sharing a bed so it’s kisses, lights out, and low radio music on for both of them before I walk out. They don’t get out of bed but we hear giggles often and yell from the next room to go to bed or the little one will have to go back to her room (because she’s the chatterbox. :)) Oh, and by this time it’s like 9:15. haha
From dinner meltdowns to bedtime snuggles, our Wednesday evenings are pretty typical. That is, for a family with a 2.5 year old and a 10 month old. We live in Loveland, CO. Wednesdays are one of the two days that both my husband and I work, so we are all arriving home around 5 and that’s when the frantic effort to stick to The Routine starts. Getting a healthy dinner on the table by 5:30 is a challenge, but a must. After all, by 5:53, the hungry kids turn into hangry monsters that are too hungry to want to eat anything. Except fruit snacks. Always fruit snacks. Once we finally convince the kids that eating is a good idea, with lots of bribery and “Dory loves to eat her carrots”, etc. it is time for a walk. And by walk, I mean we let our oldest ride his pink balance bike until he nearly falls over from exhaustion. If we do this, he might actually sleep past 5am the next day. Then the little guy goes straight to bed with mom (she has “the goods” after all), while dad brushes big brother’s teeth. Books, songs and prayers wrap up bedtime by 7:30 or 8 (Depending on how well we’ve stuck to The Routine). My husband and I clean up dinner before winding down with a game of Sequence or some adult convo on the back patio. All in all, it’s a wonderful, brutiful life.
I hope you do Boston this time! My kids are Hazy (6) and George (3) and we’re in Boston.
The unique thing about our evenings is that Matty and I both get home around 6/6:15 and then we have an hour and fifteen minutes to cram in our entire family routine: making dinner, supervising Hazy’s kindergarten homework, feeding the dog, eating dinner (an epic trainwreck in which we try desperately not to beg our kids to eat but we do anyway), baths (which we don’t do every night, but we do do on Wednesdays), flossing (what? yes, even 3-year olds allegedly have to floss) and brushing, books, and then tuck-ins. And the amazing thing is we’re usually totally done by 8 pm the latest. Hazy will then be down for the night, and George will sing (usually Bohemian Rhapsody or an original piece) for an hour and then be asleep for the night. We have an elaborate tag team routine that somehow works.
4 children-ages 21 (away at college), 15, 11, and 9. We live in Tallahassee, FL.
Our oldest is a boy and our 3 younger ones are girls! So, every day is a new adventure and filled with a lot of highs and lows of emotions with 3 girls in the house (actually 4 if you include me!)….my poor husband – even the 2 golden doodles are girls!
Our Wednesdays (actually every day for that matter) are unpredictable….sometimes my younger 2 are in bed at their actual “bedtime” other times the night slips by and we’re scrambling to get them to bed before 10pm. My older daughter (just turned 15 last week) is up until 10:30-11 so that means I’m usually in bed before she is. And our 15 year old just got her permit and begs to drive with me as much as possible….which is a whole added layer of fun in our lives!
I sure hope some other Tallahassee moms apply b/c I would love to be a part of your series!
My name is Breanne (30). I have a husband, Brian (29) and an 11 month old son named Finnegan. And 2 cats that are kind of a PITA if I’m being honest. We live just outside Ann Arbor Michigan! Our evenings are fairly average I think, but I work a 9/5 type job and Brian works shifts that change. so it’s always a struggle to keep things fairly stable and consistent, we do our best. I pick up Finn from daycare and then we come home and play. Then we go for a walk through the neighborhood. Every night if possible! Then dinner, bath, story, and bedtime for the little man. After that we usually watch tv while I work on making costumes! I am into sewing and art and costuming for conventions, Renaissance fairs and so on is kind of my thing. If I’m not doing that we play board games. It’s super important to us to maintain our personal hobbies and time. It makes us better parents and more pleasant people.
My name is Erica, 32, and I am a mom to Gwendolyn, 5, and Miles, 7 months. I’ve been married to my husband, Ricky, almost 7 years, together for 11. We live in Watertown, WI, in the middle of Milwaukee and Madison- we both grew up here but didn’t know each other until adulthood. Wednesday nights in the summer are busy. We have swimming lessons for the kiddos and my husband plays softball. We normally eat dinner as soon as he walks in the door from work and haul ass to whatever event is happening first. If times coincide, I’m at it alone with the kiddos (sort-of, my mom comes to all the swim lessons!). Otherwise, after swim lessons we quick shower up at the pool and head over to the ball park. My daughter and I will consume a very LARGE amount of popcorn because it is the BEST. I try to have bedtime be no later than 8:30, but when it’s summer I’ll push it. Miles is our new baby, and I am honestly not sure how having a second kid will change things up from what I’m used to. We have always loved being super busy during the summer and hibernate during the winter, but I think Miles might slow us down bit this season. We would be so excited to be apart of this and welcome a look into our lives.
We’re in Costa Mesa, CA,with kids ages 5 and 2 months. Every Wednesday, our neighborhood gets together for potluck in the park. It’s the most beautiful, simple, joyful, carefree night you could imagine. I’d love to share it!
I cook dinner so it’s ready for my husband when he gets home and then either I go to work as a waitress I may drop the twins off at my niece’s house or my sitter comes. If I work my husband has his routine which involves dinner for everyone (21 month old twins and him) then he sometimes plays them the guitar, bath time, milk, brush teeth, story then bed time. If I’m not working I have dinner ready as he walks in the door, we sit and eat as a family, play/wrestle with the kids on the floor, bath time, watch wheel of fortune(it’s educational, they shout letter names), milk, brush teeth, story, bed
Hi! I am a sahm of 4. After the military I decided to stay home and go to college for my masters. Thought this was a great idea after I became pregnant with baby #4….. My oldest is 15(Devon) 8 (Romeo), 2 (Izzy) and 7 months (Penny). Oldest plays lacrosse, next plays soccer, the 2yo is well…. A 2yo 🙂 and the baby is just along for the ride. Hubby works 7-7 some days so that makes for interesting evenings. Wednesdays are particularly busy with sports. I would love to take part in this. I live right outside Baltimore MD.
Hi, my name is Hinna and I am a first time mom to a 5 month old. We live in Chicago and my husband and I both work full time. I am a physical therapist and my husband is a doctor.
Our after work routine involves- cooking dinner, packing lunches, maybe a walk (depending on the weather), playtime with our baby, his bed time routine, and dinner and a tv show after he is in bed. On most nights, we both eat a mini-Ice cream cone as our dessert (it’s our ritual) and then race to get into bed before my 5 month old decides he wants to wake up.
Come visit us in Chicago (you might catch us on a good sunny summer day) and you can reminisce about what it was like to be a first time parent.
We live in the Washington, DC area (Silver Spring, MD) and have a 4 year old and a 6 month old. I work from home two days a week but Wednesday is not one of those days so it is hectic. I leave work (which is in DC) as early as I can and pray there are no delays on metro so I can find the car (my husband drops the girls off in the morning and parks at metro so I never know exactly where it will be), rush to pick up our 6 month old from an in home provider (we hope to get it down to only one drop off/pick up just in time for our oldest to go to kindergarten but so far the center hasn’t had space yet), and then I rush to pick up our oldest from her day care center. Then the girls and I drive home where I get them settled while I attempt to clean out their bags and wash up bottles, containers, etc., cook dinner, and still get some time with them. We often have dance parties while I’m cooking (the entire “Frozen” album is always popular) and then all sit down to dinner between 5:45-6pm when my husband walks in the door. After that we are eating and then putting the girls to bed. Depending on who my oldest picks to snuggle that night, we trade off duties with the goal of having both girls in bed by around 7pm. My oldest is becoming a master staller with lots of questions after no less than two original stories (for example, she’ll request a spooky story with a witch and a vampire and we’ll have to make up a story on the spot). After that my husband and I prepare bottles and lunches for the next day and then crash on the couch to watch a show (current favorite is “House of Cards”) or sometimes we will declare a night “no device” night so that we will actually focus on each other. We typically head to bed around 9:30 or so and hope that we don’t get woken up by either girl during the night.
I tried to post this on Wednesday and just realized that it never posted! Boo!
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, 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. 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! 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!
I’m in Harlem, Manhattan. I’m a SAHM to three kids, 10, 6, and 2. Wednesdays can be very busy, but less so in the summer because there’s no homework. The older two are in G&T programs that give a lot of homework (even for kindergarten. Especially for kindergarten!) My 10-year-old is in therapy (he has ADHD and an anxiety disorder), so we often have that on Wednesdays. Then it’s playground time. Then dinner, which often means 3 different dinners for the kids, since no one will eat the same thing. And I prep dinner for the adults. My husband comes home between 7:30 and 8:30. Sometimes I am able to bathe the two younger kids before he gets home. The baby screams bloody murder when you brush his teeth. The 6-year old refuses to put on her own pajamas. We try to eat a rushed, often stressed dinner before putting the younger ones to bed. If we’re lucky, it’s before 9. Usually it’s more like 9:15/9:30. And generally without books because we’re too rushed. The older one showers and reads in bed. On a good night he’s asleep by 10. A bad night can mean he wanders around until 10:30/11.
Columbus, OH – 2 boys, 3-1/2 year old and almost 1 year old (his birthday is next week!). Two working parents and both boys go to the same daycare/pre-school. My husband is in charge of picking up the boys at the end of the day and we all usually get home around 5pm. Now that it is summer, sometimes my husband will pick up the 3-1/2 year old on his bike with the bike trailer (we live a few very short miles from where the boys stay during the day) and I will pick up our youngest on my way home from work. Once at home it is a mad rush of playtime, dinner time and bedtime. I try to pull dinner together for everyone by 6pm while the 3-1/2 year old will either play (or *gasp* watch TV) and the 1 year old is usually begging for attention at my feet. After dinner we try to get some outside time or go for a walk around the neighborhood. The boys share a room so around 7:15 I will start getting the youngest ready for bed and give him his bottle and put him down by 7:45. The oldest is either quietly playing (or *gasp* watching TV). At 8pm the oldest gets in his PJs (which I have hopefully remembered to grab out of their shared room or I have to quietly sneak in without waking the baby). We read books and have a snack, hit the bathroom for the pre-bed routine and very quietly tip toe into the room to go to bed. One of us parents will end up laying with the 3-1/2 year old for about 10 minutes and end up giving all the stuffed animals hugs and kisses before we can escape and tackle cleaning up the kitchen and house.
Kettering OH
Savannah -4
Lacie – 2 1/2
Emma -6 weeks
Our evenings are different because I work outside the home from 1-10pm. My husband cares for our children while I’m at work. He does dinner and playtime and puts the big girls to bed before I get home. Yesterday was my first day back to work so we are working to add the new baby to the night time routine. My hope is that she will stay up long enough for me to get home to nurse her before going to sleep. It’s going to be a time of adjustment while we figure out our new routine. 🙂
I think what would make a photo shoot trickier for us than our schedule- my big girls are social butterflies. It would be hard for a photographer to capture them doing what they normally do as they would want to just talk to them the entire time 🙂
Atlanta, GA. Our daughter is almost 4.5 and our son is 1.5. We (both parents) work full-time. I pick up from daycare, and the kids and I walk the dog then have dinner. Dad gets home sometime between dinner and bath. Bedtime is around 8:30 and we split up: mom with daughter and dad with son. Thanks for doing another series!!
Quinn (4) and Barrett (2) are wide open boys from Atlanta, GA. Both of their parents (Katie & Russell) work full time, so all week nights are spent packing a full day of love, activity, and to-dos into a 3.5 hour period after work. Some say that parenting is a marathon, but weekday nights always seem like a sprint. On a “normal” Wednesday when neither parent is traveling, Russell will pick up the boys from daycare. The boys will spend about an hour of “boy time” in the backyard rescuing animals as the Paw Patrol or sword fighting as Ninja Turtles. When Katie FINALLY gets home from work, the sprint begins. The boys have dinner (frozen chicken fingers . .don’t judge) and Katie has some wine. The family sits around the kitchen table and chats about their day or zones out to the Disney Channel depending on the mood(s). Next is bath, teeth, (more wine), books, stalling, Barrett to bed, more stalling by Quinn, and then they are DOWN. At this point Russell and Katie sink into the couch with leftovers or a pizza and tune into (fill in the blank) show. There are still lunches to make, laundry to do, toys to put away, but maybe that can be done tomorrow . . . .
I am Christina from Holly Springs, North Carolina. I have an almost 3 year old, Ava, and a 1 year old, Harper. We also have a giant fur baby Roy who is a 6 year old German Shepherd. I work full time as a Kitchen & Bath Designer and my husband is a teacher and umpires in the evenings. School is almost out so soon our evenings will be a little less or a little more chaotic depending on how you look at it 🙂 Typically I get home with both girls between 5:30/6pm and hustle to make dinner before Harper gets mad and starts screaming that she is hungry! While that happens Ava usually “cooks” in her kitchen for her toys and Roy. Sometimes both of them force Roy to play princess castle and chase him around the house trying to dress him up in princess clothes. Once we sit down to dinner Harper and Ava will eat but mid way through start blowing raspberries at each other and goofing around laughing at each other while they eat! After dinner the girls help me make my cup of coffee for the night and then we sit in the living room and play for a few minutes or go outside to play before heading into a bath. If I am alone it is tricky but I got it down! Then its time for everyone to get PJs on, brush and floss, stories and then bed. Ava always wants Mommy or Daddy ‘nuggies (what she calls snuggles) and we will lay and snuggle with her for a bit before she falls a sleep! By they it is late and we enjoy catching up on a few shows and cleaning up down stairs before we too crash into bed!
We live in Pottstown, PA. Our two girls, Tipper and Davis, are 3 and 1. We live on a boarding school campus in a boys’ dorm. Dad gets home from teaching around 4 and then he’s off to coach which means the three of us are usually out playing with friends at the fields or right out the front door at the playground. Dinner rolls around at 5:30 and depending on what may or may not be in the fridge and/or how Mom and Dad are holding up we typically will opt for the dining hall. The scene is a happy mess of food and friends. Parents round kids up after some quick games of hide and seek and head home for their own night time routines. Our girls take a bath, brush teeth, get PJs on, and read a book or 10 before we say goodnight. The nights are crazy but we wouldn’t have it any other way!
We live in a suburb of Chicago. My kids are 6.5, 4 and 20 months. One thing making us different from other families: I work and my husband stays home with the kids. Also, we eat dinner together as a family every night and it’s often a struggle with different dietary restrictions: one kid and me are vegan, my son can’t have dairy and my oldest is super picky. My husband has his work cut out for him making dinner for everyone, especially in the craziness of me coming home from work and being stuck on the couch nursing the baby. We’re trying to get the older kids to “eat what we eat,” which is usually something vegan that will satisfy everyone. Bedtime is also very hectic, with me trying to bathe all the kids and get them ready for bed while my husband starts to tackle the dishes. The evening ends with my husband putting the older two to bed while I nurse the baby and put her to bed. Then my husband and I split the chores for the night (dishes, sweeping, putting toys away, making lunches for the next day, cleaning breast pump parts, etc.) before finally being able to relax at about 9:30 p.m.!
Our family does dinner at 5pm every single night. And almost every single night my 5 year old daughter, Savannah, and 18month old son, Evan, have Mac n cheese for dinner. Evan gets a bath at 6, Savannah showers at 6:30 and between 7/7:30 both kids are in bed! Without the early bedtime, I’d never have the me time (or time with my husband)… Bedtime routines for my daughter are very interesting. She wants us to sing, read a story, then makes 15 excuses to tell us things before she finally lets us leave her room.
We have two girls, Sierra is 2.5 years old and Adalyn is 10 months old. A typical Wed night for us in Murrieta, CA starts with my hubby coming home around 4:45-5pm. Depending how my day has gone (i.e. meltdowns, have dinner in crock pot or in the oven already, etc), we will sometimes go sit in a blanket out front and play until dad gets home. Then dad will play outside with them while I finish up dinner, or come inside to play. We eat together as a family, where my husband and I spend most of that time convincing our toddler to eat and cutting up food for the baby, who will literally eat anything that exists. After that, we play with the princess castle, or watch a movie together, or play play doh. Then some nights we do family music time. My hubby has a guitar so we sing our fave songs while the girls dance along. Then it’s bath time, both girls at the same time. Mt husband always does baths while I clean up dinner or pick up around the house. Brush teeth, then feed the baby before bed while daddy reads to Sierra. Adalyn gets a book before bed too. Then both kids go down. Mom and dad try to work out after bedtime, do dishes and just relax on the couch.
I live in Orange County, CA (city of Fountain Valley) and my boys are 3.5 (Hank) and just turned 1 (Ben). My husband and I both work full time in corporate/office jobs so each evening, from about 5-7, is the one block of time we’re all together as a family. My husband works from home, so he starts dinner while I pick up the boys from daycare (props to me for marrying a man who is a better cook than I am!). Once we get home, I play with the kids until dinner is ready, then we all sit down at the table together to eat. This time together is so important to me. It’s usually messy and chaotic, but the best conversations with our oldest happen at the dinner table and our baby uses the time to show off his latest tricks. After dinner, I clean up while my husband looks after the boys, then it’s time for bath, bedtime routines, etc. This sounds like a lot of the other comments I’ve skimmed over, so I’m not sure we’ll stand out from the crowd! I figured it was worth a shot though – I loved your Monday Morning series and I think this one will be even better. I often wonder what we would look like to someone from the outside, looking in on our family. Some evenings feel like 95% whining (the kids) and nagging (me), but I think the moments of joy shine through all of that. The Monday Morning series captured that joy so well and we would love to be a part of the upcoming Wednesday Evening series.
My family and I live in Minnetonka, MN (suburb of Minneapolis) My husband and I are both self employed and try to make Wednesday a lighter work day and spend time with our two kids, Graham (3.5) and Wesley (1.5). We are realtors and remodelers (realtors get a bad name, but I promise we’re pretty alright- ha!) and typically spend our afternoons going from construction project to construction project to check in on the progress, which our kids join us. They really have no choice since we don’t have childcare on Wednesdays, but luckily they love seeing the progress– but mainly the tools and the occasional excavator or bobcat. If the weather is good, we will typically grill dinner and play outside the remainder of the evening. We live on a dead end cul-de-sac and the kids spend hours riding bikes with all our awesome neighbors. On Wednesdays after dinner, my husband’s band (Farewell Milwaukee) gets together to practice or meet/plan, which our boys think is the coolest thing ever obviously. I mean, drums…. Wednesday is my favorite day of the week. It’s like a little escape from reality. We work casually, play, run errands, etc. It’s like a mini weekend in the middle of the week! You have so many fun entries, can’t wait for the features!
Also, you so awesomely featured our little Graham in your Halloween post where he was Insta-Graham. He still wears that little costume almost daily, along with his police coat, fire fighter coat, artists smock, chefs hat, astronaut suit….. all about the dress up.
Hello! My family and I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, California! We live in the east bay in a town called Concord. (The rent is cheaper not by much though!) My son Liam just turned one but really acts like a toddler already. He’s full of tons of energy. Andrew works in San Francisco and is typically home on the later side of the evening. 7pm-7:30 depending on traffic. I’m a stay at home mom during the week and work at a wedding venue during the weekends.
A typical Wednesday actually depends if my my husband is helping lead a worship night at a local church. If he is then the evening routine falls all on me. Liams last nap, if he takes an afternoon nap, is usually done around 4:45-5pm. We get up and play for a bit. Sometimes I take a stroll down to my parents place. They live right around the corner. They have a swing they just put up and Liam really loves sitting in a swing. I usually start dinner around 6:30 or when he’s acting hungry. We’re still in the stage of trying new foods so it’s usually pretty simple. Sometimes I make seperate food sometimes I offer what I’m eating. I usually don’t eat until after Liam is in bed. After dinner he is usually a mess so we head straight to the bath. Last night was like splash mountain. I was soaked. After bath we get pj’s on and I put him in his sleep sack called a zipadeezip. He knows that means sleep. I rock him in his chair with a bottle, sing to him with his music in the background and then lay him in his crib. By now it’s usually close to 8pm. Some days are earlier some are later. I don’t have a time schedule. Just let it all happen naturally. Most nights Liam falls right asleep but some nights he babbles a lot. I can usually now relax on the couch a bit, surf Instagram and eat my dinner without little hands. Andrew doesn’t come home for another hour or so and I’m usually headed to bed by then! He’s on his own for dinner the nights he’s out!
If it’s his week off Andrew, my husband, helps out. I’m able to start dinner for us both while he finishes feeding Liam and does the bath routine. He usually wants to put him to bed but sometimes I still do it. When he is home though after Liam is asleep we usually watch Netflix together and talk about work, Liam or other random subjects. Andrew always falls alseep on the couch and I’m usually waking him up saying alright let’s get some sleep now and start it all over again the next day!
We live in a small town in the metrowest area of Boston, MA.
I have 2 boys, aged 2 and 5.
My husband and I both work, he is a police officer and I am a special ed teacher (but at a private school for kids with special needs- so no summers off for me). I get home around 445ish, my husband is sometimes home (his schedule rotates he works some days and some evenings, so he is not always home at night).
Our routine varies- depending on if I have night class (hubby is solo), or if hubby is working (I am solo- and we do ‘picnic’ dinners in front of the TV.. gasp!), or the rare night we are both home (but sometimes we have T-ball games, or school events). If we are both home I bring the youngest home from daycare, hubby picks up our oldest from kindergarten, then we get a little bit of play time outside (the pool is open!), then I cook and he gets to play more, then we eat together, then a little bit of play time (outside or a video game), then the bedtime routine begins. They may get a bath (or maybe not…), then we do family stories together on our bed, and the fight over ‘who picks who’ begins. We split the boys up- each taking one for individual stories and snuggle time in their own room. So every night they fight over who gets to read stories with mommy, and who gets to read them with daddy (they don’t really care- they just like to annoy each other and fight about it every. single. night.)
If you pick us you will see some cute kiddos (and by cute I mean wild, crazy, goofy, and adorable), and some busy parents!
I am mother of two (two year old Lillie and 4 month old Sidney)
Our wed evenings are never the same
Sometimes.hubby closes till 9:30-10 pm so evenings are all on mommy, usually our two yr old likes to help with chores so she helps take out all trash in the house, load the dish washer and sweep, she has BRI g dirty laundry to the wash and loves to feed the dogs, after her nap our wed eve begins with making sure all chores have been done so we can start dinner. We let her help so she is more likely to willingly eat, as I race back and forth between her and the baby and two wild dogs in one small kitchen I try to cook dinner and load the dishes as I go as well as keep Lillie occupied a x in her high chair which she manages to escape no matter what, console a cranky 4 mo old and get the dogs outside so I don’t trip while cooking, next is bath for Lillie and shower for Sidney bc they apparently have a preference and Lillie refuses to let Sidney in her bathtime, now we clean the kit hen from dinner and corral the dogs, Lillie decides its snack time and wrestle time and sid decides its snuggle time, by time daddy gets home one or both are passed out or neither and decide to stay up till 12 am, when daddy gets home Lillie wants to play Lego’s and wants to play dinosaur, even though it is bed time, it goes on and on
We hail from Sacramento, CA. I’m mostly a stay at home mom, but I work on Wednesdays as a nanny and my 2 year old daughter comes with me. I’m also 35 weeks pregnant with our second child, a boy, who is due July 2nd. Our typical Wednesday evening involves my husband getting home before me (which is weird since we’re home first every other night of the week). Usually my daughter is pretty tired after a long day of playing, but we make the most of our short evening. Wednesdays have started to become our pizza night, where we make pizza at home. I normally cheat by picking up a crust (and other groceries) at Trader Joe’s on my way home from work. While I prepare dinner, my husband and my daughter play together. After dinner, my husband gets our daughter ready for bed and puts her down. Since I’m a SAHM, I love that he takes so much time out of the evening and does almost all of the child care tasks once he’s home. It’s so sweet listening to the two of them together! Once she’s asleep, my sweet husband usually does some chores around the house before we relax for the evening. Our lives have been through so much transition in the past year–moving, remodeling our (as of yet unfinished) kitchen, dealing with health issues, and then expanding our family, so it’s really nice that we’re starting to get into a rhythm/routine.
I am very recently divorced in Louisville, KY with a 2yo daughter and 4yo son with Cerebral Palsy. Wednesday evenings the kids are with their dad, so I get some unusual quiet time. Around 7PM the kids get dropped off and I have to soothe the transition grumpies and get everyone ready for bed. My son isn’t independently mobile, so it’s a little different. The kids share a room, so that complicated bed time, too. We read, watch a little tv, my daughter might crawl into her brother’s bed for a bit. Just a normal Wednesday night.
Hi, My name is Hinna and I am a first time mom to a five month old baby boy. We live in Chicago, IL. My husband is a physician and I am a physical therapist.
Our wednesday evenings usually consist of making dinner, playtime with the baby, a walk (weather permitting), and bedtime routine for the baby. Once we get the baby down for the night, my husband and I eat dinner and watch one episode of a TV show (If I can stay awake that long). My husband and I try to do one thing together every night and most nights that is eating a mini-ice cream cone after dinner. It’s not much but its “us” time and I love it! Come join us in Chicago and reminisce about what it was like to be a first time parent!
I am from Phoenix, AZ and have a beautiful one-year old daughter. My husband and I try to eat dinner as a family every night–but things happen. We both work, so sometimes it’s crock pot and sometimes it’s Chipotle. Baby (excuse me, toddler now) Evie goes to bed between 630 and 7, and hubby is down by 8:30. I get about an hour to myself to watch trashy TV or read blogs, and then I’m out like a light! Loved the Monday series, excited to see this one!
I’m a working mom in fairfield county CT with a stay at home husband. We have a son age 4 and a daughter age 14 months. Evenings are exhausting for me since I am nonstop from the time I leave work until they are in bed. Summers consist of ALOT of blow up pool time, park playing and ice cream mixed in between kids with two different meal times and bedtimes. Hubby and I split the baths and beds and usually collapse on the couch hoping we have enough energy for each other!
We live in Huntington Beach ( Orange County) CA. I am a SAHM to two active boys, ages 3 and 2. My husband is a mechanical engineer. Our evenings start off by me balancing finishing up housework, making dinner, and playing with and keeping the boys busy. My husband is usually home by 530pm and plays with the boys while I finish making dInner. We feel fortunate that we are able to have dinner together as a family most nights because we know this may change as the boys get older and our schedules change. Dinner for us is a mix of talking about our day, laughing, and many night pleading with our boys to eat their dinner!!
After dinner the boys play while we quickly start cleaning up after dinner. And by the boys play I mean usually get way to hyper before bedtime! We usually then all play together, bath time- which for some reason gives my boys tons of energy rather than calm them down! Then pajamas and 1-2 books for each boy before bed around 730/800. My husband and I switch off which boy we read to and put to bed each night. Then we finish cleaning the kitchen and all toys up, continue to corral the boys back to bed as the three year old loves to sneak out of bed and come out to ask us creative questions to stall bed time ( ie- ” mommy how do worms dig?”Ha!) , my husband often walks our dog while I take a shower and get my first relaxing moments alone for the day, then we try to relax together and watch a tv show or talk before getting things ready for the next day ( laundry, lunches, stuff for preschool etc) then off to bed early as we start our days at 5 am!!
Charlotte, NC. 2 girls 1.5 & 4. Dad is responsible for making everyone dinner while I do most of bedtime and bath. Note, at least 3 different dinners are made! We have to play Candyland at the table or sit through whining for the iPad. Little one goes down pretty easily, but the 4yo is a negotiator who can never fall asleep.
I’m Chelsea and I’m a SAHM and military wife. My husband and I have a 9 month old named Addilynn and we are currently stationed in Savannah, GA! With my husband’s job we are never sure how weekdays go and he will deploy in August so soon it will be just me, Addilynn, and our puppy Scout. Anyway we try to stick to a routine for Addi’s sake! My husband is also the Scout Master for the Boy Scouts and Wednesdays are their nights to meet! We squeeze in a quick dinner if he makes it home by 6 and then he is gone by 7. Addi and I take our puppy (currently 3 months old and a Catahoula Leopard dog) on a much needed walk. After if we didn’t get dinner in before we eat. She insists on eating whatever I have and refuses anything pureed on account of it looking like baby food! Then we do bath time (depending on how the earlier day went it is a shower with me to help multitask!) Then daddy gets home around 830 hopefully just in time for a quick story, prayers, and then she nurses to sleep. If daddy gets home in time then he gives Addi her bath (that’s their time since he is gone so often). Once Addi is asleep I usually do the dishes and quickly pickup and then my husband and I snuggle on the couch with something on Netflix! My husband always helps with the dishes and pickup if he is home! It is a unique dynamic with a military lifestyle but we try to make it as normal as possible for our daughter 🙂
Vancouver, WA
Lily, 3
Levi, 2
Week nights are never planned out well since sometimes my husband doesn’t get home from work until after the kids are asleep.
If they’ve sucked the life out of me they get mac and cheese for dinner and I pray to the fridge gods that there’s something quick I can whip up for me and my husband. They watch TV while eating and if dinner was messier than usual they get a bath. Which I hate because bath time is one of my least favorite things to do. I’m trying to learn to enjoy it more.
An hour before I want them to go to bed, the screens go off and we put on the radio. They either play or help me clean up. When I’ve reached my limit of toddler shenanigans we do the bedtime routine. My daughter picks out her own pj’s and after 4 or 5 wardrobe changes and meltdowns, she’s all set. They sit on the little couch in their room while we read a story, then I sing their night-night song and walk out.
After an hour of putting them beck to bed 200 times they are finally asleep and I’m once again faced with dinner decisions.
I’m exhausted reading all of that.
I am a SMC (single mom by choice) and have a 3 year old son. We live in a suburb of St. Louis, MO. I am an occupational therapist and work in the schools. Our Wednesday evenings include pick up from school, going to swim class, dinner out, back home for a bit of playtime, and then PJs, books, rocking, back scratching, back rubbing, saying good night a dozen times, and mommy praying that bedtime is complete (it usually isn’t). After my son does go to sleep I usually clean up around the house, relax on the couch, or do some work on my laptop until bed.
Good morning: Wednesday evenings are always interesting in my house. I live in Madison, Wisconsin and have a 4 year old. As a divorced mom, Wednesday is a “switch” night, which means I pick up my son he has been with his dad for at least 2 nights. That means routine falls to the wayside as we get resettled together. While I know he’s excited to see me, it’s reuniting with his dog, Minnie and his train table and toys he always eagerly talks about in the car.
Warm weather means long walks- and often it means we’ll walk home from daycare. We play outside and always make his “marshmallow dessert” – which is his term for s’mores on the porch. Bath time is a long, swimming game and bedtime is nearly always missed as we snuggle together.
My husband and I live in the DC metro area. We have a 2 year old and a standard poodle. We are only here for 6 months (moving to France this summer) and our “temporary living” is an apartment that is way too small for all of our stuff.
Most of our evenings are spent entertaining a very independent 2 year old, trying to get her to eat whatever we make. Before or after dinner we usually go somewhere either as a family, or just the kid and I. My husband is often working on miscellaneous engineering projects and it’s hard to tear him away. As a family we either play frisbee outside, or take the metro somewhere, like the mall or DC. If I take her out on my own, we will drive to the mall, or the shopping center where target is because there’s a splash pad and lots of little stores to be entertained by. Bedtime takes forever. She’s a master at delaying sleep.
Welcome to the Fikes 5! We are a “C” family. Chris, CC, Connor (4.5) and twin 22 month girls Claire and Cate. Wednesday nights… One of the most hectic for us! We both work full-time, coordinate picking up from the sitter and summer camp, head to church (I teach and my husband helps the youth). Then late/quick supper at home featuring the crockpot if I’m on top of things that week or the never failing nuggets and microwave macaroni (genius). We eat together even if hubby and I just grab a bowl of cereal and ask Connor about his day in which a hilarious story either real or made up ensues.. Bath time comes next as Connor loves the dirt and the girls feel that macaroni is still the best leave in conditioner even at almost 2. I bathe the girls, hubby cleans up Connor and then we have the ritual naked run through the house after bath where the girls chase each other (we’ll need censorship) ;). by this point it’s late so whine is in full force x3. I don’t sweat the small stuff. Wear whatever pjs you want Connor or sleep in your underwear… The girls feel pajama time is a torture event so I sing our special Jammie song. It’s 50-50 if it works. Usually they know bedtime is coming at this point and cling to me like spider monkeys. Wed nights is normally too late for stories so I rock and sing to the girls… (Thank goodness this doesn’t include audio) and Connor gets a “short” recorded show like a episode of Scooby Doo plus a bedtime snack. I pray with my girls and they go down usually not without a few tears but within 10 min… Connor gets a bible story, hugs, kisses, prayers, and water and generally tries to stall this out as long as humanly possible. Hugs and kisses are my weakness so he wins most nights. While I’m doing the bedtime routines hubby is trying to clean the kitchen and then I may or may not scrub the macaroni off the floor… If we have enough energy 10-11 is our time for one of our recorded shows. We’re into the Flash right now. I should spend that time cleaning, picking up, making the lunches for the next day… But that one hour with my husband is precious and more important so I go to bed with dishes in the sink and laundry in the dryer or sometimes even the washer. It’ll be there to be done the next morning, evening, or weekend…. Come join us in Mobile, AL for a typical Wednesday night.
Evie 3.5 (human), Oz 8 (canine) – Raleigh, NC
Evenings are usually when I try to finish up projects or housework so I can actually relax. Our routine is a little up in the air since my husband was laid off recently. My husband and daughter usually say together in the living room (summer, coolest room in house). I prefer to eat later after she’s in bed and I don’t have to share, rush or be interrupted until it’s cold. Husband and I tag team getting her ready for bed until he reads her books and I answer all stalling requests that start with, “I want mom!” Our evenings are always eventful between the high spirited three year old and neglected dog desperate for attention 🙂
My name is Shannon and my husband (Erik) and I have two daughters, Gwen (2.5) and Merryn (almost 7 months old). We live in Blacksburg, VA which is 2 hours from Charlotte, NC (biggest airport) and 45 minutes from Roanoke, VA (closest airport to us).
We moved here 7 months ago for my husbands’ job and are having a house built, so we currently live in a 2 bedroom apartment. I just started a new job (new career actually) 2.5 months ago and my days off are during the week, usually Wednesday and Thursday.
So that may set us apart since Wednesdays are not quite as chaotic as the other days are since that is my ‘off’ day. I try to plan/prepare dinner and troubleshoot how to make the evening as smooth as possible (at least I pretend that I can somehow plan for/control the way the evening and night end up going).
Both girls are in daycare so I’ll try to pick them up a little earlier than normal on Wednesday (4:30pm) in an effort to have some outdoor playground time either before or after dinner, at least with G.
Then we ‘survive and advance’ through the bath/bedtime schedule with G while she strategically deploys several of the stall tactics that she must have picked up from Harlow/Insta2yearold (running anywhere/everywhere to avoid capture for the bath, picking the longest book to read, going to the bathroom several times, extra pacifier, wrong blanket, etc.). Once she is in bed we have a modified version of that same ‘routine’ with M. She is still bottle feeding so her nightly schedule of events is dictated more by when she will have her last bottle, in the hopes that we can sleep through the night.
Usually by 9:30-10pm both kids are in bed and asleep …
(usually 🙂
Can’t wait to see this post and read the stories of how evenings and nights go for other folks!
My name is Lindsey, I’m a SAHM to Maggie (21 months) and 4 Scottie dogs…in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I guess I should include my husband since I cook him dinner and clean up after him too. Our Wednesday nights, can be quite comical. My husband usually gets home around 6pm, we sit down to a nice dinner all together…so we think. Some days Baby Maggie will sit with us and some days she runs around all crazy chasing the dogs and dancing to all types of music. Sometimes she eats…there are only 4-5 things she eats. Some days she shares her food with the 4 scotties. This can be quite entertaining since she is very particular on which Scottie gets the food and how they eat it. After dinner, we attempt to clean up and potty the dogs. The music gets turned off and there might be a tantrum during this time…one that requires Baby Maggie to lay on the ground and squeal, but if you asks her questions, the squealing will stop and she will respond. Next, it’s bedtime…we go upstairs and begin teeth brushing, washing of hands/feet/face and changing into pajamas…clothes aren’t really Maggie’s thing…not is diaper changing…implementing a sticker reward has helped. So after Maggie is adorned with 20 stickers, we pick out some books to read and put her sleepy music on…sometimes this works…other times she demands we chase her or she chase the dog and feed him cheerios. Overall, it’s all quite entertaining and I would love to share our world with others!
Kasandra from Oceanport, NJ.
I can’t find my comment but I said my messy house was balanced out with laughter and fun. Total crock of shit. The only laughter is that of the kids and I often feel like it’s directed at me trying to keep the evening together.
There is a ton of chaos, especially when my husband walks in the door just as I put them to bed, and I never feel like I’m doing it right.
I feel like Wednesday evenings are so much more of a mess than Monday mornings….I hate to say it, but more often than not I just want it to be over.
I am a (mostly) stay at home mom to two boys, ages 10 and 3, in a small town outside of Harrisburg, PA. We also have two small, rowdy dogs who love to bark at the neighbors and beg for food. (It’s a good thing they are cute and loveable.)
Our Wednesday evening starts by picking our oldest up from school a few blocks away and walking home. The kids usually sit down with a snack and a few minutes of mindless tv before heading outside to play in the yard.
Our 10 year old can usually be found swinging on the swing, which has been dubbed the “golden swing” by our youngest because it’s so coveted. My 3 year old will spend his time outside digging in the dirt or playing in their fort and generally irritating his big brother.
Both the kids eat dinner around 5:30, although they never want the same meals. While they eat, I usually am cooking a third version of dinner for hubby and me. Once he gets home and we all eat, we take the dogs for a walk, play in the yard, and then get ready for bath, books, and bed.
Working mother of two, almost 5 yo girl and a 22 month old boy. Live in charleston sc, I would love to see an outside perspective of what I consider controlled chaos. Our routine varies from week to week as my husband travels for work. We used to live in Stuyvesant town until my daughter turned two when we moved here to be closer to family. The kids enjoy being close to the water and having a yard lot play in. I love to read about your family in the city and think about the “what ifs”.
Come to charleston!
My husband and I live in Austin, TX with our 2 year old daughter, Caroline. I own and operate a residential bakery, and my husband is an attorney for the state. Our evenings start when he gets home from the office, usually around 5. I’m often in the middle of finishing an order, which means Caroline is already hyper from sampling the frosting or cookies I’ve made. Daddy comes home and immediately she greets him and asks him for “Shake it Off” or “Heartbeat Song” so they can dance together in our kitchen. While they dance I work on popping a freezer meal in the oven, and we all dance until it’s ready. Then we pull her high chair up to the table and all sit down to dinner. After dinner we all play for a bit and then it’s bathtime. Bathtime is followed by a few episodes of Peppa Pig while we all snuggle in bed together. After that one of us carries Caroline to her room for lights out. Then my husband and I snuggle up on the couch with wine (or bourbon on rough days) and watch tv together. It’s a simple routine but the warm fuzzies from our daughter at bedtime and then from my husband after she’s safely tucked in for the night are priceless.
Hello! We live in Downers Grove, Illinois (about 30 minutes west of Chicago). My son is 4.5 and my daughter is about to turn 2. Gee, we’re boring! Wednesday evenings are spent doing scooter races in the long driveway and swinging on the swing set. If it’s winter we are tearing up the shroom or doing crafts (or sometimes the kids watch a show do I can cook dinner with a glass of wine and my sanity). My husband sometimes works late on Wednesdays but is usually home by 6:30-7:00. My kids have bath time every night. Sometimes there are tears. Sometimes those tears are mine. Bed time is between 8-8:30. Then my husband and I pretend the house is already clean and relax on the couch together.
Play room. Autocorrect does not understand play room.
Shroom should read at room. What the….
I. Give. Up.
Knoxville, TN
3 boys: ages 9, 23 months, and 2 weeks.
I am a newly SAHM and DH gets home around 530-6. Obviously with a 2 week old I’m not 100% sure how our nights will look in the future, but prior to this little one, it was me begging for 10 minutes alone as soon as DH walked in the door, trying to get dinner on the table, trying to let DH have some play time with the boys while also getting them fed, bathed, snacked, show watched, etc before bedtime. 9 year old doesn’t have a bedtime in summer. He usually watches a movie with us, we fall asleep, he wakes us up when it’s over for us to tuck him in. We fall into bed about the time the 23 month old is getting out of his bed and the 2 week old is ready to eat. Ahhhhhh!
Hi- I’m mom to Charlie age 2 and Cameron age 10 weeks. We live in Hoboken, NJ- so not too far from you. My husband and I are both corporate lawyers and we fled Manhattan about a year and a half ago for more room in the ‘burbs although Hoboken is more like a 6th borough rather than real suburbs. But we do enjoy our expanded living space in a renovated brownstone. I’m currently home on maternity leave so I spend the day with the baby while my amazing nanny takes care of the 2 year old. Bedtime at our house is wild because Charlie has major toddler sleep FOMO (fear of missing out) and requires an elaborate bedtime routine that usually involves multiple trips to his room for “one more” something. My husband works long hours and is usually not home for bedtime but even when I am working I always try my best to make it home in time to put Charlie down. With the new baby, my nanny is a very important part of night time and I fear the nights I do it alone. I haven’t figured out the magic of putting two kids to bed yet so she usually watches the baby so I can spend some special time with my big boy. Even though I’m home now, i still really look forward to nighttime cuddles with my former only child. Anyways, our house is crazy these days adjusting to life with two kids, and I’m sure I’m not doing it right, but it would be fun to share our particular kind of crazy with the world.
Hi! Im Michelle. I’m a mama of two under two! A vivacious 17 month old and a sweet 9 week old. My husband works out of state during the week, so aside from an evening visit from a family member or friend, it’s just me and the babes 6/7 days a week. Our evenings consist of dance parties, creative meals (sometimes-I’m a chef, so I try!) that are made while my toddler pulls everything out of my kitchen drawers and fridge, lots of snuggles, lots of laughs, and sometimes LOTS of tears. It is hectic, but fun…stressful, but wonderful…I wouldn’t trade it for the world. After I finally get my toddler down to sleep, my baby girl and I have girl talk and cuddle up together-something I rarely get to do with her during the day. She’s a trooper! And I can already tell she is going to be an independent lady who speaks her mind. Most nights after they’re both sleeping, I look through pictures of them while I enjoy my nightly glass of wine (I need – and deserve it!!) I actually miss them and want to go scoop them up out of their cribs…but then I remember that that would be a terrible idea and instead sit back and relax while indulging in some form of garbage reality television…right after I clean for an hour only for it to be a mess again my 9am the next day.
Weare, NH. Two little guys: little one is 16m and bigger one will be 3 in June.
We are two working parents who are lucky to end our days early. Daycare pickup is at 3:30 after my work at a school is done, and we’re home by 4:15, where Dad is waiting for us after working as a contractor. As soon as we get home, the boys are let free in our big farmhouse yard. Although we have a few acres on a river, we’re also on a main road, so half of our outside time is spent trying to keep the 16m old from running into the street. I watch the boys run around the yard, jump in puddles, and chase each other with sticks until Dad is done cooking dinner.
Dinner is served around the kitchen island, and dad eats standing so he can run around grabbing things while we try to eat.
After dinner, the kids run around the house (literally run laps), and tire themselves out nicely. The house is under construction, so without a tub, the boys either take a shower with dad or are washed in the sink before heading upstairs. Once upstairs, they play with cars or animals as we change into PJs. About 6:30, the big one gets to cuddle in bed for some Wild Kratz with Dad while mom rocks/nurses little one to sleep. At 7:30, with Dad’s help, big guy brushes teeth, picks out a story and hops into his own bed. I then come in for some cuddles.
Dad and I are then hopefully kid-free by 8/8:15, when we settle into bed for some TV/cuddles. Most nights, we pass out by 9:30!
My name is Leah, and my husband Andy and I have two girls… Ida, 3.5, and Amy, 1.5. We live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our evenings in the summer are different because Andy is a teacher so he is home during the summer. Because We all eat together for dinner every night, we have to eat dinner crazy early because our girls get hungry at 5 pm. The main thrilling thing about dinner is that Amy makes a massive mess, every night (sigh). Since we eat early, after dinner we either go to the pool, go for a walk, or if it is not nice out we just let the girls be as crazy as possible, often in the basement where we keep a gym mat and balance beam. It’s all hands on deck for bedtime because they have very specific bed routines and each are different and they both get tired at the exact same time each night. Once they’re in bed we clean up the big mess left from dinner… And that’s a wrap!
We live in Grand Rapids Michigan, I have a 4.5 year old boy and a 16 month old girl. Our Wednesday night starts early since my husband works third shift, I will usually handle dinner as he plays with the kids, usually using them on a walk or just playing in the backyard. Dinner is served and my husband leaves for work shortly afterwards. Depending on the timing and weather sometimes we will go on a walk around the neighborhood or watch a movie on request but more often than not, it’s straight into the bathtub and upstairs for a dance party, we dance for 2-4 songs, read 2-3 books in “the big bed” usually while nursing. After books we head to bed with hugs and a “kiss kiss”…. There might be a song sung or hummed, little backs rubbed and more nursing. My kids are down usually before the sun goes down, we are early bedtime crew for sure!!!
My husband travels for work during the week, so I am a “single”stay at home mom to our children ages 2 and 9. I work at home a couple of hours every night after I put my youngest down, then get my 9 year old in bed. Night times are crazy and hectic because of my schedule, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. My two year old is starting to learn the art of stalling, and my nine year old thinks she’s a second mom most days. After I get my loves in bed, I stay up. I get all of my cleaning done and then try and relax for a couple of hours. I generally go to bed around 11:30-12 and get up the next morning at 6:30.
We are a family of 4 living in Mentor, Oh, just north of Cleveland. We consist of myself and my husband, and our 7 1/2 yo son and 2 1/2 yo daughter. As if having 2 young kids isn’t interesting enough, our daughter could be the poster child for the terrible two stage, but just so adorable you can’t stand it. Our son is the great and protective older brother. He is a great student and loves basketball.
Our Wednesday nights consist of the kids and I getting home around 3:30pm from work and school/daycare. In the summer months, we either play outside or the kids sit and relax while I get dinner, lunches, and everything ready for the next day so I don’t have to think about it again for the rest of the night. My husband gets home around 5:30-6pm, sometimes I feed the kids before he gets home and sometimes we all sit together as a family and eat. If it’s nice out, we will go for a family walk around our cul-de-sac or just relax in the evenings with tv, reading, playing, etc.
they both go to bed at 8:00, during summer months, though, that can be flexible. My son will sometimes read in bed for a bit, while I’m coaxing my daughter to stay in her big girl bed and not get up again. After the kids are finally settled in, my husband and I usually sit and watch some shows together or sit outside and listen to music while having some wine.
Hope you choose us! Thanks!
Omaha,NE
Alexzander – 7 years old
Easton – 13 months
Our even depends if dad is working or not. He works retail so it changes but typically he is works Wednesday mornings. I get off at 5 and pick up Easton. Craig will pickup Alex if he is off. Then we come home unwind from the day. We try to play outside some but it does not always happen. We do some studying-reading with Alex. Trying to get ready for 2nd grade right now. I make supper. We have baths if it is bath night. Alex goes to bed about 8-8:30. I try to get a walk in if Craig is home. When I get back I clean on the house bath Easton and my self. Easton goes to bed about 9:30-10. Then we go to bed. Not to exciting but try to keep flowing.
We have 5 kids (17,16,6,3,1). Our house is a zoo! School ended last week so we have a 100 day countdown to when school starts again. Every night is a fun, crazy night here. Most weeks Wednesday is a bath night which is a not-so-perfectly orchestrated flurry of bath toys, bubbles, 3 girls in the tub, towels, jammies, hair brushing(screaming) and small child antics. By the time they get to bed we are sprawled across furniture exhausted from the chaos. Then its on to trying to find the older kids, picking them up, prying them from their bedrooms just to listen to teenage drama and then have them disappear again. When all is finally quiet in the house the wine comes out and we sit and have romantic conversation about the most effective booby-trapping methods for knowing whether or not our sneaky teen is out after hours.
We have all this fun in Moorhead, Minnesota. (Fargo, ND area) We would love to be apart of Wednesday Evenings and share a little bit of our crazy!
We live in Charlotte, NC and have two kids, 4 years and 16 months. I work part-time, but Wednesdays I’m home with the kiddos all day, so by evening I’m very ready for my husband to be home. On my more organized days, I might cook or at least have a plan of attack. On less organized days, when Rich gets home we scramble to feed the kids and worry about ourselves later. My husband does a large part of bedtime, but I jump in to keep things on a schedule. My son is usually in bed by 7 and my daughter on a good day is in bed before 8.
My name is Alison, and I have a 19-month old son. I’m a single mom, and weeknights seem so short. The one thing I try to do is cook most nights because I love good food! I live in Boulder, CO.
Hello! I’m a mommy of 3. I have a 5 year old step son, a 2 year old daughter, and a baby boy who is 8 days old and premature. Our evenings have been pretty hectic these past few weeks. My family of 5 love with another family of 5, so our house is very full and not everyone respects the schedule I *try* to keep my kids on. My husband works graveyard shift and his job is in a different city so he leaves the house at 9:30 every night and usually doesn’t even get home till after 9am. I am a stay at home mommy. I cook dinner for 9 people every night, run my 2 older kids through the bath (when there is enough hot water.) They then brush their teeth and I lay them both down and let them watch one movie. If they don’t fall asleep during the movie, the tv is shut off and they just have to deal with it. I usually have to go in their room at least 4 times because my daughter will either get her leg stuck in the safety bars of her bed or my son will throw things at her and I will have to break up world war 3. Whilst holding a newborn.
I usually try to have this all done by 8pm.. But it doesn’t usually go yhe way I plan. Especially when breastfeeding a newborn. If he needs to eat, everything gets put on hold while I fight to get baby latched and fed.
So really, I don’t think we have much of a “routine” anymore. I’m not perfect, but I love my kids and we make it work.
Virginia, Idaho, 4 kids ages 10, 7, 4 and 2. I’m a stay at home mom. My husband works in another state right now so he’s only home on weekends. Or life is crazy at best and chaotic at worst!
Jennifer
-26 years old
-Chesapeake, VA
-SAHM {Liv: 3, Landon, 1 1/2}
-Small business owner
-Blogger
-Military spouse
Wednesday nights, and nights in general, are lonely. I don’t talk to my husband everyday because of the time difference and his job while being away. He’s currently deployed and nights were “his thing”. I miss the social interaction with another adult. My kids are my everything but sometimes they act like spinning tops and sometimes I feel like I’m losing it.
Sometimes dinner consists of Chick Fil A because I don’t have the energy to cook a meal and/or don’t want another dish in the sink. I’m both physically and emotionally worn out by the end of the night. Motherhood is glorious. But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. I’m counting down the days until my husbands return just so I can pee and shower without an entourage. We usually FaceTime with family (mostly my SIL, BIL, and MIL) and friends around 6:30/7 since we don’t live near everyone. Technology has been such a blessing since having children, they’ve been able to see friends and family around the world and they know how they are.
Bath time is usually between 7:30 & 8 and I play referee the whole time. Fights ensue over plastic cups, loofas, and towels. Then it’s diapers and Pj’s (Liv will probably be driving herself To buy diapers instead of tampons when she’s 17, but that’s another story for another day…). I could recite Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish word for word.
Landon goes to bed promptly at 8:30PM. Livs another story… She’s always been our leech and poor sleeper. She won’t fall asleep unless she’s touching someone. It’s terrible. And we’ve tried everything to break it. But I’d rather her sleep next to me than have her hyperventilate.
Once the kids are asleep, I try to sneak out of Liv’s stronghold and get some things done around the house and for my business. So far I’ve managed to paint our kitchen cabinets, but the walls are 1/2 done and I haven’t managed to find the time to finish them. One day…
I’m currently switching my Etsy shop over to my own domain and site with ready to ship items, it’s proving to be more complicated than I thought but I think it’ll be worth it in the end.
I also try to get some blog posts and collaborations done at night/reply to emails at night.
Dishes get left in the sink, toys get left on the floor, laundry goes unfolded, and sometimes I fall asleep in my clothes from the day. Unfortunately, the dishes are still in the sink, toys strewn across the floor, and laundry piles as far as the eye can see when I wake up in the morning. But that’s ok because I know this experience is making me stronger and if we’re lucky we get to talk to daddy in the morning.
Hello from Pittsburgh, PA! I’m a stay-at-home mom to two boys, 5 and 3. Our days are crazy and long, it feels, so evenings are usually spent at home trying our best to eat dinner as a family. That usually means one child might be under the table and the other might be on the table, but we’re eating…and we’re near the table…so I call it a win. The ceremonious ‘daddy’s home!’ rumpus usually starts our evening (why doesn’t that ever happen when mommy gets home?!) followed by dinner and wrestling on the floor with daddy. After a few too many heels to the groin and elbows to the nose daddy proclaims bedtime. Which usually involves a lot of shouting to get upstairs, get in the tub, get jammies on and brush teeth. We take a man to man approach to bedtime and put the monsters to bed as quickly as we can, then usually stumble downstairs to clean up and be mindless blobs on the couch. 🙂
We are a new family of three! Hubby and I both work so we try to make every evening count with our little 7.5mo old Ania. When Ania comes home from school, she naps and then has dinner. She is a messy messy eater, but she looks like she’s having a blast! She’s always giggling and roaring! We have a dance party every night. Little girl is a pro at Rasing the Roof. We then practice some walking. Bath/bedtime is another good time. Anya splashes around and we sing and dance. She becomes a gremlin when we get her dressed. Who knew a little baby could get so grumpy! And then she gets nursed to sleep, while hubby cooks us dinner. I love evenings with my little fam.
My husband and I live in Houston, Texas. We currently have a 22 month old and are expecting our second in October. We both work shift work: I am an ER nurse and he is a manager at Specs. Right now, I have a pretty set work schedule and am typically off on Wednesdays and my husband works a shift that day – which shift changes each week. Our daughter is quite the ham and our days together are fun! We try to do something fun in the afternoon/evening. Then around 6, we start our nighttime routine: dinner, bath, books, bedtime. Who does what depends on whether my husband is off work, comes home during bedtime or after bedtime. We also eat dinner after our daughter goes to bed. It’s our time together to talk in actual complete sentences! We love being parents and truly do enjoy the age she is in right now – she’s so fun!