Hectic evening routine

Feeling like I don’t get to spend much quality time with my boys during the week

I am wondering what creative ways ya’ll have found to make evenings fun. I typically don’t get home from picking the boys up at daycare until about 5 pm – this only leaves me 1.5-2 hrs to get them feed, bathed, bottle and oh yeah some quality time with them. They go down pretty early as they are up around 6 am to go to daycare. Dinner time seems to almost always be a battle – we are struggling trying to find things they like. A couple of nights a week I am home by myself with them, so I feel like I am just running around trying to get everything done and not actually connecting with them.

 

Do they like pasta for dinner? Mine love Rotini with butter and grated parmesan. You can make pasta for them on Sunday and keep it in a plastic container, so when you get home you can just heat it up, put some butter and parmesan on it, and then heat up some veggies -- and wa la! There's dinner.

I also get sliced ham (thick sliced ham) from the deli and I cut it up with a pizza cutter (super fast) in small pieces, give them cheese with it, and fruit/veggie and that works for dinner too.

 

Oh, and can you clean up after they go to bed since they go down so early? I typically do that -- and it gets done faster rather than having to go clean around them when they are awake. I use a dust buster (we have hardwoods throughout our house) to clean up the food that's on the ground. Major timesaver!

 

It gets easier and less hectic as they get just a little older. It won't keep you from wanting more time with them or feeling like it's a madhouse for those two hours though.

We have about the same time frame, but we are both home most nights so that helps. We get home between 5:30 and 6. Dinner is at 6, so if we get home right at 6 they get chicken nuggets, canned veggie or two and fruit cups. I sit with them while DH fixes our dinner. DH and I eat (quickly) at 6:30 while the boys run around the house and play. We then have from 6:45 or 7 until bedtime at 8 (or bath time) to play with them. If we get home early enough to have our dinner ready at 6 too then we all have more play time On bath nights we start about 7:30 with baths, diapers, pjs, milk/snack/books, and bedtime at 8. We really don't do anything around the house except deal with them until after they go to bed.

 

This sounds a lot like our evenings. I try to make dinner pretty speedy and put everything else on hold so we spend as much time as possible with them. I also don't bathe them every day....

Weekends are a lot more relaxed.

 

don't discount any of the time you spend with them as not "quality"... I love doing baths every night... we put lots of bubble bath squirts in and they get "bubble heads"... and play with the floating toys etc. its a great time to have fun learning or singing songs etc! they have just started "putting all their ducks in a row"... so cute, we have many different squirty animals for bathtime, including 3 ducks... and it seems they always line up the ducks on the side of the tub. I tell them what the colors are and just make it fun.

anyway, just another thought in addition to the great ideas above.

 

You are right. We don't do bath night every night, but it is some of the most focused time with them. They love the bath crayons and we work on colors and they love for us to draw animals (or elmo's) on the tub. They are captive and forced to interact with each other more than loose in the house. They are also usually happy in the bath so it's a quick fix for a rough night! They giggle and laugh, it has been some of my favorite times with them. I need to quit thinking of it as another chore do do. Sorry to hijack, but thanks for a better perspective.