How do you juggle....

Just wondering how others juggle kids bedtimes and adults dinner times :juggle:
At the moment getting DD into bed is a bit like a wrestling match. In a perfect world she would go to sleep at 7 or 7.30 it's far from a perfect world and the reality is she falls asleep 4.5 hours after she last woke up, which is fine if it was 3pm but sometimes she falls asleep in the car in the afternoon and I can't get her to bed before 8.30, or this week's record, 9.45.
She has her dinner at 5.30, and the Bear usually gets home between 7-8pm. I find that getting her settled is so demanding (and dementing LOL) that I can't really focus on cooking a meal at the same time.
Any suggestions folks?

um ive always been flexible with kids fitting to the times they want so im probably not the right person to ask. Josiah eats at 6-6:30 then changed and ready for bed most times thats fine he sleeps at that time and night through occasionally wakes at 4-5 am for bottle then back off self feeding till 7am-ish . During the day its a bit everywhere on how he is feeling weather its a 11 am sleep or today a 9.30am sleep or a 2pm sleep.

For tea i eat after he is in bed or i eat alone as i cant eat when josh is near me acuse he will eat my tea as well and i cant eat in peace i normally eat round 7pm or eat early with him. If me and hubbie want to eat together we eat early with josh on days thats works or late after kids in bed.

i have this battle too sometimes, if DD has along sleep in the afternoon, or her day sleeps are mucked up if we have gone out or she has just had many short sleeps during the day. Ideally I'd like her last day sleep so that she wakes up at about 4.30/5, then she'd go back to bed for the night at 6.30/7pm.

Can your DH help out with cooking dinner or putting her to bed? You could take turns each night as to who does what. Or have some meals on stand-by (either freezer meals, or meals that don't take too long to cook).

I know what it;'s like though, our record for the latest dinner was about 9pm at night!

our tea time is 5.30 - 6pm. If one of us isnt here then a plate is made and put in the fridge for when that person comes home. That was if jed is home late from work and its the kids bed time...I can take control of it and he can have his tea in peace.
I prepare tea through the day when I have a spare 5 mins...otherwise its a quick salad with something that will be cooked quickly..eg steak, snitzel ect.
Best and most valuable thing I ever bought was a slow cooker hon. Put it on in the morning and yourve got a beautifully cooked meal at the end of the day without having to worry

When DH is home, I will cook dinner for the kids at about 5ish to eat at 5.30ish. Depending on if it will be ok reheated (like pasta, or soups...) and if it's something we will be eating (occaisionally I will make something for the kids we don't eat like sausages, home made nuggets, crumbed fish fillets...), I will cook for dh and I too at this time, if not then I cook for us after the kids are asleep, usually about 7.30ish.
If DH is working, then I will cook and eat with the kids at 5.30, then normal bath, bed time routines.
My DS is in the process of dropping a sleep at the moment (most days he still sleeps 2 times a day, but only short cat naps). If he doesn't seem tired in the morning before 9am, then he gets to stay up til about midday, then he'll sleep about 2hrs. If he has two sleeps it has to be before 9am, then before 2pm or he won't go down at 6.30/7ish like he usually does.

We do the same as Maz. Tea is usually being eaten at 5.30 for the whole family. If someone isn't here then a plate is left till they get in. We don't own a slow cooker though, as I have no room to store one when not in use. There would be no way I would cook two separate meals at 2 different times.

Bed time for my kids is generally 7.30pm but no later than 8pm. That is for the bigger boys. Ashton is usually wanting to go by 8.30pm. We need to let him go when he wants to go or he wakes up through the night if we force him to bed when he is not ready.

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You could take turns each night as to who does what. Or have some meals on stand-by (either freezer meals, or meals that don't take too long to cook).

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yes do this too some things that are frozen are

chicken parm
spagetti bog
vegitarian bog
sweet and spicy curries
soups many styles and flavors
meat pies chicken pie
lasanya
pizza
nuggets
chips
frozen vegies
chilli concarnie
chick pea stew
beef stew
casseroles
vegetable bake
frozen deserts and morning teas eg: cookies scones muffins cakes

if i was to make spag bog i would cook about 5 kilo of mince in that lot using about 13 to 14 jars of sauce maybe at that one time and freeze it in small potions and cook pasta and warm to serve.

we eat togeter at 5.30/6 ish.. then the wind down for bed bath books cuddles and bed

we all eat at the same time, same as maz and astrolady.

i couldnt cook 2 different meals, and plainly refuse to, i feel the children should be able to eat what we eat, meat and veg or salad and meat or pasta.
if it is something they wont eat like a curry well then its only DS who wont eat it he can have some frozen spaghetti, we always make double batches of that when we cook so we have some on hand incase.

we eat around 6 every night and the kids in bed at 8.

even when DD was younger it was the same, we made her meal times fit in with ours as i have enough hosuework washing up and uni work to keep me occupied i dont need to be cooking twice for en evening meal.

so maybe you coudl try slowly bringing your LO's dinner time back slightly so she is eating just before hubby gets home but your meal is still warm and ready when he gets home, then she can observe you eating and get an idea of meal time..

Yep we eat at the same time, between 5pm and 6pm, on the rare occassion Shel isn't home her meal get put in the fridge and she eats it later. So much easier than cooking two meals, and nice to eat together. Then bath/shower and bedtime stuff happens without me needing to attend to something else.

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if i was to make spag bog i would cook about 5 kilo of mince in that lot using about 13 to 14 jars of sauce maybe at that one time and freeze it in small potions and cook pasta and warm to serve.

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:o thats a whole lot of spag bog there WOW

Hey Pixie Chick

DD used to eat dinner ealier, but we have now switched things around, I cok dinner so we eat 6:15-7pm ish, depending on the day and her mood, sometimes we can have a later dinner and it is all cool, other days we have to had it ready by 6:15 as she is buggered and wants to go to bed.

This week she has gone to bed at anytime between 7:15pm and 9:30pm (last night) I had no idea last night that it was that last, but she had alate arvo sleep and didn't wake until nearly 7pm :o, so we had some playtime, dinner, playtime, then bottle and bed. I am not worrying about getting her down by 7pm or similar time, just trying to enjoy the extra awake time we get together.

She used to always get put down earlier, but since we share meals it is a bit later now, but most nights it is usually by 8pm.

But I have found that having her meal a little later is working well for us. And if she is starving at 5-5:30pm I give her a small snack to tide her over.

I do have a back up meal or two in the fridge incase we have to get her a quick dinner if she is super grumpy and won't make it for me to cook.

I guess I should be working at getting her bedtime earlier and more consistent, but I guess having her in Daycare 3 days a week it gives us some special time on those days together.

:hugs: hope you find something that works for you.
Take care hun
xxooxxoo

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:o thats a whole lot of spag bog there WOW

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thats a normal amount on make up, i come from a large family and soon will have a family of 5 kids 2 adults so yeah i have always been used to cooking for at least 2 nights so when i cook i make for a lot of ppl and freeze what i can rarely i will cook for one night enless its fresh salad but if its potato salad we would use about 3kilo of spuds and make that up lol BIG eaters here same with mash potato hehe We buy pasta sauce in LARGE amounts i spend recently in coles or woolies 50 on just pasta sauce and otehr sauces liek chicken tonight on their sale haha. We use it for bases for lots of things. i wonder how many jars i have of pasta sauce left hrmmm:redface:

i dont make two different meals enless its out of freezer and YES i have a lot of freezer space. Normally its left overs and what ever the meal is and we just re heat it.

pixie if i feed joshie to late he falls asleep with food in his mouth.

Maz as a child my mom would take off for weeks at a time and we would have no food in house so i fear that even now so i always do my best to keep the freezer full of pre-made foods and also so when i feel off i can always give the kids some pre-made good food rather than resorting to take out that we simply cant afford.

I lived with a sister who barely ever cooked although she took all of my Austudy. I have 4 kids aswell babe so know were your coming from with food. I have a HUGE pantry (ask anyone thats come here) I use to use alot of those 'jars' for the same reasons...convience was a big one but im learning to get back to basics and cook from scratch as the additives in alot of the jars effect mine and M's skin (ezcemer). it doesnt help having one with autism either who wont eat sauce based food. He's taught me how to cook from raw again IFYKWIM.

ETA and hon...Ive got 4 kids t00 ;)

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ETA and hon...Ive got 4 kids t00 ;)

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yeah i get ya maz totally, im so lucky i can use the jars i WISH i had a large cupboard but i dont so we store it in tubs under the house our food thats jared. I am really SHOCKED to find i have 37 jars in total of dolmio ragetto and five brothers and 32 jars of other sauces like honey and soy or chicken catatorie and that doenst include the other stuff like tinned soup for when i don't want to make from scratch or flour or pasta or the rice or the 5 bottles of disinfectant. Im really SHOCKED im not shopping till we eat some of this stuff. I never see the food i buy hubbie takes down stair i write a list and he brings it up its that simple. I wish i had your cupboard maz BTW we shop monthly were ever possible.

p.s SORRY pixie for taking over a bit of your thread :(.

Actually an odd day for us today, She was up at 7:15am, Nap from 10:45-1:15pm, then refused an afternoon sleep :o dinner at 6:15, milk 6:45 and bed by 7, more than happy to go to be was actually really happy and giggled when I put her in her cot and popped the sheet and blanket over her... will see when she decides to wake. She was grotty though for most of the time late this arvo as she was tired :rolleyes:

I think at the moment she is going through a very-difficult-to-put-to-bed phase. Today for example she had one sleep from about 10.30 to just before 12, had lots of excitement, visitors, our SIL & BIL brought their dog over, she played in the paddling pool, went to the park and was obviously completely knackered from about 4.30. Yet it took over an hour to get her to finally go to sleep. She won't really have a bar of the Bear trying to put her down, just screams for me. Also the Bear is on a diet atm so a lot of the things I used to find easy to cook are not really on the menu anymore - eg. can't cook pasta in the evenings cause he isn't having carbs after lunchtime so I need to find new things I can cook. Squids I have the same problem if I feed her too late she is too tired to eat. The Bear and I sometimes cook together after she is in bed, that works well, but if he cooks by the time he gets home, figures out what he wants to eat and cooks something its usually after 10pm and for me that's just too late. I think we will just have to go with cooking together when she is in bed for now and :crossfingers: she starts to go to sleep a bit easier! Thanks for all the hints and tips guys!

I was having this same problem up until about a month ago. I'd get the girls into bed and then find I had to cook dinner for DH and I.DH doesn't finish work til 6 at the earliest, and the shortest trip home for him is about 40 minutes. So I was cooking dinner for Natty @ 5-5:30pm and dinner for DH and I after they went to bed, so we'd eat around 8pm. The rationale behind cooking two meals was that dinner was DH and my 'quality' time together, but TBH it wasn't all that quality anyway.
So not so long ago, I decided that for a couple of reasons I would start to eat with Natalie...
1. She is a dreadful eater - not very adventurous. I reckon that's been exacerbated by her eating by herself all this time.
2. I am too overweight. I was snacking and stuff while DD was eating, then eating dinner with DH, so essentially eating two dinners. Now I find I feel a lot better for eating earlier.
So DD and I eat around 5:30, and then DH has his dinner when he gets home (usually he waits until the girls are in bed and I sit with him while he eats so we still get to hang out). And I only have one dinner ;)
So that's the arrangement for us now. I sometimes still do end up cooking two meals, but that's because DH is a fussy eater, so I'm used to that anyway (if I feel like having something exciting, LOL).

ATM, DD has her tea around 5.30 and then is quite often in bed by 6.30-7pm, so I'll cook dinner then. I don't cook 2 dinners - I tend to set aside DD's meal for the next night when I cook ours, or on days like yesterday, when there was no dinner for her in the fridge, I cooked ours early so she could have that. I also go out around 6.30 on a Monday night, so that is probably the one night where I will sit and eat with DD. On the weekends, its much more flexible depending on whats going on. She;ll often eat with us and just go to bed a bit later.

Hey Pixie, how is Bump going at the moment? Much change since the other day?
I hope things are getting easier for you xxoo :hug:

I'm fairly flexible and I've found since DD has been eating similar to what DH and I eat, she has dinner with us (feeds herself by hand lol) at the table...Not sure how old your littleun is :redface:;)?

So we don't really have any issues with juggling as such. We try to eat dinner between 5.30pm and 6.30pm. Then its bath time for both kids, then 'wind down' time until 8pm. Then we get both of them off to bed and the evening is ours!

Leesa she's 15 months. She feeds herself too, the only real issue is that the Bear gets home from work reaaaaaaaaaaaally late, far too late for us to eat together. And that its world wrestling to get her into bed atm.
Last night was a bit different, I fed her dinner, she went to bed pretty easily, the Bear phoned at 8.30 and said he was still at work and would still be a while, so I had dinner and then he rang back just after I finished and said he was coming home and was there any chance of tea! :doh: Had to do 3 meals!!!! :rolleyes: They were all simple but still, I should open a restaurant it would be easier!

Pixie it's a circus sometimes isn't it?

I have a rule that we all eat together. All meals that we are home for we all sit down together.

We eat dinner between 6-630pm. I cook almost every day during the day. Because I have a large family and I am a single parent I really need to be organised.

I cook double of things like spagetti bolognese. I cook from scratch - the only thing I use in a can is tomatoes/tomato paste. I actually use my slow cooker for spag bog and it's gorgeous. Then the left over (sometimes I make enough for 3 meals) I make into lasagne.

I make chilli con carne the same way in the slow cooker - it is yummo and I freeze the next lot...

That way when you have a blow out day there is always something to haul out of the freezer.
I always make pesto and I freeze that too. Its great to have over pasta with a fresh green salad when you have a busy day too... Or it's easy to fry up some chicken thighs and roast some tiny tomatoes in the oven. Toss the chicken in it and the tomatoes and slice avocado over the top and add shaved parmesan!

I find with freezing it cuts out lots of work - and you all eat better!

I find if the dinner is done that is a big job out of the way. My kids like a religion are in the bath at 5pm. Immy goes to bed at 7pm - the others at 8pm. (DS and DD14 go a bit later)...

I do homework (or kids do!) at about 4.30pm. But of course some days are sport after school, guitar/piano lessons etc etc... It really does get busy.

So yep - cook in the morning or during the day and that saves heaps of stress at the end of the day. :hug:

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our tea time is 5.30 - 6pm. If one of us isnt here then a plate is made and put in the fridge for when that person comes home. That was if jed is home late from work and its the kids bed time...I can take control of it and he can have his tea in peace.
I prepare tea through the day when I have a spare 5 mins...otherwise its a quick salad with something that will be cooked quickly..eg steak, snitzel ect.
Best and most valuable thing I ever bought was a slow cooker hon. Put it on in the morning and yourve got a beautifully cooked meal at the end of the day without having to worry

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Im the same as maz, we have dinner about 5.30 or 6pm and if hubby isnt home it gets up into the fridge for reheating. the kids get a bath or shower at 5pm, laceys in bed about 6.30pm to 7pm depending on if dinner was at 5.30 or 6. joel then normally goes to bed or falls asleep on the couch about 7 or 7.30.

We have never made a huge deal out of things, routine at this time i think is semi important but you also have to be flexible and go with it.

Oh day sleeps are only lacey and thats at about 12pm so shes awake about 2 or 2.30 sometimes 3pm.