Hellobee Boards

We split bedtime - husband does bath time, I do books and putting her down. If one of us is out, the other tackles it all. There's nothing wrong with giving yourself a break, or even use the time to wrap something up. I say make it your New Year's resolution to let him do the whole thing a few nights a week. I doubt your LO will notice - mine's 2.5 and never has - and you'll feel a little more sane.

I do bedtime 99% of the time because DH works late. On weekends, it's just easier for me to do it, since I know the routine. DH gets up with E every day and does breakfast and getting ready for the day since I'm usually leaving for work right as E gets up. Now E prefers that the usual parent does their "assigned" time of day activities, since the other parent does it "wrong."

Lately I have been doing bedtime for DD (DS doesn't have a real bedtime/routine yet); most of the time DH cleans up from dinner and/or tidies up the living room. Sometimes though, if we are running late and only DD has eaten, he gets some extra free time. We used to take turns or split duties but since DS was born, I have been doing most of bedtime to give her a little one-on-one time. However, she's been getting a little more challenging at bedtime lately and I told DH last night I wasn't sure I could keep doing all of bedtime by myself every night. It's tiring (esp after WOH all day and being sleep deprived to boot) and my patience isn't what it once was! I think it's ok to give yourself a break/take turns when you can!!

@Bao: I feel the same way a lot, so I usually spend the time that hubby is doing bedtime doing dishes or turning down the lights, etc., but sometimes, I sit down on the couch and check Facebook for a few minutes. Because it's OK to not do everything all the time, the dishes will get done later on. Try to give yourself a break - I totally hear where you're coming from but it sounds like the only person really putting pressure on you to do something else is you and you should cut yourself some slack on that.

Omg, I cannot imagine having both of us on the hook for bedtime at the same time! We trade off so that the other person can either get something done or take a break.

Please recognize the value of giving yourself a break sometimes. It's good for everyone.

Sometimes we decide who will do bedtime, and sometimes we ask T who he prefers.

At the moment, we split bedtime between the boys. I'll do Logan's bedtime and Hubs will do Xander's. But before we had Logan, Hubs usually did Xander's bedtime while I did dishes/clean-up and relaxed! Once Logan is fully weaned (which will be soon, I suspect), we'll probably take turns doing bedtime (meaning one of us will put both kids to bed) so the other one can have a night off!

I do bath, my son asks for me to "run the bath" most nights, so even if my husband wanted to, it's not worth the discussion, lol. During this time, my husband is either working, cleaning up from dinner or reading on his phone for 15 minutes.

After bath, we all sit together in the living room for books. Then it's brushing teeth and into bed.

We both take turns. We both give him a bath, I put his jammies on and brush his teeth while DH gets our bedroom ready. Then I lay in our bed with him and we read as many books as we can and snuggle until he gets sleepy. DH then rocks him to sleep (hopefully I don't need to come and help but if he doesn't want to go to sleep DH and I take turns rocking until he does).

If I'm feeling sick or I'm busy DH does snuggle and books. But he usually joins us at some point on normal nights.

If DH is gone on a trip or I'm working late, the other will just take over everything.

We have a 3 year old DD and 1 year old DS, and we each put one to bed every night. The 1 year old literally takes 5 minutes to put down, while the 3 year old takes 30-45 minutes, so we switch off every night to keep it fair. The person who has the easy bedtime cleans up the kitchen and gets lunches / bottles ready for the next day, and then just gets to relax! Before when we didn't have set turns I feel like we both always just felt guilty / didn't want to do it, but now we know who's turn it is and it's nice to look forward to the easy days

With the 3.5 year old, we trade off on who reads to him and does the bedtime routine. If he's doing the routine, I'll help dress him and say goodnight. After that, I usually wash bottles and prepare them for the morning. I also do the baby's bedtime routine every night too. When I do the bedtime routine, I put the baby to bed and then get the toddler to bed.

I do 90% of bedtimes. DH is home and relaxing about 80% of the time. It really bugs me.
I'd be happier if he did the dishes while I did bedtime so that I could sit down when the girls are in bed, but I don't have the energy to fight about it anymore.

DH has done the majority of bedtime since DS was an infant. My mother did bedtime 2 nights a week when she nannied for us, but this will be her last week. I'm usually "off the clock" by the time dinner is finished and cleaned up - so around 5:30 or 6pm. DH then plays with DS, gives him his bath around 6:30pm, gets him into jammies and plays with him or reads books in his room, and then puts him to bed by 7:30pm. We keep the routine short and exactly the same for naps and bedtime (sleepsack, 2 songs, white noise machine, and humidifier in a dark room) so it doesn't really matter who does bedtime, but its great DH takes over in the evenings. I'm usually cleaning or running laundry or just relaxing during this time, although I'll join in to play sometimes.

DH does bath time every night. We used to switch off for who did stories and stuff, but lately he mostly does it. DS gets really upset when I try to leave him, so sometimes it's just easier for DH. Plus, I do mornings solo so I don't think it's too unfair for him to take the bulk of the evening stuff.

LO prefer me to do bedtime, and I do it most nights during the week because DH works long hours. If he is home, he does things like run the bath and get the bathroom ready for her bath, pick out pajamas and socks, make sure that her shades are drawns, turns on her fan, humidifier and white noise machine, etc., and brings things to me that I might need to get her ready. Even though I do bedtime, she still wants him to help her brush her teeth. Go figure...

We only do bath every second day, and we alternate who does it. Then I get her PJ's on, DH brushes her teeth and does stories/bed. I make next days lunch/clean up toys/fold laundry while he's doing that. We've never done bedtime together. I think that would rile her up.

We split routine duties - the one not doing the particular part of bedtime is usually folding laundry or something - i usually grab a quick shower while they're reading stories so I can just dry once lights are out.

if we're both home we split it, but we both aren't usually doing it at the same time. so like, I'll do bath, then dh dries her and puts on her jammies and brsuhes hair, then i nurse her, and if she doesn't fall asleep nursing then he rocks her/puts her in the crib and pats her.

SO does pretty much all of it. He finishes up dinner with them while I get the jammies out and run the bath water, then he bathes them together while I prep bottles and get started on dishes; he dresses lo2 and puts him down while I brush lo1's teeth and give him a quick snuggle.

Then depending on the night - one of us tackles the dining room and living room floors and the other the dishes, and then we collapse in a heap on the couch.

Most nights I run a load of laundry after dinner as well.