My daily routine with children during school holidays | Parenting series

Waking up

When children are in the equation you find that your lie-ins become somewhat non existent. No matter how late they go to bed, they somehow get up at the crack of dawn and are ready to play, scream and get the fun started. Having three adults in the house, my mum will often get up with them and my partner and I will often sit in bed in the morning to patch up anything needed before the day such as work, alarms and such whilst we drink our morning coffee. If he is at work, I will do this on my own for a little bit of ‘Me time’.

Breakfast will be done whilst we are all downstairs and the children will eat. We will eat with them and watch some cartoons. Play time will then begin for a short while in the lounge. Once we are settled we will get the children to clear away their toys before heading up stairs for some playtime in their bedrooms.

We make beds and clear away before playing role playing games like ‘hair dressers’, ‘mums and dads’ and ‘A day at work’. I often do some work at my desk during this as it’s fitting with their role play games. They also have a little play of some childrens video games with Lewis or myself depending on work days etc.

Lunch time

Around 12.30/ 1pm we will get ready for lunch and snacks. We either eat up or downstairs whilst watching a programme and doing a little puzzle. We make the childrens lunch and dish it up, before then making our own to enjoy. We like to try different foods and mix it up each day to keep lunch times interesting. If the weather is dry and sunny we also like to eat outside which is a nice change. Being out in nature is really positive and refreshing.

Cleaning

We like to make sure the children understand that once they are finished playing with one thing that they put it away to keep a clean surrounding ready for the next activity! It’s great to make cleaning fun so try and make it a different game each day. It’s vital to clean up bit by bit to ensure it doesn’t get on top of you and become overwhelming and out of hand; After all you need to feel good in your surroundings and not let things get the better of you. A clear home really can help to create a clear mind.

Dinner

To keep in time with an early night, we try to make dinner time around 4.30/ 5pm. We begin making dinner around 3.45pm ready to dish up just after 4.30pm. We like to make different meals each evening to spruce it up for the children and let them try different things. We like to finished dinner at latest 5.15pm to let them settle before bath time.

We then clear around, fill up bottles and get pyjamas ready. We like to draw the curtains in the childrens bedrooms and put on their fairy lights. We charge the laptop ready for the before bed film and then get the bath running.

Photo by mahyar motebassem on Unsplash

Bath time

I take charge in getting PJ’s ready. I pop them on the side in the bathroom ready for when the children are out of the bath. I run the bath and put some sleepy lavender bath gel in to calm and soothe the children ready for a nice, smooth night. I also love to use some fun products like glittery marshmallow bath gel and even some LUSH bath bars.

I get the toys out of the little wall basket and lay them out on the baths edge. We have some bath letters that stick to the wall so I put them on the wall so that it’s even more enticing to the children! I won’t lie, I love them too hehe.

We have a nice relaxing yet fun bath time and it really sets the mood for evening. We then get them out, get them dry and into clean and fresh PJ’s.

Bed time

We have small cups of tea and a biscuit at the ready to calm them even more and get them cosy. Sometimes we will have some hot cocoa and marshmallows too depending on the night. If it’s a school night we aim to get them into bed by 7/ 7.30pm, however if it is a weekend or holiday night we don’t mind pushing it back to 8pm or just after. We find that when the evenings become lighter it is a lot harder to get them into the early night routine as their body clocks just get very confused. We have helped this by buying blackout curtains which make their bedrooms a lot darker than the average thin ones.

I find it really hard to define bed time when the evenings are lighter as my body clock alongside my Autism gets very muddled up, hence why I much prefer Autumn and Winter as the evenings are dark, cosy and make much more sense to me. I believe the kids will find it much easier during the darker and colder seasons and they will be more motivated to get cosy with the darker evenings.

We read stories to the children whilst in bed and put a princess film on to get them in the ‘dream time’ mood. We don’t always have a straight forward bed time as sometimes we encounter some messing and restlessness, not to mention the toilet breaks.. but most nights are ok. It really is all about getting into a routine with children. Once you enforce a routine, they will soon adapt to it and their body clocks will become in tune.

Me time

Once the kiddies are in bed and settled we will all use this time to have some well deserved down time to ourselves. I’m really trying to reconnect with my perfect evening routine. It’s very hard to keep your own perfect routine when you have lots of children to tend to, but it most certainly isn’t impossible to get in some ‘me time’.

When mum is putting the youngest to bed, I will get my PJ’s ready and then will leave my bath running whilst I clean downstairs up, put on a few candles, scent the room using the wax melt and room spray and then make my mum a coffee ready for when she comes downstairs to relax. I then get myself a hot lemon or green tea as well as a cold drink and have a nice long soak in the bath whilst the fairy lights and candles create a gorgeous warm glow. I will either schedule some tweets or read some posts as I soak and then wash my hair to feel nice and fresh. I continue my skin care routine and then head up to bed. I lie in bed, watch some programmes, talk to my other half and then read a chapter of one of my current reads!