Hope you get better soon Heidi and Natalia

My before bed routine

Shine kitchen sink,counter and table,either mop the floor or shine stove.

Try not to yell at kids while they take forever to finish their before bed routine.

Try to find new convincing answers when every 2 mins one of them get out of bed with full open eyes and says :I'm NOT sleepy,or she's TOUCHING my bed or I'm hungry ( of course b/c she's been in bed for more than an hour ) or,or or .......

Take care of me : Teeth,skin...

Refill my water bottle,put it on night stand.

If I have time before the bedtime I fixed for myself I read a little bit

Can't wait for school to start when the kids will fall asleep much easier

Kids getting out of bed or delaying bedtime is inevitable. But, if Mandolin says "She's touching me." I have to call a shrink because she is an only child and there is no other "she."

Parents don't care about fair...they just want quiet. ~ Bill Cosby

How right . This exactly how we feel when it's bed time.

As for Mandolin , my 9yr. Hoda is her fan .She watched her JC movie many times and showed it to her father.


BTW each of DDs has her own CJ. They were ecxited at first but with no school they forgot about it . The 9 and 6 yr. old are much much better than the 13 yr. old ,she is always REBILLIOUS.
But thank God 2 days ago ,out of the blue , she showed me her binder FULL of lists and routines ,I was shocked
But still the only thing they don't follow any routines with is bedtime.I told them this is the most important one for me so I linked it with allawance.Is this right

At 13yo.. I was rebellious.. and as an only child, I had no one else to blame. LOL
Rhonda

Ah...gotta love 15 hour days at work....

Lina, I think linking your trouble area, bedtime, to allowance is fine and TOTALLY up to you. What is important to mom needs to be writen in stone and important to the kids - to keep mom happy!!! Or, we make this face...

For me, those scripted minutes of Mando's before bed routine allow me to get her out the door well rested. That effects her whole day - and mine! Plus, parents need time in the evening. Quiet time to not worry about matching socks and book bags. Ahhh. You have a whole bunch of little people to get out the door so I can't complain! We could trade 9 year olds

FYI, Mando's routine from school to bed is:

homework then launchpad her bag as soon as she is done
take care of the cats, 5 steps: food, water, scoop, wash hands, cuddle
do a 5 minute pick-up or a fast chore like her laundry
help with dinner and the dishes
brush hair and teeth and bathe, then tidy the bathroom
lay out her clothes and shoes
read for 20 to 30 minutes

In the morning, she is good to go in 15 minutes from bed to door.

Rhonda, you would have told on me A LOT.

ok, ok, i've been doing the mini BBroutine I had meant to do. go me!! I've been going to bed at 1.30 am the latest and moisturizing face and body right after shower. I'm proud of me

GO YOU

You can do it before Christmas,it's easy .

I haven't been doing very well with the before bed routine. What I figured out though is that I wait until it's too late to start a BBR. I think of doing it JUST as I'm off to bed. I need to start my BBR after dinner, like FlyLady says, not five minutes before bedtime. Part of it is my rebellious nature too. Or maybe it's that I don't like being responsible. When I can do things on my own, I'm fine, but once I feel that there is an obligation to do it, I just keep putting if off.

So even though it's late, I'm going to do a mini-BBR tonight. Tomorrow I"ll shoot for starting the BBR earlier.

I've foudn the most important thing about BBroutines, start with cleaning up after dinner. Now this works best when I actually cook, and he either didnt eat dinner or had cereal alot this week. But when flylady says to tackle the dinner dishes RIGHT after dinner.. that works for me. If i sit and relax too long after diner... I tend to stay there - fall asleep there, and drag my happy@ss to the bed and fall into it...

Just thinking here.
Rhonda

that's true for me, too. doing routines right after dinner did the trick. I've discovered I have enough time to do the routines before my program starts, then I can sit and veg till bed time without feeling guilty.

Last night I started my rountine late again, but I did get it done (clean the kitchen, brush my teeth, clothes ready for next day). Tonight I started my evening routine right after dinner. It does work better than doing it just before bed!