When is too early to put your child to bed?

I work 8:30am-3pm Monday-Friday , I have an almost 8 month old and a two year-old. I work at a daycare and bring my kids with me to work. so by the time I’m home I am literally exhausted😩 I like to have at least an hour to myself if I’m lucky at night , I usually cook dinner around 4:30-5ish and have both the kids bathed and ready for bed by 6:30-7ish. but is that too early? My daughter normally doesn’t fall asleep till like 8:30-9 ish but I put her in her room and she plays and watches her Elmo til bedtime and that’s when I usually have my quiet time . I just feel guilty, because I know it’s so important to have time for yourself, but I don’t want my child’s childhood boring , she gets to play all day long at daycare just by the time I’m home I don’t have energy 😵‍💫

Read more on Peanut

The views expressed in community are solely the opinions of participants, and do not reflect those of Peanut.

Learn more about our guidelines.

Add a comment

The only thing I would keep in mind is when they’ll wake up. Going to bed earlier means getting up earlier too. If she’s not tired until 9, and she already has a long independent night time routine, I don’t see a reason to feel guilty to relax during that time? I mean, it sounds like she plays a lot, sees other kids a ton, and has a great childhood. Having a long wind-down window where they can be by themselves and relax as long as they are in a baby proofed room, I don’t see an issue?

Have you tried cutting out screen time before bed? I know that might be rough but I found screen time right before bed was keeping my daughter up later. We cut off screen time min of 2 hours before bed. This was just my experience. Also depending on you kid going to be earlier might not mean an earlier wake up time. It really is about routine. My daughter has the same wake up time every morning including weekends but when she falls asleep varies depending of what her day looked like. What time do your kiddos get up and what does their nap time look like? I cut my daughter’s naps to 1.5 hours and that has helped with winding down and going to sleep at night

in our community

Driving alone with baby?

When did you first drive with just your baby in the back? I've got the full safe setup installed but I am still nervous to drive anywhere alone yet. My baby is 5 weeks old on Friday and there's a bf support group I want to attend but it's too far to walk there :(

When my husband drives I am in the back with my son, holding his head when there are sharp turns and potholes because he is still a bit too small for the car seat to be holding his head in place (apparently this is normal and still fine but it worries me!)

How long did you wait?

Obviously you’re meant to wait at least 6 weeks after giving birth but is it still safe to do it before the 6 weeks?

Need advice!!

Posting as incognito as I don’t want to feel judged! I’ve tried getting hold of my health visitor but she never answers the phone.

My little boy is 13 weeks old and is breast fed, he won’t take to dummies or anything like that.

Since around maybe 11 weeks he has point blank refused to sleep in his next to me (he’s not been too much of a fan sleeping by himself in his own bed since birth but would sleep in there for a good 5 hours) at night time so for 2 weeks I’ve only been able to get him to sleep in bed next to me on the boob, now he also has not been able to sleep without boob in his mouth and if I move an inch or even go for a wee he kicks off immediately (he just wants to be on my boob throughout the whole night) nothing myself or my partner has tried has worked, I’ve tried pumping and giving him a bottle before bed but that made everything 10x worse to the point he refused to sleep for 4 hours. I’ve even tried leaving the room so my partner can try patting him off/ cuddling him but my boy screams to the top of his lungs until I come back and then he’s fine. He also sleeps absolutely fine during his naps too with the occasional fighting his nap time.

He’s had a sleep regression at 12 weeks and is now out of that sleep regression and is also teething but I just genuinely don’t understand why he’s is like this now! I honestly feel like a prisoner in/ tied down to my own bed at night and I’m also starting to dread bed time as I’m not getting a full nights sleep from where he’s stirring looking for my boob constantly/ looking to make sure I’m still there and where my body won’t let me be in a deep sleep where he’s sleeping next to me.

It’s genuinely getting to the point where I’m feeling down and emotional all the time and where I’m not sleeping properly I’m a lot more snappy with my partner/ others than usual.

Cycle after birth?

When did your cycle come back after giving birth? I just made it to 6 week postpartum and I’m a breast feeding mom. I heard breast feeding stops your cycle from coming is that true?

Milk coming in 27 weeks!

Hey just wanted to check if it’s normal to be leaking a small amount of milk at 27 weeks? This is my second baby and my milk didn’t come in with my first until around 36 weeks🫣

Baby won’t sleep after 3am feed

My baby is 11 weeks old. He sleeps quite well initially from 9pm to 3am. After he wakes up for a feed I can get him back to sleep but without fail he wakes up 30 minutes later grunting and wriggling. He does this so much he wakes himself up. I’m struggling with my days starting at 3am. Any advice on how to deal with this?