Getting multiple children to bed might seem stressful. Read these tips to make bedtime for your large family a little easier.

Being a parent to one child makes bedtime routine a somewhat easy process. You have one child and you set one routine but when you’re looking to develop a bedtime routine for multiple kids, you’re in a whole new ballgame.

Here are 7 tips to help you develop an appropriate bedtime routine for multiple kids.

Meal Plan for the Win

The evening should really set off the proper environment and routine so that your kids are able to predict what’s next. You’ll be starting with dinner and moving on towards bedtime. If you start meal planning, you’ll be able to have a little extra time on the other end of your evening to develop and follow through with a consistent bedtime routine for multiple kids.

Try for Consistency

The first step in developing a bedtime routine for multiple kids is to ensure you’re aiming for a consistent bedtime routine that will work all week long. Every night you’ll have to follow through with your bedtime routine strategy to ensure bedtime goes smoothly with less stress and longer sleep-filled nights. Think about the ages of your kids and what works to calm each kid.

Distract Older Kids

Now that you’ve made more time in the evening by implementing meal planning and you’re aiming to be consistent, you can start by figuring out how to distract the older kids. If you have a wide range of ages, it’s best to develop a pattern where the older kids read alone while you’re working to get the younger kids started off to bed.

Get Tasks Done

Now that you’ve distracted the older kids with some alone time, such as reading a good book in silence, you can now focus on the bedtime tasks for your younger kids. Consider starting with a bath, teeth brushing and pajamas with a book read aloud to your younger kids. This will send the signal that tuck in will be happening soon which means it’s time to start getting mentally prepared for bedtime.

Read with Little Kids

Now that you’ve completed the bedtime routine tasks of bathing and teeth brushing with your younger kids, it’s time to send your older kids off to those bedtime routine tasks done on their own since they should be old enough to do so unsupervised. While the big kids are bathing, brushing teeth and getting their pajamas on, read a book aloud to your younger kids.

Deal with Deep Sleepers First

All bets are off when developing a bedtime routine for multiple kids if you put the light sleepers to bed first. Regardless of age, be certain that you tuck your deep sleepers into their own bedrooms or beds before you deal with the kids who tend to wake up for any small noise. Believe me; this step in developing a bedtime routine for multiple kids will help this become a successful routine.

Gather the Light Sleepers

Next up, you’ll want to gather up those light sleepers and get them tucked into their beds and bedrooms. These light sleepers may need a noise machine or even a small fan running to ward off outside noises. This will allow them to focus on a relaxing noise so that they can drift off to sleep without much of a fuss.
Once you’ve used all of my steps and tips for developing a bedtime routine for multiple kids you’ll find that you soon have a little bit of adult time after the kids are asleep. Developing and implementing a consistent bedtime routine will ensure that everyone in your home starts getting more sleep on a regular basis.

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