Tip Jar: Toddler Routine for SAHM

Becoming a stay at home Mom excited me! While I was a little nervous about making the transition, I was also so ready to manage the household and grab hold to some sort of routine. I searched Pinterest all the time for sample schedules prior to leaving my marketing career and figured I would share our routine if you happen to be a working Mom making the leap to SAHM or just someone who likes to see how others do things (this is totally me, I’m so nosy!)

Today I wanted to share a sample of our routine around here – particularly for the boys – Tommy is nearly 18 months and JP is 3 years old. I followed this same exact schedule since JP was around 12 months and it still continues to work for him (with some modifications) and Tommy. I was recently chatting with a Mom and her son is almost 2. She was telling me his morning nap was rough and his naps (he was still doing two naps a day) felt really short. I suggested switching him to one nap a day as he was probably not tired at that time of the day anymore. She seemed hesitant because as a Mom, it is great to have some free time to get things done, but once I mentioned the afternoon naps were 3 hours, she couldn’t believe it!

I want to note, we are not ultra strict routine followers. There are times where we flex, but we are able to bounce back immediately into the routine. For example, nap time could get bumped a half hour – hour later, so I will generally try to recognize, if that happened, bedtime might be a little later that day as well. It’s all about reading your kiddos cues. You can tell when they are tired and actually, if your child is “routined”, they will tell you they’re ready for bed!

Sharing a loose look at our daily routine and will also give some commentary under each time stamp if applicable.

Morning Block

Since I am at home, we are able to wake on the later side. The kids will sleep in until 7:30 am (sometimes even 8:00 am)

Once they are up, I make them breakfast then turn on a cartoon as I clean up or get myself together. This could be throwing a load of laundry in, putting makeup on, touching up my hair, unloading the dishwasher, etc.

During the winter months, we hibernate – and especially during this time of COVID and nearly all kid activities being shut down – we are in ULTRA hibernation mode. The kids have been doing great using their imagination and playing together, but a lot of times our activities include hide and seek, puzzles, coloring, Play Doh, PicassoTiles, etc.

During the summer months, we are outside running around, out and about a lot more and just busy from 9:30 am until lunch.

Regardless of the season, errands, play dates, programs and/or outings need to be done in the mornings because the boys nap in the afternoon.

Somewhere in between the activities and errands, the kids are ALWAYS getting hungry, so I make sure I’m prepared to provide snacks mid morning!

Lunch Time

Around 11:30, I lure the kids back inside or if they are playing, I will just turn the TV on as background noise. They will generally gravitate to it and this gives me some free time to get lunched made uninterrupted.

Around noon we will eat our lunch. I try to make sure I sit and eat with them as well – lunch time around here is QUICK!

After they eat lunch, I allow them to wind down a little more. Most of the time TV or a puzzle do the trick.

Nap Time

I always take Tommy up first for nap around 12:45 pm. He goes down pretty quick, so then it’s back downstairs to give JP the 20 minute warning. Tommy will take a nice 3 hour nap (sometimes a little longer) and JP seems to have a shorter nap time ~ 2 hours or so.

Around 4 – 4:30 pm all bodies are awake and starving, so another round of snacks it is!

Evening Block

After a little more time playing outside or playing with toys, it’s time for me to start making dinner. We like to eat around 5:30-5:45 ish.

After dinner, we will try to clean up and then will do something as a family. In the summer, we like to go on walks, swim, get ice cream or play outside together. In the winter, sometimes we will go to the store, stop by a family members house, go for a drive, bake, play games, or watch a movie together.

Around 8 p.m., I figure out whether baths are needed then get Tommy in his jammies. Tommy goes down at 8:30 p.m. The other two kiddos will stay up until around 9:15 p.m. – and that’s a look at our daily routine!

I’m trying to enjoy these days where school is not full time and activities/sports are extremely low. I know the days won’t be like this for long.

Hope this was a helpful resource for you!