Do you struggle to get your two year old to go down to sleep easily? Here’s my two year old bedtime routine that me and my daughter love!
Bedtime routines can be the most depressing and trying time of the day for a parent. All you want to do is sit down in silence and take a breath, but….the children aren’t in bed yet. It’s highly tempting at this point to rush through the necessary to-do’s of getting your two year old to bed, but take it from someone who has learned the hard way. It’s so much better to slow down and make it a meaningful time.
Let me be real for a minute. Before I started this bedtime routine with my wild two year old daughter, bedtime felt like it was time to go on the warpath, war paint and all! A little dramatic, but bedtime was such a struggle for me.
I was so ready to be done for the day, but it hit me one day that bedtime might be hard because of me and not my daughter. I might actually be the reason it was such a struggle so I decided to do a little experiment and eventually settled into the bedtime routine I’ve shared here.
We were actually doing most of this things before, but not in a set order. Now we do it just like this every night because familiarity calms.
Something else that transformed our bedtime routine was that I had a change of heart. I realized I was being selfish and demanding things be done hastily which never ended well so I decided to loose the war paint and take on a gracious spirit reminding myself to…
- slow down and be patient no matter how long it takes because this brings peace into the situation
- take some time to snuggle and rock with her while singing a few extra songs because this helps us have a wonderful end to our day no matter what the day held
- choose love and kindness in the moment and not my selfish and hasty spirit
It felt like a huge sacrifice at first and I was tempted to think that taking extra time would be a waste because I hadn’t experienced the peace that could be there if I choose to slow down instead of rushing through everything.
It took surrender and honestly still does most nights because I’m still a selfish human being. Bedtime takes a little longer now, but I don’t really mind because a peaceful bedtime is so worth it!
If you’ve struggled with getting your two year old down, here’s my peaceful two year old bedtime routine to inspire and encourage you that you too can have peace at bedtime!
Eat a snack
My kids are always hungry right before bed. Although it hasn’t been that long since supper, they inevitably are hungry so I typically plan to have a snack for them to fill their bellies up before they go to sleep.
My go to bedtime snacks are…
- Fruit and cheese
- A slice of bread and peanut butter
- A smoothie – This is a new addition we’ve been loving this spring/summer since we’ve started going on a family walk after dinner. Bedtime approaches as we get back to the house but they are hot and need some extra hydration so I go the extra mile and make them a smoothie.
- Some cheerios
It really depends on the night as to what snack they get, but I always have something on hand to give them as a quick snack before bed.
Pray
We all need more prayer. You never know when it’s going to be a rough bedtime routine. Us parents need an extra measure of grace, strength, and wisdom (to say the least) as we are tired after a long day of doing our duties and the children need the same and more as well.
We are all fallen human beings and no matter how hard we try to be perfect, the truth is until we are fully sanctified and in heaven, we will still struggle with being immature. Prayer time before bed gives us one more opportunity in a day to come together as a household before God and worship him, ask forgiveness for our wrongdoings during the day, and seek reconciliation with God and each other.
Sometimes our prayer time before the kids go to bed goes smoothly and its somewhat peaceful and comforting to our souls, but often it is filled with the last corrections of the day to tired yet somehow still squirmy children.
Sometimes prayer time is simply a habit that night. We keep it and we practice being submitted to God. We try to set the example as the more mature beings and try to help our children follow along in a manner appropriate to the worship of God.
Most nights are a struggle and our song and scripture reading are said with droopy eyes or immaturity on everyones part, but we keep at it because God deserves to be worshiped and we keep striving for virtue.
What we actually do during prayer time varies from time to time and season to season, but we are striving to keep it simple and appropriate as this is still a moment to teach our young children that God deserves to be worshiped in all parts of our day and not just when we are at our best.
Get ready for bed.
Next we are off to get our pjs on.
My two year old can get herself dressed for bed for the most part. I will say that she is quite independent in a good way and likes to learn how to do things herself. My first child was not that way and couldn’t dress himself no matter how hard I tried to teach him until after he was three. It was seeing the second child do it that finally showed him that he was quite capable of doing it himself.
Don’t let it get to you if your two year old can’t dress themselves yet. Keep teaching them at the best of your ability and it will sink in one day.
After changing into pjs, I brush my two year olds teeth, have her go potty, and take out her hair ties. She still sleeps in a diaper. Although she is potty trained and stays dry all night long, she still has an occasional accident during the day so I put her in a diaper. She often still wants to wear her big girl undies so they go over the diaper, too.
Random note but completely related…Not buying pull-ups is one way our family chooses to be frugal. Diapers still work just as good during and after they are through with the initial potty training.
The next thing we do is give kisses and hugs and wish each other night-night. Sometimes the kisses never end and we have to interrupt the never ending cycle of wishing everyone good night. I don’t really mind because I love that all my kids are affectionate towards each other. It gives me another excuse to sneak in a kiss to my man, too as I playfully wish him goodnight alongside everyone else, but it does have to end sometime. We still have to go to bed. The routine is not over, and we can’t be stuck in a never ending cycle of well wishes and hugs.
For better or for worse, we part ways and continue on with the bedtime routine. My husband helps put my oldest son down for bed while I take the baby and my two year old to her room.
Snuggle and Sing
I lay my crawling infant on the floor with a toy or two and I sit down on the rocker in the corner. As I lean over to turn on the sound machine, my two year old gathers her paraphernalia and climbs into my lap. It always consists of her teddy bear swaddled in a blanket and often a few other things that bring her comfort.
I used to have a hard and fast rule about only having one thing to go to bed with, but I let that go after I realized it wasn’t a battle I needed to fight. The same things typically go to bed with her and if its too much for her to carry, there is a small cardboard box beside her bed that can hold extras. She is usually satisfied to lay some things down without too much complaint as long as it stays in the room with her.
Next, we gently rock and sing songs. More times than not, I let her pick the songs. Although I’m highly tempted to rush through the last bit of her bedtime routine, I have learned my lesson the hard way. It’s better if I just surrender to having some quality time with her and enjoy one more chance to snuggle with her as we sing and she calms down for the night.
Although the goal is to calm her down for the night, it’s fun to bond with her while we do have some one on one time and be a bit goofy while we sing. The extra laughs do both of our hearts good.
I always leave a certain song for the last song. This is her cue to climb off my lap and lay down and I cover her up as I sing it.
Time to Leave
Then I kiss her good night, pick up my infant, and walk to the door. I turn around to smile one last time at her, say another good night, and answer any last minute questions that are always so pressing in her little mind. I gently shut the door and leave.
At first this didn’t go smoothly as you can probably imagine, but every night it got better and there were less and less questions to answer. Even now as I am writing this, I have just come from her room where I put her down for the night and she didn’t have any questions. She was quite content to snuggle her swaddled teddy bear and go to sleep.
Final Thoughts!
Putting a two year old down to bed can be a trying experience. They are in that phase where they are much more wild and trying to wrangle them into their pjs and into their bed for the night is the last thing your weary soul wants to do.
It took me far too long to figure out a peaceful routine for my two year old daughter, but I’m so happy I finally put in the work and made it happen. Now I get to reap the benefits.
If you are struggling with getting your two year old to go down to bed in a decent manner, hang in there, friend! Surrender to doing the hard work of establishing a simple but meaningful bedtime routine like this one and it will get so much better!
Save it for later!
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