Care and Feeding | Slate's parenting show - Why Isn’t Our Bedtime Routine Working?
Slate Daily Feed
Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 6 November 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode: Zak, Jamilah and Elizabeth help out a listener who’s not sure why their family’s bedtime routine isn’t working. Their school-aged kid just won’t settle down sometimes, even after storytime and lights out – so what other tools are out there?
We also share a round of recommendations, and a round of your own tips and tricks for flying with kids.
Elizabeth recommends: Google Chrome Library Extension
Za recommends: Puppy Chow, aka Muddy Buddies, with milk
Jamilah recommends: No Hard Feelings
Join us on Facebook and email us at momanddad@slate.com to ask us new questions, tell us what you thought of today’s show, and give us ideas about what we should talk about in future episodes. You can also call our phone line: (646) 357-9318.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get an ad-free experience across the network and exclusive content on many shows—you’ll also be supporting the work we do here on Mom and Dad are Fighting. Sign up now at slate.com/momanddadplus to help support our work.
Podcast produced by Maura Currie.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This episode may contain explicit language. |
| 0:05.3 | Welcome to Mom and Dad are Fighting, Slate's Parenting Podcasts for Monday, November 6th, the Lights Out Edition. |
| 0:13.2 | I'm Jamila Lemieux, a writer, contributor to Slate's Karen Feeding Parenting column, and Mom to Naima, who is 10, and we live in Los Angeles. I'm Elizabeth Newkamp. I write the homeschool and family travel blog, Dutch Dutch goose. I'm the mom of three littles, Henry, his 11, Oliver, who's 9, and Teddy, who's 7. We live in Tokyo, Japan. I'm Zach Rosen. I make another podcast that's called The Best Advice Show. And I'm Dad to Noah, who's six, |
| 0:38.0 | and Ami, who's three. We live in Detroit. On today's show, we have a letter from a parent who can't |
| 0:43.2 | get their kids to settle down at bedtime. Then we will have recommendations and some advice from you |
| 0:48.6 | as we dive into our mailbag. See you back here in a minute. We're back. Let's get into our listener question. |
| 1:01.1 | Dear mom and dad, we have a young school-aged child who resist settling down at bedtime, even when our |
| 1:06.9 | nightly routine is well established. For example, they are nice when he just won't relax |
| 1:11.9 | after we read stories and turn off the lights. We're seeking a practical and fair approach that we can |
| 1:16.7 | enforce without being too strict. Any recommendations or ideas to make bedtime smoother? Thanks. |
| 1:22.9 | Bedtime never ends. Okay. First, I think that you need to look at your routine and just make sure that it's hitting |
| 1:32.4 | all of its goals. |
| 1:35.6 | So that would be the first thing that I did is just like, are you meeting sensory needs? |
| 1:41.7 | My kids need some like movement. like, some yoga or some jumping around |
| 1:47.3 | before you brush teeth. Are they getting, like, a little bit of adult time that is, like, |
| 1:53.8 | focused on them? Like, are you sitting with them a minute and letting them talk? Are you, like, |
| 1:57.8 | reading? Are you getting that cuddle time in? Like making sure that that |
| 2:01.8 | progression is happening. Because you say you have a routine, but like is the routine meaning all |
| 2:06.4 | their needs. All right. This is what we did when I had a very similar issue. I also think this is |
| 2:12.8 | just like something that happens with kids sometimes. Like they just the they don't want to go to bed. The adults are |
| 2:19.0 | staying up. Why can't they stay up? Right? Like they think they're missing all of the fun. |
| 2:23.2 | But we just needed a little bit of like enforcement. So I did something called bedtime passes, |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.