Super Easy Toddler Bedtime Routine

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023

Inside: Having a rock solid toddler bedtime routine in place can really cut down on bedtime meltdowns and protests. Having a predictable routine combined with giving your child simple choices to make throughout the routine can make all the difference. Find out how to create an easy nighttime routine in your house.

Toddler Bedtime

Ahhh, bedtime. Finally, you made it! There is nothing quite as nice as the feeling you get when your toddler is in bed for the night and you get to have some much anticipated me-time. I feel like there should be a trophy waiting for me when I close my toddler’s bedroom door for the night or at least some applause. 🏆

By 6pm, you’ll find me longingly staring at my couch willing it to be 8pm so I can binge watch some Netflix and enjoy the quiet. I’m usually starting to run out of my mama superpowers 🦸🏼‍♀️ by late evening and am more than ready for a break myself.

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The Importance Of a Bedtime Routine

We stick to a simple, no-fuss bedtime routine at our house. Babies and toddlers thrive on routine. They crave structure because it helps them feel more in control of their day when they know what to expect. A predictable and consistent bedtime routine can help mitigate meltdowns and create a smooth transition into bedtime.

A predictable bedtime routine is key to preventing any unwanted bedtime tantrums, pouting, and procrastinating. By late evening, I don’t have it in me to deal with an hour or two of toddler power struggles without losing my cool or becoming completely depleted of energy.

If you’re interested in creating a bedtime routine at your house, then here are my easy toddler bedtime routine tips:

1. Full Belly

I know toddlers can be super finicky with eating, but I try to make sure my toddler gets a nice dinner in each night – or at the very least – a nice big cup of milk with dinner.

I would not choose dinner time for going out of their comfort zone with new foods to try. No matter what meal it is, always make sure to have at least one thing on their plate that they will eat.

If you know that they likely won’t eat the meat in their meal, be sure to have an additional protein source added on their tray, such as cottage cheese, and of course, milk is always an option. That way you know the protein will keep their tummy nice and full and will aid in a good night of sleep later on.

2. Play Hard

The warmer weather months are great because you can spend the whole evening after dinner running around the yard, going on a walk, or visiting the playground to get alllll that toddler energy out. By the time bedtime rolls around, they will be so exhausted from all the playing, that they pass right out without any fuss.

Try to mimic this same concept through the colder months as well, which means more one-on-one interacting and getting creative in the house with games.

Some of my favorite energy-zapping indoor activities are:

• Put some music on and dance around the living room while singing along
• ‘Ring Around the Rosie’
• playing chase / peek-a-boo / hide and seek.
• Walking push toys around or using sit-on scooters
• ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes’ song. This is great for getting energy out. Make it a game by seeing how fast you can go when repeating it.
• The nugget. Best. Toy. Ever. There are countless configurations to be made with the nugget and it’s great for gross motor and vestibular play. You can even use it as a fort.

The key is to use up all that energy now.

3. Bath + Brush + Jammies

The bath can be your nightly signal to start winding down for the night. Baths are warm and soothing and are another great way to get some of that fun last minute energy out. Add some bubbles to make it more fun.

For any of the activities that my toddler is obsessed with, I use the “bye-bye” and “timer strategy”. They really are the only strategies that I’ve found to consistently work at preventing tantrums and ending playtime without protest.

Tantrum-Avoiding Strategies

My son could stay in the tub all day, he just goes crazy for bath time. When we are just about done I will start with the “timer strategy” and announce that we’ve got, “one more minute to play” so that he isn’t totally surprised when I tell him to get out.

When the minute is up, I will announce that it’s time to, “say bye-bye to the tub”. And I’ll start leading by example, “bye-bye tub, bye-bye water, bye-bye hose, bye-bye bubbles”. He will start chiming in and the majority of the time, won’t give me any grief.

To conclude bath time, we brush teeth and get jammies on. Sometimes he will try to protest both of these activities, so I use another strategy, “prep”. I prep him in advance of the activity so that he knows what to expect.

For example, when bath time is ending, I will say, “one more minute and we’ve got to brush our teeth”. And also, “okay, let’s get out and brush our teeth now”. And once we finish brushing, I’ll say, “okay, teeth are cleaned, let’s go get jammies on”. This way, he knows that when we walk into his room, it isn’t a playtime free for fall. He knows I expect to put jammies on right away.

Talking them through each step really can help prevent protests and power struggles. It helps them feel in control to know what is coming next.

4. Set the Mood

After bath, set the ‘bedtime mood’ by keeping playtime calm, lights dimmed, and voices low. Don’t engage in amped up high-energy games or tickle-fests. Set the tone for the whole house to be chill.

My husband knows I’m crazy about this because I will side eye him so hard if he starts to rough house this late in the night. 😆 It’s so important to wind down at this point in the night though. This transition time should be about 30-45 minutes before bedtime.

5. Quiet Play

After bath time is over and jammies are on, head over to your playroom or play area and let them lead you in quiet play. The key is to give activity choices that are quiet and relaxing. Try to avoid toys with batteries during this period, because they can be loud and stimulating.

Some of my favorite indoor quiet playtime activities are:

• Puzzles
• Fine motor skill games (putting shapes into holes, putting sticks into a slot, etc.)
• Play kitchen
• Any other imaginative play such as: little people, vet clinic, baby dolls
• Blocks
• Coloring
• Reading

During this quiet time play, it is important to give your child your full attention for at least a portion of this time. Really connect with them and engage in play. It helps ‘fill their cup’ and leaves them feeling satisfied and content before bed.

6. Clean Up Toys

Choose a time and stick to it for the next transition in your bedtime routine, which is cleaning up. Generally, doing this about 15 minutes before bedtime, or so should be fine. It kind of depends on how messy the room is.

Never leave the playroom a mess before bed. It takes just a few extra minutes to tidy up and is a great habit for your little one to learn and be part of each night. You’ll be so happy to begin your day with a clean playroom the following morning.

I usually just announce that it’s time to clean up and prompt my son to help by saying, “can you put your blocks in here?” or “Put your stuffies away” and “where do your crayons go?”.

You can use the “timer” and “bye bye method” here, if needed too. An example of each method would be, “okay, say bye bye to your blocks now” and “we’ve got to clean up in 2 minutes”.

7. Books + Cuddles

Once clean up is done, head over to your child’s room and pick out books to read. This is the point where you need to begin giving them lots of options. Giving your toddler options helps them feel in control of bedtime and can really minimize tantrums and protests.

You can let them choose which book to read, which stuffed animal to cuddle, whether they want mommy or daddy to read, if they want to read on the floor or the rocking chair, etc.

You are giving them simple choices, but you are still in control of when bedtime starts. I recommend having a wall clock in the nursery so that you can keep an eye on the time. When there are about five minutes left until your set bedtime, announce, “okay, one last book, which book do you want?”

After that book is completed, let them know that it’s bedtime. If you get some grumbles or they start to cry, reassure them but stick to your word. You can hug them and say, “it’s okay, I know reading is fun, we can read more tomorrow. But right now we are going to bed” and move on.

8. Sound Machine

I use the Hatch sound machine and love it. This is a must-have product for bedtime. It allows you to set multiple programs that run automatically each day without any work on your end. You can also control the entire thing from your phone.

I have ours set to automatically turn on to the white noise setting at naptime and bedtime each day. The minute it turns on, my toddler knows it’s officially time for bed.

When bedtime and naptime are over, I’ve got ours programmed to change from white noise to birds chirping and from no light to a rainbow light that runs for five minutes.

This allows my toddler to be woken gently and cues me in that it’s his wake time each morning. Giving him that five minutes of birds chirping before heading into the nursery helps eliminate any morning just-woke-up grumpiness.

The pre-programmed naptime and bedtime schedule has been a real bonus for our babysitters. It takes the guesswork out for them and it also instills that sense of routine for our toddler, even when we aren’t there.

9. Sleep Sack + Lights Off

Once it’s officially bedtime, do a quick change over to a nighttime diaper (my favorite ones), put on your child’s sleep sack, and give them another choice: “are you ready for lights off?” Again, just letting them feel in control of when bedtime starts (even if they really aren’t in control) can help prevent any protesting.

10. Lullabies + Goodnight Kiss

After the lights go off, give one last choice: what do they want you to sing. We sing one quick little nursery rhyme song that my toddler picks while standing near the crib and snuggling. Then “prep” them again. At our house, I say, “okay, now mommy is going to sing one last song” and then I sing the same exact song each night. This lets him know it’s finally bedtime.

Afterward, I set him down and I say this, “Goodnight, I love you, mommy will be back in the morning”. That one last reminder that you will be back helps “prep” them for you leaving. They learn each morning that you do come back and that your word is golden.

Example Routine

I’ll share with you an example of this routine in real time. Remember though, that with toddlers, you can never go by exact times. Something will inevitably force you to stray from exact times when creating routines. Use this as a guide, but it is just one example – not every night will look the same.

Example Bedtime Routine
5:30-6:00PM	Dinner: Full Belly
6:00-7:00PM	Play Hard
7:00-7:15PM	Bath + Brush + Jammies
7:15	Set The Mood
7:15-7:45	Quiet Play
7:45-7:50	Clean Up Toys
7:50-8:00	Books + Cuddles
8:00	Sound Machine
8:00	Sleep Sack + Lights Off
8:00	Lullabies + Goodnight Kiss

Sticking To The Bedtime Routine

Adapt a bedtime routine for your children using these examples and make it a point to really stick with it. Once you have established a routine and it becomes predictable for your toddler, you can than be more lax with it, to a point.

I do this same routine every single night that we are home just hanging around. But I may stray from some parts if we aren’t home that evening, whether because we are out at dinner or the park, doing errands, or visiting friends and family. Sometimes, in the summer, when it’s really beautiful out, we will just play outside right up until the last 15 minutes before bedtime.

But I always keep the last portion the same: books and cuddles, sound machine, sleep sack, lights out, lullaby, and goodnight kiss. It’s important that you practice the same ‘ending’ to your bedtime routine so your little one can predict what comes next.

Remember, in the beginning, when you are first establishing a bedtime routine, you really do need to stick with it and keep it the same. It’s only much later, once they know the drill, that you can be more flexible without any hiccups in their behavior.

Consistency Is Key

Once you consistently stick to a bedtime routine, your little one will learn to predict what happens and this, combined with using the strategies described, should aid in a smooth and easy bedtime for everyone.

Know that your toddler will most certainly go through weird (and frustrating) bedtime protest phases or regressions. The best thing that you can do during these periods is to stick with it.

Don’t change up the routine because you think bedtime ‘isn’t working’ any more. This will just confuse them further and teach them that protesting gets them the delay they are looking for.

Keep things consistent, keep your boundaries, and make them feel in control with small choices (which book, which chair) and prep before transitions into each phase of bedtime. Before you know it, they should be back on track and you’ll be enjoying your quiet time on the couch.

If you’re looking for more routines, check out my mom’s morning routine post! Let me know what your best bedtime routine tips are by leaving a comment below. I love hearing from you!