What Do You Do After Your Kids Are in Bed for the Night?

My kids go to be around 7ish. Most nights my husband works overnight so its me and the kids after 4pm. So usually when they go to bed, I try to wash clothes(if needed) mop all the floors( b/c we have all hard floors and tiles)
Cook my husband lunch(dinner) when he gets a lunch break at work. Play on the computer,catch up on my shows(that was recorded on DVR) watch a movie,and sometimes make cookies for my kids to eat in the morning before school. ;)

It does get boring sometimes and sometimes I wish I had a "job" but I do have a job as a Full Time mommy. Just don't get pay or interact with other people.But I do get my hugs and kisses from them for free. :)

Updated

My kids go to be around 7ish. Most nights my husband works overnight so its me and the kids after 4pm. So usually when they go to bed, I try to wash clothes(if needed) mop all the floors( b/c we have all hard floors and tiles)
Cook my husband lunch(dinner) when he gets a lunch break at work. Play on the computer,catch up on my shows(that was recorded on DVR) watch a movie,and sometimes make cookies for my kids to eat in the morning before school. ;)

It does get boring sometimes and sometimes I wish I had a "job" but I do have a job as a Full Time mommy. Just don't get pay or interact with other people.But I do get my hugs and kisses from them for free. :)

usually go running, do an exercise video, clean, laundry and TV, catch up on work stuff -- nothing too exciting.

First 3 years
- take a couple hours of 'sanity check' and then study for the next 4-6 hour (I started school when my son was 2mo old. I found that I could ONLY study while he was sleeping. Trying to study while he was awake I beacame BOTH a mediocre mom AND a mediocre student)

4th year
- worked. I was mom all day, and then I worked all night. Oy. NOT a year I'd like to repeat. 3 hour nights as normal for months on end is NOT okay.

5th year
- studied
- house DIY stuff

6th & 7th years
- studied
- lesson plans (I started homeschooling my 1st grader, and I was TA'ing in school)

8th year

[1st 6mo]
- started writing for publication again. I all but LIVED out on my front porch with my laptop at night
- Hotelling with my son up at the mountians (aka talking, watching movies, swimming, etc. We'd go up 3-4 days a week and bring our books with us. 1 or 2 nights we'd sleep over just for fun. Cost $20 a night, kind of hostel style)

[2nd 6mo] (all hail broke loose and we half lived at children's hospital. My son has some mystery problems that had us up there a week here, a month there, 2 weeks here, another week there. The longest we were 'home' was 3 weeks from Feb to July.)
- At the hospital I hung out with other parents. Smoked more than I should. Ate more than I should (but seriously, whoever decided to have an omlet bar from 1am-4am is a SAINT)
- At home he still had 24 hour meds and monitoring. He was/is intermittant, so not enough for home nursing care. He'd only crash 3 or 4 nights a week, and we only had to be in the ER 1 or 2 nights a week. Since I had to be awake every hour on the hour I started spending a LOT of time on here just to stay awake.

9th Year ((found a med that worked! Yay! We've been home since July!!! -touch wood- and he's doing great. Downside; the med that works gives him some rather massive insomnia. He's not in bed until 2am-6am, and is up at noon. (Durn good thing we homeschool. Last year would have meant repeating the whole year, and this year he wouldn't be able to attend, yet.))
- Hang out with my son until 10pm.
- Study or Write from 10pm-midnight.
- Hang out with my son until he can fall asleep (we're gradually working out a routine that has him in bed around 2am most nights)

_________________________

The above may make it look like I'm a single parent. Technically I'm not. I've been with my husband for more than 10 years. He just chooses to work 80-120 hour weeks or spend his freetime elsewhere. Which I am GREAT about now... since over the past several years he's become increasingly abusive. For the first few "good" years he was around at least one night a week (we'd go "in" with a few other families we're friends with and bbq or potluck one night a week) and one weekend day while our son was awake...and sometimes more often. Ironically, I wanted him around a lot more years back, but now that he's actually *trying* to be around more, I wish he'd stay away. I just booted him for the weekend for raving on at the top of his lungs about what a terrible person I am for not "keeping to the plan" (home remodeling) while our son has been in the hospital. And how I'm a liar. And a burden. And our son is a burden. And all sorts of LOVELY, warm, cuddly things. Jerk. Oh yeah. This is after I've had major reconstructive surgery on my shoulder and have been highly medicated/ living at my mums for a week so she could take care of me and my son while I recover. I wasn't home 20 minutes before he started raving about there being no groceries. Really. When HE was the one here that week. And could drive. <rolls eyes>

oooh man!! I soooo feel for you!!! My kids aren't light sleepers and I guess I'm a rude and mean mom because even if they were, I wouldn't change my routine - life isn't quiet!!

My SIL did this with her 3 kids - phone shut off, sign on the door - the house was dead silent when the kids slept...now? Alicia has graduated from college and her first year was a NIGHT MARE because EVERY NOISE woke her up...it was ____@____.com for her...now she can sleep like the dead!!!

When my kids go to bed? I run the dishwasher if it hasn't been run already, I take a shower, I talk with my husband, I don't change anything...watch a TV show with the hubby, maybe a movie...

Hope you can work through your son being a light sleeper and change up your schedule!!!

GOOD LUCK!!

i love it when the kids are in bed early - that's my time to catch up on my favorite shows on the dvr, workout, read, and surf the internet.

Sleep, go on the computer, work, or have sex with my husband (LOL).

Try a humidifier or fan in your son's room - the white noise may help him sleep and you can do some slightly noisy things as you need to. :)

Oh my god! start making lots of noise or you will have a light sleeper for life!!! I never changed my noise levels I think my kids could sleep through anything!!!!

I just watch TV but then my kids are older so whatever you do while they are awake you can do while they are asleep. :)

My dd is the same way, she was on a good schedule from the beginning, and still at 4 goes to bed between 7:30 and 8, depending on how tired she is since she quit naps.

What I do, generally, is catch up on my tv shows that I can't watch while she's awake. Tonight is new Doctor Who night, so we'll be doing that. :-) Or we watch our Netflix movies that she can't watch, the one we've got now is Inglorious Basterds, which she definately can't watch! :-)

Unless it's a show/movie the hubby watches also he goes and plays his MMO, right now they're into their Star Trek Online game while they wait for the new Star Wars one to come out in December.

Or we do grown up things in our bedroom.

tv, internet, quiet things.
i hate having an open floor plan. i can't do anything noisy

My hubby is usually at work so I use that time to pick up the house, read, and be on the computer. Lately I have been working on my girls wish lists on the Toys R Us website for Christmas!

I'm new...you are my first answer!!!

My kids (2 boys 21 and 25) are not light sleepers. they are all grown now...whew. Never kept my house quiet with them.

I worked full time and my husband's grandparents took care of them during the day..Nana wouldn't change anything about the house when the boys came along and told me not to either. So they sleep through a lot of stuff!!

I guess I would start making noise and let your son get used to it!

Hope this helps.

My kids are older now, 15, 12 (tomorrow!!) and almost 9. My kids slept 12 hours straight thru the night from the first week they came home...lucky me! And they have always been good sleepers. Even at their current ages they each hop in the shower at 7:15, 7:30 and 7:45 and when the last one is out at 8pm they all go in their rooms to "bed". They don't have to immediately go to sleep, but they do have to stay in there. I check on all of them and shut off radios and lights about 10 or so when we go to bed. So hubby and I have FREE time from 8pm on. We watch tv, read, play wii, skinny dip (in summer) or go to bed early. =) I LOVE our schedule and don't feel like its boring at all. I feel like its time to relax and enjoy ourselves, the shows we like to watch and get some things in that we like to do. We both work hard during the day and like that we can have down time too. =)

My lil man is 14mths and goes to bed about 8:30 and boy do me and hubby finally get mommy and daddy time lol . We watch shows that we missed during the day, make root beer floats, have sex o and of course thats my mamapedia time too lol sometimes i clean but by that time of the night i just wanna be lazy. Only thing i have to do is make sure lunches r made for in the morning my son sleeps till 9 sometimes so we do too and we have to be at work at 10am so i try and have everything ready for a non-rushed morning. Ya should try netflix r something like it we start seasons of shows that we missed for last season r yrs ago it gives us something to look forward too, we just finished the glades season 1 yesterday on netflix and we watch about 3 eposides a night after baby is asleep

we have our shows that we watch...but we also like playing video games together :) our son doesn't go to bed till 1am (he set it since my husband works late, he wanted to see him lol)
but that's basically it. but no interruptions (hopefully) haha

I always did whatever I wanted to do after the kids went to bed.... most of the time it was settling in front of the tube with Dad and then going to bed ourselves. Enjoying the peace and quiet for that little window of time.

Well...I'm sitting here. :)

Seriously, though, I try to do all my dishes/cleaning, etc, during the day, and they help. At night I do laundry, eat, watch TV, play video games, work (I illustrate children's books and right now, all the work happens at night) and speaking of that, I need to hop to it.

Read, watch TV, work on blog or photobook, call friends and family on the west coast (since they're two hours behind it's a reasonable hour for them!). Basically do all the stuff I can't do at home when the kids are awake :)

My kids don't start going down until close to midnight. My husband gets home after 11 so we wait and he gets to kiss and cuddle and then we head off to bed. Once they're all down (sometimes not until 1) I come back down and hang out with my husband. Boring, probably. We'll watch old tv shows on DVD, read, talk about what we're reading, I'll work on dishes, have a drink, tea, whatever. If our kids had earlier bedtimes I might "do" more, but I'm mostly letting my brain and body slowly shut down before I get to crash myself and wait for the 6:30 alarm. :)

Sleep

It does help to have a noise machine or fan in the room so the rest of the house noises are drowned out.

Have a glass of wine and read my book or surf the internet...my husband is typically always on the computer or doing little projects around our house at this time of night.

Sometimes I'll spend the time plucking my eyebrows, giving myself a pedicure, or taking a long hot bath...something that's just for me that makes me feel good and that I typically don't have time for during the day. Or I'll go to a bikram yoga class (8:30-10 PM).

Oo, fun question! My DD is 18 months old and has a later bedtime, usually around 8:45 p.m. I relish this time and welcome the "boringness" as life with a toddler is NEVER boring :-).

Like you and your hubby, we zone out in front of our favorite shows, cuddle and eat a too-late dinner.

And I simply love, love, love my crosswords. (Nerd and proud of it!)

On Wednesdays my husband has band rehearsal so I'm on my own and will usually catch up on catching up, or wind up on here!