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Parents Waste An Exhausting Amount Of Time On Bedtime Routines

The struggle is real.
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Every parent knows that putting the kids to bed can be a real chore. After all, it can be exhausting trying to convince your little one that they are, in fact, tired, let alone trying to get them to brush their teeth and change into jammies.

Research conducted by toothbrush company Firefly found that moms and dads spend an average of 140 hours a year trying to get their child to sleep, which works out to nearly 18 full workdays. To put that in perspective, Café Mom notes that the number is more than the average vacation time people receive from work!

It usually takes parents 25 minutes to get their kids into bed each night.

To get this number, Firefly looked at the bedtime routines of 1,000 parents with kids aged three to 12. The company found that it usually takes parents 25 minutes to get their kids into bed each night, which works out to three hours a week or 140 hours per year.

While this number might seem like a lot, it's interesting to note that some experts actually recommend parents spend at least 30 minutes preparing their kids for bed so that the child has enough time to wind down. However, this time does not account for wrestling the kids when they refuse to comply. As a result, 77 per cent of moms and dads say bedtime routines leave them exhausted.

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So what's the hold up? According to the research, the age of the child determines what the biggest struggle will be. Parents with children aged five to six, for instance, have a harder time getting their kids to brush their teeth, while parents with children aged seven to eight have a tougher time actually getting their kids into bed.

Only 57 per cent of dads compared to 63 per cent of moms admitted to struggling with bedtime routines.

Interestingly, the study also found that who was putting the kids to sleep also made a slight difference. Only 57 per cent of dads compared to 63 per cent of moms admitted (emphasis ours) to struggling with bedtime routines.

That doesn't necessarily mean moms are less productive, though. According to the research, moms actually have less difficulty bathing their kids and getting them into pajamas. As a result, they can finish these tasks a whole two minutes faster than dads, who take an average of 17 minutes.

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Clearly getting the kids to bed is no easy task — we think it's because they think they're missing out on something, so supplementing bedtime with bath toys, themed pajamas or toothpaste, as well as bedtime books, can help make it fun for them.

Celebrity parents are also not immune to this bedtime battle, which is also why they use these tricks. Carrie Underwood, for instance, previously revealed that she and her husband run around in PJ Masks costumes (including superhero capes) with their two-year-old son to get him excited for bed.

Just a typical Thursday night at the Fisher house...featuring Catboy, Gekko and Owlette! It's time to be a hero! #PJMasks

A post shared by Carrie Underwood (@carrieunderwood) on

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