Our Quarantine Routine.

If you’re a long time follower of The Stevenson Life, you’ll have seen the previous routine posts we’ve done about routines within our household (our AM routine can be found here, our PM routine can be found here and our most recent daily routine can be found here). We thought now would be a good time to write about our Quarantine Routine.

Quarantine Routine

At the beginning of lockdown I had my contract at my job end earlier than anticipated which means that I’ve gone back to being a full time parent! Mark also works from home, so this has meant all 3 of us being at home together again for the first time in nearly a year, and having been stuck in the house for so long I thought it might be interesting to read how our typical quarantine routine has been in the Stevenson household! We’re quite lucky that a lot of our routine has stayed fairly similar, but as Grayson is getting older it has also had to be tweaked slightly to make the following quarantine routine:

6:30 – 8:00 am

Grayson is a pretty good sleeper now, but he does still wake up in the night and because we love our sleep we will bring him in with us (although occasionally one of us will get into his bed instead) and when my alarm goes off at half 6 this will usually wake Grayson up, and I get a cheeky smile and a “hello mummy!!”. I think I’ve turned Mark into less of a morning person though, because we’ll put CBeebies on so that we can drift for a bit longer while Grayson cuddles in between us. This is also the only time he’s allowed to play with his tablet, so it’s a nice start to the day for all of us.

8:00 – 11:00 am

Mark will get up first and have a shower and get himself ready to start work, and in that time I’ll change Grayson’s bum and we’ll come downstairs for breakfast. Gracie’s go to breakfasts are porridge with different toppings, weetabix with different toppings or banana pancakes. He’ll then have a small beaker of milk on the sofa and I’ll drink my coffee.

Our typical rule during the week is that there’s no telly during this time, and so we tend to play with his puzzles and the other toys in his play room or build his train track. Grayson will usually entertain himself, but will occasionally come and ask me to play (which usually just involves me sitting with him!) Grayson will also ask for a bath, so some mornings we’ll add this into the mix!

11:00 – 12:30(ish) pm

Around this time Grayson will usually say “can we go up for a nap” so we’ll go up and he’ll lay down. Nap times and bed time are also the only times he has his dummy now, so that usually helps put him to sleep really well. I let Grayson take the lead on how long his nap is, as long as it doesn’t go over an hour and a half he can get up when he’s ready (occasionally it will be slightly longer if I’m doing something, or he isn’t feeling well). I tend to use this time to either catch up on some blog admin, or I’ll play some animal crossings on the switch.

12:30 – 4:00 pm

Once Grayson has woken, well come downstairs and I’ll ask what he’d like for lunch and give him a few options. Usually Mark and I will have already decided what we’re having so I’ll get on and make ours as well, or Mark will if he’s come down before us. We’ll then sit at the table and eat together.

It’s usually during this time that we’ll go out, and as I don’t drive we’re fairly limited! Grayson is such a simple soul that he doesn’t mind this though, and I’ll ask him where he wants to go. So it will usually be, a walk round the block, a walk in the woods or to go to the park or he’ll ask to play in the garden. Around 3 – half 3 I’ll put some tv on for Grayson whilst he plays (he’s currently into Paw Patrol or Bitz and Bob).

We’ve also really been in to baking and playing with play dough recently, so we’ll tend to do this at some point as well.

4:00 – 7:30(ish) pm

We’ll start to think about dinner around 4ish depending on how long it takes, so I’ll start prepping and turning the oven on. Mark finishes work at 5:30 and we’ll usually sit down and eat together, unless Grayson is having something different to us, but we try to have the same things most days.

After dinner Grayson will usually get Mark to build him a train set or play a game that he’s made up on the spot! We do tend to have CBeebies on in the background, just because the bed time hour on in the background has always been part of our routine. Just before 7 depending on whether he’s had a bath already that day the routine slightly changes.

If he’s had a bath already he’ll have his milk downstairs after we’ve gotten him into his pjs, and then we’ll brush his teeth. If he hasn’t had a bath, then we’ll give him one and get him ready for bed upstairs. He’ll always have a book without fail and most of the time we’ll let him pick, and it usually involves Mark reading it once and then me re-reading it!

Mark and I have always taken it in turns with settling Grayson to sleep, so if it’s Marks turn I’ll usually come downstairs and run a bath for myself and if it’s my turn the Mark will go on his bike. Grayson is pretty good and settles to sleep in around 10 minutes, but this does differ sometimes.

7:30 – 11:00(ish) pm

This is our time without Grayson and usually it will involve Mark doing some work or something on his app, and me doing stuff on Instagram or just generally doing stuff on my phone. Around 9 we’ll usually put a series or a documentary on, and then go up to bed afterwards and go to sleep in preparation of Grayson waking up!

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So that’s our ‘typical’ day to day quarantine routine style… it may not work for everyone but it works for us! Check out similar routines here. Have you managed to keep a quarantine routine?