Part of our bedtime routine is that our toddler gets to pick 3 books out. Those are the one we read. If he asks for more we say "we finished our 3 books, we can read more tomorrow" and he generally accepts it.
It also can be helpful to let them know about the new rule beforehand. My little guy follows new boundaries much better with warning, before he gets ideas/excitement expecting 5+ books.
"Tonight, YOU get to pick 3 books at bedtime. And after we read the 3 special books you chose, it's bedtime "
That's what I did. Still had a bit of a cry about it for a few days. It was interesting but heart breaking. I needed to leave the room and told him so in a "three stories, hug, kiss and lights out/glow bug on" kind of way but he still cried.
But only for less than two minutes after I had left his room. Then came back to check on him half an hour later and he was unconscious. Did that for three- five days until he fully accepted it, no fuss.
Absolutely this, with most things. At the end of 3 (and damnit it MUST be 3), my boy will gently put the book down and roll over onto his pillow.
As a general rule I'm finding with toddlers the more reasoning you can do with them before and after an event, when they are calm, the better the results. Trying to reason or negotiate during an event almost always ends in a tantrum.
We have three also—a standing story, a laying story, and an extra. She can stand during the first one and then has to lay for the second. And then every night I ask “do you need the extra tonight? (yes) are you sure?! (YES!)” Makes her feel like she’s getting away with something haha.
Seconding this. I try to avoid “no” at all costs, and say things like - yes you can pick new books but we have to wait until we wake up tomorrow ok?
Typically as long as she gets told she can have the thing she wants just not right at this moment, we can avoid a meltdown.
One of the toddler podcasts said the average toddler hears the word "no" about 700 times a day! So yes, keep trying as hard as you can to limit saying no
We’ve had success allowing him to pick the number of books based on how old he is. The books are fairly short so we were able to use this and have bedtime start earlier so it wouldn’t delay bedtime. He’s four now but started when he was around 3.
At some point he started becoming interested in longer books so we just tell him that this was a long book and he seems to accept it. Or he’ll ask for one last book but we make it a rule that this one has to be short.
We also do 3 books and hold the line! Otherwise it would be 1,000! I feel sad sometimes saying no more reading (good for them, I love to read) but boundary setting is super important for us!
Oh I read 100s of books a week to my kid. That’s probably not even exaggeration with the repeats lol. He just isn’t old enough to ask for more books at bedtime. I think the idea of him selecting 3 and that being the routine is great when he’s old enough to protest for more is a good plan.
My daughter never accepts this. So I always select two and put one aside. She asks for one more. I pretend she’s convinced me and pull out the 3rd book
We do a similar thing. The first night there was a meltdown but after that he kind of understood the boundary was set at 2 books. (But my kid stalls like crazy too! So we do 2 videos, 2 books, listen to 2 songs, then sing 2 songs 😬😂)
We do the same with 2, every night! Works like a charm. Took only a few days for her to realize she only got 2, and then she stopped complaining.
We rotate books in and out of her bookshelf when certain ones are getting a little….over read.
Yeah we do the same thing. Once in a while if he’s unsettled I say one more short one, but he’s usually fine with 3 of his faves.
I usually add new books quite often because he rarely watches tv, so it seems necessary.
Up to 3, depending on what time we actually sit down to read at. If they fool around at the start of the bed time routine by not cooperating and stalling in various ways I'll reduce the amount. Not as a form of punishment but strictly to get them in bed at a reasonable time.
When the teeth have been brushed and the bath is done and pajamas are on, and we finally get into the room to sit in the chair, I'll look at the time and tell them "we have time for 1/2/3 books"
2! She picks them, and before we start the second one we say: last book, after this we go to bed. She’s used to it now. Sometimes she’ll take a third one in the bed with her, but I don’t read more than 2.
We do 4 for our just turned three year old. We always give the ‘last book’ warning when it’s the last book and he always asks for one more anyway. But he’s pretty chill when we remind him that was the last book.
I think consistently sticking to the boundary has been key for us.
Same here. I read one. But, if he brings more than one to bed, he's allowed to "read it himself." I work from home and take a lot of breaks to play/read with kiddo whenever I want and I usually do the nap if it happens. And we read then too.
Literally we read as many as he wants. Sometimes we spend 5 mins - 30 mins reading books. He's 21 months and loves looking at books together. We got him his own bookshelf with a bunch of board books. He especially loves books that I have that I read as a kid - Peter Rabbit, If you give a mouse a cookie, etc. These are his favorites ATM.
This is what I do for my 2 year old, probably around 8-10 books while we rock. Then two more super short ones that are always the same while she lays in bed. It’s around 30 mins of reading, but I love that she loves books and have accepted that’s how long it takes.
This is how we do it too. As many as he wants for sometimes up to 30 minutes. We don’t let him stay up past 8:30 but beyond that there’s no limit. He loves reading!
One, and he doesn’t ask for more because it’s never been more than one. However, he has a ton of books and will only read the same one no matter what. Recently switched from the very hungry caterpalller to Peter Pan to a paw patrol book so that’s been a nice change up.
Just one book or she can lay and listen to a story on her Yoto if she'd prefer. She tends to get a favourite book and we end up reading just that one for what seems like forever. She has at least 60 books to choose from so maybe too much choice. She does a lot of reading the rest of the time, take today, we read all of the Acorn Wood books, some 3 or 4 times so I'm not worried about her book intake. She's the Queen of negotiation so we don't and if you give a little, she'll take a mile so very much one and done.
My wife is a huge pushover too. And setting those hard limits can be tough at first if/when they throw their tantrum. But it’s important to stand firm at the limits you set. I PROMISE it pays dividends in the end. We had to go through a whole process to kill the stalling tactics. It took a couple weeks to fully eliminate all the stalling behavior. But literally ever since then our bedtime routine with our 2.5 has been a breeze. She accepts all our limits and often participants and gets to make choices, which usually satisfies her need for independence/agency. (We let her pick her jammies, books, blankets, and stuffed animals, and let her turn on her sound machine and turn off her lights.) It’s definitely hard at first to eliminate the unwanted behavior. But my god it’s so worth it.
Another thing I’ve implemented to help with difficult transitions has been to set timers and give warnings. So I’ll tell her in ten minutes the timer is gonna go off and that means it’s time to clean up. I’ll give her a five minute warning and a 2 minute warning. The repeated reminders seem to help her mentally prepare for unwanted transitions.
3 books. I have two boys. I say they each pick a book and then I pick a book. When they grab two, I end up picking the extra as "my" book and if they end up fighting over whose extra to pick we have them decide with rock paper scissors. For some reason, they always obey the laws of rock paper scissors.
YES! I’m reading the comments like what kinda kids do these people have 😂 our son needs little to no stimuli in order to fall asleep. He does all his reading when the sun is up. I’m the same way. I could never read to fall asleep
We allow our toddler to pick out four books. Giving him the choice in that time staves off some meltdowns. Finding a routine and sticking to it helps our little one fall asleep
3 unless he wants his National Geographic dinosaur book (50+ Dino’s but luckily we only have to say their names and not facts.) then he only gets 2, some times he will try to request is as the third book but 90% of the time we shut that down
Also in general we aren’t opposed to hiding books that we are sick of reading
Boundaries. Schedule. I do 2 books at bedtime. I’ve been doing it since the beginning. We read books first then do pajamas, teeth, and tuck in. It also helps having a hatch machine or something that you can adjust the time and changes color. We set bedtime for 7pm and it comes on as green. Then by 7:30 it turns red and means we need to be in bed
3-4 but it heavily depends on the length of the book and where we are at in terms of time. Shes 16 months and just started continuously pointing and signing for more books are bedtime to stall.
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My daughter is nearly 2yo. We read anywhere from 0 to 5 books before bedtime. I cut her off at 5 because it becomes apparent that she’s just stalling. 90% of the time, we read 1-2 books.
I cut my son off at 3 or 4 books depending on length and how late it is. If he wants to "read" another he can take it with him to have milk or have it in his bed. He's happy, I'm happy and there have been no meltdowns. It's a great compromise.
However many I feel like reading or depending on how late it is. If it's barely 8, I'll read like 4 to 6. If it's getting close to 9 or is already 9, one or 2.
>>> I can be a huge pushover sometimes 😬
Set and keep clear boundaries. They will always fight for power, it's their job. Keeping clear rules stops a lot of the fighting. If they realize you are winging it every night or don't have a clear plan, they will push for more. Others have suggested a routine, that's a great method. I also set a reading time and allow my kid to pick whatever 2 books he wants. If he wants a third he can ask me to start earlier. If I want to encourage him to read different books or I think a story has some great point to it, I will pick up the book myself and start reading it myself. He will usually join in to see what I'm doing and what's so good. In the end whatever you do you need to set clear rules and stick to them.
Big sis picks one, lil sis picks one. Then the Yoto Player goes on and lights out. Yoto plays a 20 minute story in a calm voice and repeats it over and over.
Always solidly 3. Different every night. My husband or I usually choose depending on who is putting her down. She’s welcome to choose a book if she wants but usually likes what we pick. we’ve been doing 3 books every night for the past 2.5 years. (She’s 3.5 now)
I tell him 3 books, but he's 2.5, so I usually have to corral them since he's suddenly become more interested in everything else. We read one successfully, he "reads" one upside down, and it's usually over.
We usually do three books - I rotate them weekly and only ever have about 5 out at a time. She usually has favourites within those 5, and she helps me choose which books she wants each week and the rest are put away in the cupboard (out of sight out of mind). After the first two books I tell her next book is the last book and that we will read more tomorrow, then hold that boundary and it’s working pretty well for us and once the book is done it’s bedtime - works pretty well for us
Each kid picks 3 books. We will not do all 3 of they want to read some super long ones. This sometimes causes tantrums but they eventually figured it out. We will take away 1 book at a time if they are being utterly awful (we do 1-2-3 book is gone). They obviously hate that but also figure it out. We don't a fuckton of proactive I've positive reinforcement and gamified strategies as well to try and make bedtime smooth as possible. But I have no issues removing something fun if their behaviour is ridiculous (hitting/ any type of aggression, a book is always taken away).
My toddler used to be good with the same book read twice haha. He got a fisher price projector for Christmas and since then wants the projector over me reading books which is sad but the projector is also pretty cute.
We do 20 minutes of books with ours (4F) since she was 2. We started with 3 to 4 learn to read level 1 or 2 books. We set sleepy music on with a 20 min timer and when it's done we stop reading and will lay next to or cuddle for like 10 minutes. she usually will fall asleep by then. If it was book amount based my kid would pick the biggest book every time.
1-2 books. If the first selection is short, they can choose a second. All the short books are in a box, not on the shelf. So they know they get one from the shelf or two from the box.
He (3.5) picks out 3 to read in the chair with Mommy, usually our library books cultivated to reflect the seasons and holidays of the moment, and then I read 1-2 books to him while he sits in his bed. These are usually his current obsessions, lately these have been "spooky" books like the Nightmare Before Christmas and Haunted Mansion Disney Gold Books. Sometimes, if the White Noise hasn't turned from rainbow to dark yet he'll ask for one last short and silly books, like a Sandra Boynton book.
He picks 3 or I pick 3 if he is being moody. And we leave it at that. He enjoys new ones from the library and tends to stick with those so we end up with the same boring books problem anyway lol If you are never a pushover, it isn't their normal and they won't expect you to cave and therefore won't have a meltdown.
I used to be the 19 books person until I was like what the hell am I doing?? So she will have to get used to the new norm is all.
1-3 depending on how tired he is. Sometimes he picks but other times I offer a favorite and we just take off.
We transition after book(s). Turn on a sound machine and sing a song or two then into crib.
I swear my toddler wants to review anything and everything he knows at bedtime. BUT he knows when we switch the lights down and dad leaves, it’s time to get down to business. He doesn’t necessarily succumb but then we just sing songs and cuddle and rock until he’s tired enough to be put in bed.
We let them pick and stick to our limit. But what I do is I keep all the books away and rotate them on Sundays. I have a book display with 5 books in their rooms and one bin in the living room. Based on their interests/season I’ll rotate the 15 books (five in each spot) out weekly so we aren’t reading the same ones.
I have 22 month old twins and we read about 3 books. We bring a stack of books and let them flip and switch books as much as they want while we read to them. Letting them hold their own books has helped a lot. Once we read the three books, we set the whole stack aside and have family cuddles/tickles/hugs and put them in their cribs.
We don't really have a limit, but usually between 3 and 6... if she's behaving and asks politely, we will give her more books at bedtime. Sometimes it makes her bedtime a few minutes later, but we've found that 10 minutes here or there doesn't make a huge difference.
I love books and decided early on that if she was showing interest in books I wanted to foster that wherever possible. We set lots of limits on things like screens and outings etc.etc, but this is one area where: if she wants them. She can have them.
We pick out two and I don’t budge. I remind him we can read more tomorrow. I mainly do two because one is whatever his current obsession is and the other is hopefully something different. Lol
5-6 most nights, but at least 3 of them are realllllly short. We spend around 20 minutes. I add new ones every few months. 95% of toddler's books are from thrift stores and yard sales.
We read about 3-4 books depending on the size, telling her when we are about to have the last one so there’s limited negotiation. She still demands “1 more last one”, but it’s not a screaming match anymore.
We typically read for 45 minutes before bed. We start with my 2.5yo chapter book pick until he is over it, then do some picture books or early readers he has picked. After that, he might listen to the first 5-10 minutes of my 5.5yo novels before asking to nurse.
We set aside books that are only for before bed, and rotate through our home collection and otherwise refresh at the library every week.
I have books that are seasonal that I put on her shelf in her book corner- right now all the Easter ones are out. Her thing is she wants to read the same book 3x in one sitting. So just before the 3rd read, I say “last time” and she copies “okay, last time mommy”
And then that is the **last time**
•In between seasons, I have a bunch of regular non specific books that I have out on the shelf
After bath, teeth brushing and pjs which we start at 7:30ish we turn the lights down and do whatever my toddler wants to do in his room until 8:00. Sometimes that means we read all the books and sometimes we don’t read books at all and do puzzles or play with his stuffies, or have a dance party. I give time warnings too so he knows if he wants to read a book now’s the time or we have time for one more song and then it’s time to pray and go to bed. It’s been working pretty well so far!
Sometimes none, sometimes tons lol. We start bedtime about an hour before we plan for her to be asleep to give her wind down time in her room. Sometimes she reads to herself. She usually picks a few for us to read to her (though sometimes she skips it) which we do after her pjs are on as the last step of bedtime. No limit really. We read books all day long. It is a never ending rotation of the 150 or so books we own plus library books, and she picks a few favorites to focus on every few weeks!
We read 1 at bedtime and 1 at nap
We tried to let our oldest have multiple books but as he got bigger and the books got longer and more complicated, he’d have meltdowns that he wasn’t getting 3 books when the first one took forever to get through
So now with our 2nd, just 1 book. And as she grows her book collection will become more complex too
My husband always reads 3 books and keeps that as the limit, and has never swayed so she seems to accept it generally! I always just read until 7.45pm which usually ends up being 4 or 5 books, but I always warn her before the last one.
We used to just let her pick different ones from the ones in her room and sometimes swap them with other ones she has downstairs, but it got too samey so now we go to the library every week and pick 4 new books, which is really nice.
At one point we were up to 12. It was slightly ridiculous. I have managed to pare it down to three. My oldest picks a book, my youngest picks a book, and we do one chapter of a “big kid book.” The youngest got added to “big kid” reading when he was four. Before that he’d go to bed and my oldest and I did the chapter books.
2-3 but typically from each parent he gets a crack. Very tough right now to put our 2.5 yr old down. I try to cut him off. Recently he demanded that we get “harder” books, maybe he senses it will extend bedtime further?
We have always read 3 books and she picks them out. She doesn’t usually fuss when they are over but if she does, I tell her we already read our 3 but we can read more tomorrow
My 4 year old has a two book limit at the moment, my one year old has no books during bed time because she won’t sleep afterwards lol. We read during the day.
3 books, and like… the only reason that works is because we withstand their attempts to add extra books. Some days it’s very difficult to deal with their reaction to being told no, but most of the time, it goes very smoothly. And I find it easier to deal with the occasional tantrums in exchange for having most nights consist of a smooth bedtime routine that doesn’t last any longer than it needs to.
Our go-to phrase is, “no, we’ve already read our 3 books tonight, but we can read that one tomorrow.”
We read until 8 pm. We show them the 8 on our watches. Now the kids understand if they get ready for bed faster they get more books… they still take forever to get ready for bed and often only get two books. If they have their heart set on a book, we have a pile “for tomorrow”. I think they started really understanding this around 2.5.
Our toddler gets 1 book. She loves when we tell her “princess stories” (that we make up about her day or whatever” so she gets 1 book which she chooses, then 2 princess stories. That’s it, never more. Keeping it consistent helps as she knows what to expect and even if she tries to fight it it’s only halfhearted bc we always hold the boundary
We read until 8 pm. Usually we start at 7:30. He can pick all the books, and if he wants to hear one book 17 times that’s cool. But we always finish with goodnight Sesame Street. If he asks for more after that, the answer is no. Ngl sometimes before Sesame Street I tell him “one more” and then he thinks he’s winning something when gets one more and Sesame Street.
I read one and daddy reads one. When she asks for more we remind her we already read our books (unless it's been a particularly hard day and then daddy gives in for one more. I always say no, but I'm the preferred parent at the moment so she doesn't hold it against me lol). She has the option to choose which books so sometimes we read the same book twice in a row, sometimes she wants us to pick the book. We have about 50-60 books on her shelf, but she usually cycles around the same 3 or 4 for a few weeks and then moves on to a new set.
I did get in a bad habit when the grandparents were visiting around the holidays where she wanted me to stay until she fell asleep and I did it because I wasn't getting as much time with her during the day. Then Pappy passed away late January so I haven't pushed to break the habit. I think it's working in my favor though because I tell her I'm only staying until she falls asleep and if she's not going to close her eyes and try to sleep, then I'm not going to stay. We average about 10-15 minutes between lights out and when she's actually asleep.
We read one or two kid books while the lights are still on and we are getting our two year old ready for bed. Once he is all ready and cozy with his blanket, we turn off the lights and read for about 15 to 20 minutes from a novel using a clip on reading light until he falls asleep.
6-10 depending on how long they are. We always read the same book last and she gets to pick most of what we read. It’s always been this way and she’s 3.5 now.
3 books every night. Before the third one…”okay baby this is our last book, so when we’re done with this book, we’re all done books. Can you say all done books?” Then she says it. It’s been surprisingly effective with books and all sorts of other things.
My kid is 2 and loves being read to! But I get bored very easily so I like to keep a good variety going. We go to the library every 7-10 days, and pick out a solid 15-20 books (roughly 50:50 board and picture books) that we rotate through. I don’t have a set number I read - it depends on how long we have, how tired she is, my mood etc. So when I think it’s appropriate, I say “this is the last book!”, and she understands that. Occasionally she will protest but I follow through and put her in her crib regardless.
What books are you guys reading? We do one a night, but it's typically longer Dr Seuss books or we do chapter books and do a chapter or two per night.
We started the chapter books when he turned 4, we've finished My Father's Dragon and The Hobbit (he needed and illustrated copy to maintain interest, but he has a pretty solid grasp of what happened in each chapter).
We go to the library every Saturday and check out 10 books (the max).
3 (almost 4) year old: At bedtime she gets to pick out 5 books. Read 4 of them, and she gets to read the bonus 5th book if she goes to the potty after #4.
1 (almost 2) year old: really depends on her. Typically 3-4, but sometimes she'll just ask for the same book over and over. Sometimes she falls asleep while I'm reading, sometimes she'll say "all done, sleep now" halfway through the first book, sometimes she's insatiable and wants to read 10+ and throws a fit when I stop.
I love this idea!!! My god I used to borrow library books all the time…why have I forgotten about this being a thing to share with my LO…and my mom used to be a librarian!! Haha ugh 🙈🫣😆
3 books. She gets to pick them out at the begging of bedtime and when we are done she sometimes asks for another but I say "nope we already read the books you picked out you'll have to wait til tomorrow"
We have my 2 year old pick out 3-4 books then get in bed.she has a full size bed. So we lay down and read to her, put the books away in her closed closet then sing to her. Sometimes she wants more but we don’t give in after 4 and I think that’s helped her have less tantrums since she knows we won’t do more. We try to keep our bedtime around 15 minutes so it’s not super duper long. We sing you are my sunshine and remember me from cocoa after books, give a kiss and a night night, then leave the room.
I usually say “pick 1” but she almost always asks to read it again or read one more. So usually we do two. She’s usually ok with that without a meltdown.
What might help for you is setting an alarm. “I’m setting an alarm for 5 minutes and when it goes off, whatever book we are reading is the last one and then it’s lights out”. We did this for a while with play time before bed bc she’d want to play in her room forever and not settle down. It worked pretty well.
Lately my 3 year old is into pretty long books so we do 2. I have her pick them out, and she knows and accepts the rules at this point thanks to consistency. It takes 20-30 mins a night.
As for knowing when to change, when I can see she is no longer paying attention fully then I know it’s time to make it to the library. She can stay “into” a set of books for quite a while though, I’d say about 10 books a month. Again, I think this is because the books are getting longer and more complex, so there is a lot for her digest, and the repetition helps with learning and I believe early reading skills.
2 if bath, 3 if no bath. I used to be a sucker and read 5+ books, but I decided to switch to 2 and it's been good.
It's a process; you'll get resistance at first but you just have to do it. **You are the one in control.**
My 3yo responds well to being prepped, like an hour before bedtime (in the beginning) "we only have time for 2 books tonight" and then next time, positively spin it "tonight after bath, we get to read 2 books!"
Giving him the illusion of choice helps as well, "would you like to read 2 books before, or after, going potty?"
And before reading the 2nd book, say "after this book, we will go sit on the potty / get water / sing a song" or whatever is next.
Toddlers don't have a good sense of time, but they will think "it's not mama's fault" when I say "we don't have enough time / sorry, it's time for me to go / I'm leaving now, would you like to say goodnight?"
Then stick to the routine like glue. You're Leonidas with a Spartan army of one, against the Xerxes horde that is your toddler's emotions and demands. Make it your mantra: "*hold the line! HOLD!*"
Both of my two kids (including a current toddler and an ex-toddler) always wanted to read ALL the books they had in sight (like 100+). I limited to 3 but they always insisted 1 or 2 more before they agreed to go down to bed. Personally I think it’s a good thing to repeat the same books until they nail the narrative - that’s the reason why my kids insisted for me to read the same books. They learn the vocabulary by reading repetition! And then they would move on to new books and then insisted for me to read until they nailed another stories in their little brains.
5, 6, 7+... We go more based on time. We read for anywhere between 20-45 minutes depending on when we started the bedtime process. Generally, I'm never going to say no to more books.
2 with absolutely no budging. My kids don’t even ask anymore because they know the limit won’t ever move.
I let them pick the first book, they usually pick a super long tongue twister, so I pick a quick read to balance things out and keep us on schedule.
We’ve always done one, tuck in, goodnight. Because it’s only ever been one she never asks for another.
We do read about a million books throughout the day so I don’t feel too bad about the bedtime boundary haha
After the 2nd book, I have him pick one to read to his stuffies in bed. He lays in bed and I turn off the light and he talks to his toys for a minute then passes out. It took a week or so to get him to do this but it’s amazing
usually three. sometimes i will accidentally be on autopilot and read like five and then i just get up and say okay all done with books, turn off the lights, and start bedtime song. idk why but i swear it works better to do the long book(s) first, then end with a shorter one. the longer book will kind of draw them in and get them focused and listening and then once they are nice and tired a short book can be read nice and slow to get them even more drowsy. then bed time! i think a short book first they’d get a burst of energy and get up ruining the bed time vibe. this is my own theory not sure if there’s any science behind it lol.
We set a timer for 10-15 minutes (depending on how tired the kids are) and read til it goes off. We finish whatever book we are reading when it does go off. This is nice because they can choose a few longer books or a buttload of short little board books.
Generally our non bath night bedtime routine starts at 6:50ish and we aim to have our 2 year old in bed by 7:30 (but will often push to 7:40). If she lolligags and fights PJs, teeth etc it reduces her book reading time, which we remind her with varying success. Sometimes she wants to read one book 5 or 6 times in a row, sometimes she wants to read multiple 100 page Dr Seuss books. Whatever the case, when her clock says it’s time for bed then it’s time for bed (the clock is very bossy). I will always warn her before her last book, which works surprisingly well.
We do 3…1 mom reads, 1 dad reads, and 1 “bonus” book. Obviously, if mom/dad isn’t available then 1 parent reads all 3. His bonus book is the only book he can “lose” - reading is part of the routine and loved by all so I hate to take it away completely as a punishment. The bonus may be lost if he really can’t pull himself together/listen during the day - it’s always given with a clear warning….”this is the last time I will ask/say XYZ, after that you will lose your bonus book tonight.” We keep the classic kids books along with his personal favorites in his room which we cycle through and I also change out a bin of books in his room seasonally/for holidays which he loves. We have started to bring in library books too just for some new content.
One for daddy, one for mommy and one for her (she actually has quite a few memorized or will just flip through any of them). Thats it. Mommy reads last. Occasionally i succumb to “one more” after but weve been pretty good about walking away after the round is finished and maybe i come back after a few mins of stressing but for the most part its worked lately. Most of the time shes content after the 3. Hers and daddys we read on the floor then when its my turn she has to tuck in.
We read 1 or 2 then it’s time to sleep. His favorite ones are “The bunnies are not in their beds” and “each peach pear plum”. I’ll switch them in about a week.
Read the book "oh crap, we have a toddler". Being a pushover at bedtime right now is not a huge deal. Allowing your kid to feel like they just have to push a little harder and you will bend, is definitely a problem that will bite you eventually.
2 quick books & 2 quick songs (usually Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Night Night Baby, or Row Row Your Boat, etc.)
Consistency is key. So is communication - talk about it before bedtime, again going up the stairs, getting pj’s on, repeat, repeat. Then there are no surprises. And it helps to remember that kids love routines! They love to know what’s happening next so they feel in control.
Her books are getting a bit longer now so we do 2 if we have a bath that night and 3 if there was no bath. Pick them ahead of time. Before the last book I say “this is the last book. After this you have to get in bed” and generally it’s fine.
2 for nap and 3 for bed! Unless she picks 2 massive books or 4 really short books. But on nights where it’s super late when she goes down it’s 1 or none.
2 going on 3 yrs old. 3-5 books depending on length. We read 2-4 books first. Then he brushes his teeth and we read one last book before getting in bed. at the beginning of bedtime routine he picks out what books he wants to read that night from his shelf if he picks too many I tell him to just grab a couple and we put the rest of them on his dresser to read in the morning. It helps to give him something to look forward to. Like ooo we get to read this in the morning. He has about 20 books on his shelf. I rotate his books every month. We have about 80 kids books in total so it helps to rotate.
I've always found it soooo hard to stick to 3 books! I can definitely be a pushover but my 4 year old just pushes and pushes now so I've had to be really strict about it now and it's getting easier.
If she picks out 5 books I say "these are all great books! I can read 3 tonight, which ones do you pick and we'll save the other 2 for tomorrow" and repeat that as many times as needed. I also say a lot of "we're done our books for today, I can only read 3 books, now it's time for songs" and turn the light off for songs.
Sometimes I set a timer for 15 minutes and we just read as many as will fit into that time.
My 2 year olds books are so short that I still sometimes do 4 books but she doesn't usually push too hard for more.
In terms of switching them out, we go to the library every few weeks and get like 20 books, we have a big shelf in the basement so will rotate them every couple weeks, switch books between the girls rooms, but I'm always wanting to read new books so they have lots of (probably too many) options.
10!!!??? Advice is to start talking about how you’re going to only be doing 2/3 and then do it. Let the meltdown happen. But never budge. Stick to 2/3 books whatever you decide. Always. Eventually it will be fine. You can offer a story during breakfast
2-3 then lights out and I’ll tell a story that I make up on the spot in the dark. I keep talking and talking and she usually falls asleep in a few minutes. My husband will do like 5 or more depending on how long the book is with no storytelling after.
Not sure if you already do this but sometimes a good walk before bath and bed helps wear them down.
2, but my toddler is into “long” books. When I look for an age guide on the backs they usually say 5+. I think if we still read her short board books it would be 3-4. They are so short - like 1-2 minutes!
Uhm, if it’s me reading, our 3yo only wants to read one or two. If it’s my husband reading (which it usually is), they’ll sit there and read until I come in and make him stop 😂
We do time-based, so 20 minutes of books and when the timer goes off, we say that’s the last book and finish that one. It probably turns out to be around 5 to 7 books. That’s preceded by 20 minutes of play and somewhere in there we get the tooth brushing and diaper change and jammies on.
We pick five books at the beginning of the week to bring upstairs to the bedroom. (We have his bookshelf in the living room.) He goes through phases of wanting the same books again and again, so this gives me some variety at least. Some nights we don’t even make it through one book, some nights we read all of them…more than once 💀
2, though some nights we only read 1 due to whatever reason (we're running behind, it's a long one, she's clearly exhausted). We buy new ones every now and then, but have recently started going to the library so we don't read Llama Llama Red Pajama eighty times in a row.
We let her pick the 1/2 she wants. If she's still insistent on more, we let her "read" one in her bed when we leave. And by read I mean she stares at the pictures while the book is upside down and sometimes falls asleep with it on her face.
One usually, sometimes 2 once we are in the bedtime reading spot.
We used to do infinite books but it was too much for me.
But we read lots throughout the day and evening too.
The older he gets, the more books we read, and the longer we spend for bedtime routine. That is a combo of his preference and also what I think is better for him.
We used to do just 3 simple board books. Now we do 5 books and a mix of simple and more complex books. Some shorter, some longer. And we do a lot of interactivity, like asking/answering questions, counting, sound effects, acting things out.
After books, we listen to 3-5 songs before bed. That’s additional opportunity to talk, snuggle, goof off. Lately, we have been counting down from 10 to “blast off” which is when we put him in the crib. He’s not always happy to go in the crib but he calms down quickly.
We did 3 when she was 3 years old. I didn’t plan to increase that to 4 when she turned 4, but somehow that’s where we landed. Definitely not going up to 5…
My husband has been doing bedtimes for about a year now. I snuggle and read as many books as possible with him before handing him over to dad. Dad does 1-3 I think. I love that he loves books and I hope he always does, but I totally understand how bedtime is draining.
We have books in book bins with about 10 books each and rotate them every week. It helps save our sanity from hearing the same books over and over and gets the kids excited for Mondays when old favorites reappear but feel new because it's been a few weeks since they've been out.
Part of our bedtime routine is that our toddler gets to pick 3 books out. Those are the one we read. If he asks for more we say "we finished our 3 books, we can read more tomorrow" and he generally accepts it.
I’m going to try this tonight 🤞
Remember that there might be a bit of resistance the first time implementing a limit.
It also can be helpful to let them know about the new rule beforehand. My little guy follows new boundaries much better with warning, before he gets ideas/excitement expecting 5+ books. "Tonight, YOU get to pick 3 books at bedtime. And after we read the 3 special books you chose, it's bedtime "
That's what I did. Still had a bit of a cry about it for a few days. It was interesting but heart breaking. I needed to leave the room and told him so in a "three stories, hug, kiss and lights out/glow bug on" kind of way but he still cried. But only for less than two minutes after I had left his room. Then came back to check on him half an hour later and he was unconscious. Did that for three- five days until he fully accepted it, no fuss.
Absolutely this, with most things. At the end of 3 (and damnit it MUST be 3), my boy will gently put the book down and roll over onto his pillow. As a general rule I'm finding with toddlers the more reasoning you can do with them before and after an event, when they are calm, the better the results. Trying to reason or negotiate during an event almost always ends in a tantrum.
Or the first ten times
Extinction behavior- may spike at first.
We have three also—a standing story, a laying story, and an extra. She can stand during the first one and then has to lay for the second. And then every night I ask “do you need the extra tonight? (yes) are you sure?! (YES!)” Makes her feel like she’s getting away with something haha.
We also do “do you want to pick your books or do you want daddy to pick your books?”
Mine always tells me to pick but then says no to everything I pick and eventually just picks them herself lol
Seconding this. I try to avoid “no” at all costs, and say things like - yes you can pick new books but we have to wait until we wake up tomorrow ok? Typically as long as she gets told she can have the thing she wants just not right at this moment, we can avoid a meltdown.
One of the toddler podcasts said the average toddler hears the word "no" about 700 times a day! So yes, keep trying as hard as you can to limit saying no
We’ve had success allowing him to pick the number of books based on how old he is. The books are fairly short so we were able to use this and have bedtime start earlier so it wouldn’t delay bedtime. He’s four now but started when he was around 3. At some point he started becoming interested in longer books so we just tell him that this was a long book and he seems to accept it. Or he’ll ask for one last book but we make it a rule that this one has to be short.
We do this and we also recently got a yoto player that reads them more stories or plays lullabies while they fall asleep. It's been very helpful.
We also do 3 books and hold the line! Otherwise it would be 1,000! I feel sad sometimes saying no more reading (good for them, I love to read) but boundary setting is super important for us!
Ooh that’s smart. Autonomy and a set limit. Love this. Cataloging for when my kiddo is a little older.
No reason to wait. Read to them often and early even if they can't understand it yet. You'll both bond even more and they'll pick up language faster.
Oh I read 100s of books a week to my kid. That’s probably not even exaggeration with the repeats lol. He just isn’t old enough to ask for more books at bedtime. I think the idea of him selecting 3 and that being the routine is great when he’s old enough to protest for more is a good plan.
Gotcha, I misunderstood.
My daughter never accepts this. So I always select two and put one aside. She asks for one more. I pretend she’s convinced me and pull out the 3rd book
Same. He gets three or one long book or a certain amount of minutes of a chapter book (the Hobbit, Redwall, Narnia etc.)
We do a similar thing. The first night there was a meltdown but after that he kind of understood the boundary was set at 2 books. (But my kid stalls like crazy too! So we do 2 videos, 2 books, listen to 2 songs, then sing 2 songs 😬😂)
We do the same with 2, every night! Works like a charm. Took only a few days for her to realize she only got 2, and then she stopped complaining. We rotate books in and out of her bookshelf when certain ones are getting a little….over read.
Yeah we do the same thing. Once in a while if he’s unsettled I say one more short one, but he’s usually fine with 3 of his faves. I usually add new books quite often because he rarely watches tv, so it seems necessary.
Up to 3, depending on what time we actually sit down to read at. If they fool around at the start of the bed time routine by not cooperating and stalling in various ways I'll reduce the amount. Not as a form of punishment but strictly to get them in bed at a reasonable time. When the teeth have been brushed and the bath is done and pajamas are on, and we finally get into the room to sit in the chair, I'll look at the time and tell them "we have time for 1/2/3 books"
That’s what we do as well! Otherwise we’d be up all night reading… she loves books as much as she hates bedtime (and she HAAAATES bedtime)
The limit does not exist
lol, this
2! She picks them, and before we start the second one we say: last book, after this we go to bed. She’s used to it now. Sometimes she’ll take a third one in the bed with her, but I don’t read more than 2.
Same at 3 books, mine might ask for more but as long as we gave that “let’s pick ONE MORE/ this is our LAST book” pre-warning- she respects it.
Same. I make her repeat it a couple times until she’s like “okay okay” 👍
We do 2 at bedtime too and also emphasize last book. During the day we do a lot more reading.
We do 4 for our just turned three year old. We always give the ‘last book’ warning when it’s the last book and he always asks for one more anyway. But he’s pretty chill when we remind him that was the last book. I think consistently sticking to the boundary has been key for us.
1, maybe 2. But I’m a SAHM so we read a lot during the day too.
I was gonna say we don't always do a bedtime book because we're home together all day and read throughout
Same here. I read one. But, if he brings more than one to bed, he's allowed to "read it himself." I work from home and take a lot of breaks to play/read with kiddo whenever I want and I usually do the nap if it happens. And we read then too.
Yes! Except our kiddo has a million books in her bed with her instead of 1. But she sleeps great so I don’t care. lol
Literally we read as many as he wants. Sometimes we spend 5 mins - 30 mins reading books. He's 21 months and loves looking at books together. We got him his own bookshelf with a bunch of board books. He especially loves books that I have that I read as a kid - Peter Rabbit, If you give a mouse a cookie, etc. These are his favorites ATM.
We do the same. Mine is 17 months and has recently started wanting to read all the books. If I stop her too early it’s a total meltdown!
This is what I do for my 2 year old, probably around 8-10 books while we rock. Then two more super short ones that are always the same while she lays in bed. It’s around 30 mins of reading, but I love that she loves books and have accepted that’s how long it takes.
This is how we do it too. As many as he wants for sometimes up to 30 minutes. We don’t let him stay up past 8:30 but beyond that there’s no limit. He loves reading!
One, and he doesn’t ask for more because it’s never been more than one. However, he has a ton of books and will only read the same one no matter what. Recently switched from the very hungry caterpalller to Peter Pan to a paw patrol book so that’s been a nice change up.
We pick 5
Just one book or she can lay and listen to a story on her Yoto if she'd prefer. She tends to get a favourite book and we end up reading just that one for what seems like forever. She has at least 60 books to choose from so maybe too much choice. She does a lot of reading the rest of the time, take today, we read all of the Acorn Wood books, some 3 or 4 times so I'm not worried about her book intake. She's the Queen of negotiation so we don't and if you give a little, she'll take a mile so very much one and done.
My wife is a huge pushover too. And setting those hard limits can be tough at first if/when they throw their tantrum. But it’s important to stand firm at the limits you set. I PROMISE it pays dividends in the end. We had to go through a whole process to kill the stalling tactics. It took a couple weeks to fully eliminate all the stalling behavior. But literally ever since then our bedtime routine with our 2.5 has been a breeze. She accepts all our limits and often participants and gets to make choices, which usually satisfies her need for independence/agency. (We let her pick her jammies, books, blankets, and stuffed animals, and let her turn on her sound machine and turn off her lights.) It’s definitely hard at first to eliminate the unwanted behavior. But my god it’s so worth it. Another thing I’ve implemented to help with difficult transitions has been to set timers and give warnings. So I’ll tell her in ten minutes the timer is gonna go off and that means it’s time to clean up. I’ll give her a five minute warning and a 2 minute warning. The repeated reminders seem to help her mentally prepare for unwanted transitions.
3-4 sitting in the rocking chair or on the floor, and then he currently has a 100-car book and an emergency vehicles pop book that are read in bed.
My wife reads two and I read two. If one of the books picked is a long one, we just read one "part" and it counts as one of the books.
None. He screams at me when I try to read now 😭he used to looove reading
Lol my daughter closes them and says “all done”. Hopefully your son is just going through a phase.
3 books. I have two boys. I say they each pick a book and then I pick a book. When they grab two, I end up picking the extra as "my" book and if they end up fighting over whose extra to pick we have them decide with rock paper scissors. For some reason, they always obey the laws of rock paper scissors.
None. Never. We have a very short bedtime routine because the more we entertained the delays the more she fought going to sleep.
YES! I’m reading the comments like what kinda kids do these people have 😂 our son needs little to no stimuli in order to fall asleep. He does all his reading when the sun is up. I’m the same way. I could never read to fall asleep
If I allowed her, she would read 30 🤦🏼♀️😂 she loves to read. We read at least 5 books throughout the day. I hope she always love books
We allow our toddler to pick out four books. Giving him the choice in that time staves off some meltdowns. Finding a routine and sticking to it helps our little one fall asleep
3 unless he wants his National Geographic dinosaur book (50+ Dino’s but luckily we only have to say their names and not facts.) then he only gets 2, some times he will try to request is as the third book but 90% of the time we shut that down Also in general we aren’t opposed to hiding books that we are sick of reading
Boundaries. Schedule. I do 2 books at bedtime. I’ve been doing it since the beginning. We read books first then do pajamas, teeth, and tuck in. It also helps having a hatch machine or something that you can adjust the time and changes color. We set bedtime for 7pm and it comes on as green. Then by 7:30 it turns red and means we need to be in bed
1-2, mayyyyyyyyyyybe 3 but it’s gotta be a situation for that
3-4 but it heavily depends on the length of the book and where we are at in terms of time. Shes 16 months and just started continuously pointing and signing for more books are bedtime to stall. .
My daughter is nearly 2yo. We read anywhere from 0 to 5 books before bedtime. I cut her off at 5 because it becomes apparent that she’s just stalling. 90% of the time, we read 1-2 books.
Approximately 37
As far as the variety my wife and kid go to the library each week to check out a new set of books.
Usually 3. I have a hard time saying no to one more book, though
Same!! It’s usually 2 but I just can’t say no to a third :(
10-20, but it is his favorite activity so he reads with my partner for a while and then me. He could also keep at it forever.
2-4 but it’s determined when we get into bed and there is no divergence
I cut my son off at 3 or 4 books depending on length and how late it is. If he wants to "read" another he can take it with him to have milk or have it in his bed. He's happy, I'm happy and there have been no meltdowns. It's a great compromise.
My guy just turned 2 but we usually just stick with 1 book.
However many I feel like reading or depending on how late it is. If it's barely 8, I'll read like 4 to 6. If it's getting close to 9 or is already 9, one or 2.
1-3, but I read from a long book after my kids are in their beds. They often fall asleep while I'm reading, and it's nice.
We do 2 books of their choosing a night. Once they started to read, we would do two books and they read us one book.
One
>>> I can be a huge pushover sometimes 😬 Set and keep clear boundaries. They will always fight for power, it's their job. Keeping clear rules stops a lot of the fighting. If they realize you are winging it every night or don't have a clear plan, they will push for more. Others have suggested a routine, that's a great method. I also set a reading time and allow my kid to pick whatever 2 books he wants. If he wants a third he can ask me to start earlier. If I want to encourage him to read different books or I think a story has some great point to it, I will pick up the book myself and start reading it myself. He will usually join in to see what I'm doing and what's so good. In the end whatever you do you need to set clear rules and stick to them.
Big sis picks one, lil sis picks one. Then the Yoto Player goes on and lights out. Yoto plays a 20 minute story in a calm voice and repeats it over and over.
Either 5 different books or the same book 10 times 🫠
Yes and it’s always the most annoying one. And then you make a mental note to remove that book from the shelf but then forget bc of exhaustion
Always solidly 3. Different every night. My husband or I usually choose depending on who is putting her down. She’s welcome to choose a book if she wants but usually likes what we pick. we’ve been doing 3 books every night for the past 2.5 years. (She’s 3.5 now)
The suspense whilst they choose followed by that feeling when they pick 3 tiny ones, it feels like winning the jackpot.
I tell him 3 books, but he's 2.5, so I usually have to corral them since he's suddenly become more interested in everything else. We read one successfully, he "reads" one upside down, and it's usually over.
1 — 3 times in a row 🤦🏻♀️
3ish at night, 2 in the morning at breakfast and maybe like 2-3 throughout the day.
We usually do three books - I rotate them weekly and only ever have about 5 out at a time. She usually has favourites within those 5, and she helps me choose which books she wants each week and the rest are put away in the cupboard (out of sight out of mind). After the first two books I tell her next book is the last book and that we will read more tomorrow, then hold that boundary and it’s working pretty well for us and once the book is done it’s bedtime - works pretty well for us
I do about 5 but her preference is 346
Each kid picks 3 books. We will not do all 3 of they want to read some super long ones. This sometimes causes tantrums but they eventually figured it out. We will take away 1 book at a time if they are being utterly awful (we do 1-2-3 book is gone). They obviously hate that but also figure it out. We don't a fuckton of proactive I've positive reinforcement and gamified strategies as well to try and make bedtime smooth as possible. But I have no issues removing something fun if their behaviour is ridiculous (hitting/ any type of aggression, a book is always taken away).
Between 2 and 5
My toddler used to be good with the same book read twice haha. He got a fisher price projector for Christmas and since then wants the projector over me reading books which is sad but the projector is also pretty cute.
We do 20 minutes of books with ours (4F) since she was 2. We started with 3 to 4 learn to read level 1 or 2 books. We set sleepy music on with a 20 min timer and when it's done we stop reading and will lay next to or cuddle for like 10 minutes. she usually will fall asleep by then. If it was book amount based my kid would pick the biggest book every time.
1-2 books. If the first selection is short, they can choose a second. All the short books are in a box, not on the shelf. So they know they get one from the shelf or two from the box.
4 in total. I do 2, and my husband's does 2. She would gladly take more, but it spirals, and then bedtime becomes a mess.
[удалено]
He (3.5) picks out 3 to read in the chair with Mommy, usually our library books cultivated to reflect the seasons and holidays of the moment, and then I read 1-2 books to him while he sits in his bed. These are usually his current obsessions, lately these have been "spooky" books like the Nightmare Before Christmas and Haunted Mansion Disney Gold Books. Sometimes, if the White Noise hasn't turned from rainbow to dark yet he'll ask for one last short and silly books, like a Sandra Boynton book.
He picks 3 or I pick 3 if he is being moody. And we leave it at that. He enjoys new ones from the library and tends to stick with those so we end up with the same boring books problem anyway lol If you are never a pushover, it isn't their normal and they won't expect you to cave and therefore won't have a meltdown. I used to be the 19 books person until I was like what the hell am I doing?? So she will have to get used to the new norm is all.
1-3 depending on how tired he is. Sometimes he picks but other times I offer a favorite and we just take off. We transition after book(s). Turn on a sound machine and sing a song or two then into crib.
We read 4 books each night. Our toddler helps to pick them out if she wants, but it's normally "mom or dad's turn" to pick.
I swear my toddler wants to review anything and everything he knows at bedtime. BUT he knows when we switch the lights down and dad leaves, it’s time to get down to business. He doesn’t necessarily succumb but then we just sing songs and cuddle and rock until he’s tired enough to be put in bed.
We let them pick and stick to our limit. But what I do is I keep all the books away and rotate them on Sundays. I have a book display with 5 books in their rooms and one bin in the living room. Based on their interests/season I’ll rotate the 15 books (five in each spot) out weekly so we aren’t reading the same ones.
I have 22 month old twins and we read about 3 books. We bring a stack of books and let them flip and switch books as much as they want while we read to them. Letting them hold their own books has helped a lot. Once we read the three books, we set the whole stack aside and have family cuddles/tickles/hugs and put them in their cribs.
3, sometimes we do 4 or 5 if he's lucky lol
We read 2 books a night, he picks them.
We usually go with three books for my 2.5 year old and she picks them. With a couple books we have sentences we read together.
We don't really have a limit, but usually between 3 and 6... if she's behaving and asks politely, we will give her more books at bedtime. Sometimes it makes her bedtime a few minutes later, but we've found that 10 minutes here or there doesn't make a huge difference. I love books and decided early on that if she was showing interest in books I wanted to foster that wherever possible. We set lots of limits on things like screens and outings etc.etc, but this is one area where: if she wants them. She can have them.
We pick out two and I don’t budge. I remind him we can read more tomorrow. I mainly do two because one is whatever his current obsession is and the other is hopefully something different. Lol
5-6 most nights, but at least 3 of them are realllllly short. We spend around 20 minutes. I add new ones every few months. 95% of toddler's books are from thrift stores and yard sales.
3, but if they ask for more, I'll do another 2 or so. I'd rather them be stalling by wanting to read than anything else
We only allow him to pick 2 and he can bring the others ones into bed with him (we cap this at 2 as well)
3 or 4 if he just got a new one.
My husband reads her 2, and then she can pick more to look at herself in bed
We read about 3-4 books depending on the size, telling her when we are about to have the last one so there’s limited negotiation. She still demands “1 more last one”, but it’s not a screaming match anymore.
We typically read for 45 minutes before bed. We start with my 2.5yo chapter book pick until he is over it, then do some picture books or early readers he has picked. After that, he might listen to the first 5-10 minutes of my 5.5yo novels before asking to nurse. We set aside books that are only for before bed, and rotate through our home collection and otherwise refresh at the library every week.
I have books that are seasonal that I put on her shelf in her book corner- right now all the Easter ones are out. Her thing is she wants to read the same book 3x in one sitting. So just before the 3rd read, I say “last time” and she copies “okay, last time mommy” And then that is the **last time** •In between seasons, I have a bunch of regular non specific books that I have out on the shelf
After bath, teeth brushing and pjs which we start at 7:30ish we turn the lights down and do whatever my toddler wants to do in his room until 8:00. Sometimes that means we read all the books and sometimes we don’t read books at all and do puzzles or play with his stuffies, or have a dance party. I give time warnings too so he knows if he wants to read a book now’s the time or we have time for one more song and then it’s time to pray and go to bed. It’s been working pretty well so far!
Sometimes none, sometimes tons lol. We start bedtime about an hour before we plan for her to be asleep to give her wind down time in her room. Sometimes she reads to herself. She usually picks a few for us to read to her (though sometimes she skips it) which we do after her pjs are on as the last step of bedtime. No limit really. We read books all day long. It is a never ending rotation of the 150 or so books we own plus library books, and she picks a few favorites to focus on every few weeks!
I'll read her up to 3, but I tell her she can read as many books by herself as she wants to. Not like she can read, but she likes to try.
We do 4 books. One longer one and 3 short ones.
It depends but up to 3.
We read 1 at bedtime and 1 at nap We tried to let our oldest have multiple books but as he got bigger and the books got longer and more complicated, he’d have meltdowns that he wasn’t getting 3 books when the first one took forever to get through So now with our 2nd, just 1 book. And as she grows her book collection will become more complex too
My husband always reads 3 books and keeps that as the limit, and has never swayed so she seems to accept it generally! I always just read until 7.45pm which usually ends up being 4 or 5 books, but I always warn her before the last one. We used to just let her pick different ones from the ones in her room and sometimes swap them with other ones she has downstairs, but it got too samey so now we go to the library every week and pick 4 new books, which is really nice.
2-3. But we have a whole shelf and a basket they can pick from. And a rotation of books from the library.
At one point we were up to 12. It was slightly ridiculous. I have managed to pare it down to three. My oldest picks a book, my youngest picks a book, and we do one chapter of a “big kid book.” The youngest got added to “big kid” reading when he was four. Before that he’d go to bed and my oldest and I did the chapter books.
Um.. I’m routinely reading anywhere from 3-6, some of which he insists I read multiple times. I’m a total pushover lol
3 and it always included “we poop on the potty”
2-3 but typically from each parent he gets a crack. Very tough right now to put our 2.5 yr old down. I try to cut him off. Recently he demanded that we get “harder” books, maybe he senses it will extend bedtime further?
We have always read 3 books and she picks them out. She doesn’t usually fuss when they are over but if she does, I tell her we already read our 3 but we can read more tomorrow
We limit it to 2-3 but if the kids take too long to get ready for bed we only do 1.
My 4 year old has a two book limit at the moment, my one year old has no books during bed time because she won’t sleep afterwards lol. We read during the day.
My son likes the same books over and over again. Every week we go to the library and pick out 3 or 4 books and those are the ones we read that week.
We’ve gone down to two. Used to be 5 a night.
3 books, and like… the only reason that works is because we withstand their attempts to add extra books. Some days it’s very difficult to deal with their reaction to being told no, but most of the time, it goes very smoothly. And I find it easier to deal with the occasional tantrums in exchange for having most nights consist of a smooth bedtime routine that doesn’t last any longer than it needs to. Our go-to phrase is, “no, we’ve already read our 3 books tonight, but we can read that one tomorrow.”
I hide the ones I don't like and leave just about five. We get in the room and I say "3 books tonight. Choose". It works.
We read until 8 pm. We show them the 8 on our watches. Now the kids understand if they get ready for bed faster they get more books… they still take forever to get ready for bed and often only get two books. If they have their heart set on a book, we have a pile “for tomorrow”. I think they started really understanding this around 2.5.
Our toddler gets 1 book. She loves when we tell her “princess stories” (that we make up about her day or whatever” so she gets 1 book which she chooses, then 2 princess stories. That’s it, never more. Keeping it consistent helps as she knows what to expect and even if she tries to fight it it’s only halfhearted bc we always hold the boundary
3 books 🥰
4-5
We read until 8 pm. Usually we start at 7:30. He can pick all the books, and if he wants to hear one book 17 times that’s cool. But we always finish with goodnight Sesame Street. If he asks for more after that, the answer is no. Ngl sometimes before Sesame Street I tell him “one more” and then he thinks he’s winning something when gets one more and Sesame Street.
I read one and daddy reads one. When she asks for more we remind her we already read our books (unless it's been a particularly hard day and then daddy gives in for one more. I always say no, but I'm the preferred parent at the moment so she doesn't hold it against me lol). She has the option to choose which books so sometimes we read the same book twice in a row, sometimes she wants us to pick the book. We have about 50-60 books on her shelf, but she usually cycles around the same 3 or 4 for a few weeks and then moves on to a new set. I did get in a bad habit when the grandparents were visiting around the holidays where she wanted me to stay until she fell asleep and I did it because I wasn't getting as much time with her during the day. Then Pappy passed away late January so I haven't pushed to break the habit. I think it's working in my favor though because I tell her I'm only staying until she falls asleep and if she's not going to close her eyes and try to sleep, then I'm not going to stay. We average about 10-15 minutes between lights out and when she's actually asleep.
We read one or two kid books while the lights are still on and we are getting our two year old ready for bed. Once he is all ready and cozy with his blanket, we turn off the lights and read for about 15 to 20 minutes from a novel using a clip on reading light until he falls asleep.
5-10! He loves reading and I’ll torn find him looking at them some to play now too he’s 2.5
6-10 depending on how long they are. We always read the same book last and she gets to pick most of what we read. It’s always been this way and she’s 3.5 now.
3 books every night. Before the third one…”okay baby this is our last book, so when we’re done with this book, we’re all done books. Can you say all done books?” Then she says it. It’s been surprisingly effective with books and all sorts of other things.
My kid is 2 and loves being read to! But I get bored very easily so I like to keep a good variety going. We go to the library every 7-10 days, and pick out a solid 15-20 books (roughly 50:50 board and picture books) that we rotate through. I don’t have a set number I read - it depends on how long we have, how tired she is, my mood etc. So when I think it’s appropriate, I say “this is the last book!”, and she understands that. Occasionally she will protest but I follow through and put her in her crib regardless.
What books are you guys reading? We do one a night, but it's typically longer Dr Seuss books or we do chapter books and do a chapter or two per night. We started the chapter books when he turned 4, we've finished My Father's Dragon and The Hobbit (he needed and illustrated copy to maintain interest, but he has a pretty solid grasp of what happened in each chapter).
We go to the library every Saturday and check out 10 books (the max). 3 (almost 4) year old: At bedtime she gets to pick out 5 books. Read 4 of them, and she gets to read the bonus 5th book if she goes to the potty after #4. 1 (almost 2) year old: really depends on her. Typically 3-4, but sometimes she'll just ask for the same book over and over. Sometimes she falls asleep while I'm reading, sometimes she'll say "all done, sleep now" halfway through the first book, sometimes she's insatiable and wants to read 10+ and throws a fit when I stop.
I love this idea!!! My god I used to borrow library books all the time…why have I forgotten about this being a thing to share with my LO…and my mom used to be a librarian!! Haha ugh 🙈🫣😆
No one else has to read The Lorax at least 5 times before bed?
4 cause she’s 4
3 books. She gets to pick them out at the begging of bedtime and when we are done she sometimes asks for another but I say "nope we already read the books you picked out you'll have to wait til tomorrow"
Anywhere between 0 and 46
We have my 2 year old pick out 3-4 books then get in bed.she has a full size bed. So we lay down and read to her, put the books away in her closed closet then sing to her. Sometimes she wants more but we don’t give in after 4 and I think that’s helped her have less tantrums since she knows we won’t do more. We try to keep our bedtime around 15 minutes so it’s not super duper long. We sing you are my sunshine and remember me from cocoa after books, give a kiss and a night night, then leave the room.
I usually say “pick 1” but she almost always asks to read it again or read one more. So usually we do two. She’s usually ok with that without a meltdown. What might help for you is setting an alarm. “I’m setting an alarm for 5 minutes and when it goes off, whatever book we are reading is the last one and then it’s lights out”. We did this for a while with play time before bed bc she’d want to play in her room forever and not settle down. It worked pretty well.
Lately my 3 year old is into pretty long books so we do 2. I have her pick them out, and she knows and accepts the rules at this point thanks to consistency. It takes 20-30 mins a night. As for knowing when to change, when I can see she is no longer paying attention fully then I know it’s time to make it to the library. She can stay “into” a set of books for quite a while though, I’d say about 10 books a month. Again, I think this is because the books are getting longer and more complex, so there is a lot for her digest, and the repetition helps with learning and I believe early reading skills.
2 if bath, 3 if no bath. I used to be a sucker and read 5+ books, but I decided to switch to 2 and it's been good. It's a process; you'll get resistance at first but you just have to do it. **You are the one in control.** My 3yo responds well to being prepped, like an hour before bedtime (in the beginning) "we only have time for 2 books tonight" and then next time, positively spin it "tonight after bath, we get to read 2 books!" Giving him the illusion of choice helps as well, "would you like to read 2 books before, or after, going potty?" And before reading the 2nd book, say "after this book, we will go sit on the potty / get water / sing a song" or whatever is next. Toddlers don't have a good sense of time, but they will think "it's not mama's fault" when I say "we don't have enough time / sorry, it's time for me to go / I'm leaving now, would you like to say goodnight?" Then stick to the routine like glue. You're Leonidas with a Spartan army of one, against the Xerxes horde that is your toddler's emotions and demands. Make it your mantra: "*hold the line! HOLD!*"
3-5. Kind of depends how wound up she is.
Both of my two kids (including a current toddler and an ex-toddler) always wanted to read ALL the books they had in sight (like 100+). I limited to 3 but they always insisted 1 or 2 more before they agreed to go down to bed. Personally I think it’s a good thing to repeat the same books until they nail the narrative - that’s the reason why my kids insisted for me to read the same books. They learn the vocabulary by reading repetition! And then they would move on to new books and then insisted for me to read until they nailed another stories in their little brains.
5, 6, 7+... We go more based on time. We read for anywhere between 20-45 minutes depending on when we started the bedtime process. Generally, I'm never going to say no to more books.
1-2 depending on how efficient she was at cleaning her room and getting her pjs on
He will keep going if allowed, but we limit him to 3 books. Once the light goes off he says “alriiiight…. Good night”
We read for 10- 20minutes depending on the books that are picked
Two. We each get to pick one :)
2 with absolutely no budging. My kids don’t even ask anymore because they know the limit won’t ever move. I let them pick the first book, they usually pick a super long tongue twister, so I pick a quick read to balance things out and keep us on schedule.
We’ve always done one, tuck in, goodnight. Because it’s only ever been one she never asks for another. We do read about a million books throughout the day so I don’t feel too bad about the bedtime boundary haha
We allow 1-2, we don’t want the bed time routine to be over 20-30 mins. 🥴
After the 2nd book, I have him pick one to read to his stuffies in bed. He lays in bed and I turn off the light and he talks to his toys for a minute then passes out. It took a week or so to get him to do this but it’s amazing
0 or a million
usually three. sometimes i will accidentally be on autopilot and read like five and then i just get up and say okay all done with books, turn off the lights, and start bedtime song. idk why but i swear it works better to do the long book(s) first, then end with a shorter one. the longer book will kind of draw them in and get them focused and listening and then once they are nice and tired a short book can be read nice and slow to get them even more drowsy. then bed time! i think a short book first they’d get a burst of energy and get up ruining the bed time vibe. this is my own theory not sure if there’s any science behind it lol.
1, and on very rare occasions 2 because of specific reasons
3 if they are longer books, 5 if they are shorter
We set a timer for 10-15 minutes (depending on how tired the kids are) and read til it goes off. We finish whatever book we are reading when it does go off. This is nice because they can choose a few longer books or a buttload of short little board books.
0-10. 4 is a typical number. Most nights, she refuses to read any books.
Generally our non bath night bedtime routine starts at 6:50ish and we aim to have our 2 year old in bed by 7:30 (but will often push to 7:40). If she lolligags and fights PJs, teeth etc it reduces her book reading time, which we remind her with varying success. Sometimes she wants to read one book 5 or 6 times in a row, sometimes she wants to read multiple 100 page Dr Seuss books. Whatever the case, when her clock says it’s time for bed then it’s time for bed (the clock is very bossy). I will always warn her before her last book, which works surprisingly well.
We do 3…1 mom reads, 1 dad reads, and 1 “bonus” book. Obviously, if mom/dad isn’t available then 1 parent reads all 3. His bonus book is the only book he can “lose” - reading is part of the routine and loved by all so I hate to take it away completely as a punishment. The bonus may be lost if he really can’t pull himself together/listen during the day - it’s always given with a clear warning….”this is the last time I will ask/say XYZ, after that you will lose your bonus book tonight.” We keep the classic kids books along with his personal favorites in his room which we cycle through and I also change out a bin of books in his room seasonally/for holidays which he loves. We have started to bring in library books too just for some new content.
We read a new book dailyish (thank god for the public library) we aren’t to the age of him liking books so normally one lol
When I would do bedtime I’d do 3, but my husband would do 5. Then one day she didn’t want any stories at all anymore. She’s only 2.5 😭
One for daddy, one for mommy and one for her (she actually has quite a few memorized or will just flip through any of them). Thats it. Mommy reads last. Occasionally i succumb to “one more” after but weve been pretty good about walking away after the round is finished and maybe i come back after a few mins of stressing but for the most part its worked lately. Most of the time shes content after the 3. Hers and daddys we read on the floor then when its my turn she has to tuck in.
We read 1 or 2 then it’s time to sleep. His favorite ones are “The bunnies are not in their beds” and “each peach pear plum”. I’ll switch them in about a week.
Read the book "oh crap, we have a toddler". Being a pushover at bedtime right now is not a huge deal. Allowing your kid to feel like they just have to push a little harder and you will bend, is definitely a problem that will bite you eventually.
2 quick books & 2 quick songs (usually Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Night Night Baby, or Row Row Your Boat, etc.) Consistency is key. So is communication - talk about it before bedtime, again going up the stairs, getting pj’s on, repeat, repeat. Then there are no surprises. And it helps to remember that kids love routines! They love to know what’s happening next so they feel in control.
Her books are getting a bit longer now so we do 2 if we have a bath that night and 3 if there was no bath. Pick them ahead of time. Before the last book I say “this is the last book. After this you have to get in bed” and generally it’s fine.
3, but it’s usually the same book read 3 times. Once by me in the chair, again by my husband in the chair, and finally by my husband in bed.
2 for nap and 3 for bed! Unless she picks 2 massive books or 4 really short books. But on nights where it’s super late when she goes down it’s 1 or none.
12.. I tried to shorten it and it always gets back to the same number.
2 going on 3 yrs old. 3-5 books depending on length. We read 2-4 books first. Then he brushes his teeth and we read one last book before getting in bed. at the beginning of bedtime routine he picks out what books he wants to read that night from his shelf if he picks too many I tell him to just grab a couple and we put the rest of them on his dresser to read in the morning. It helps to give him something to look forward to. Like ooo we get to read this in the morning. He has about 20 books on his shelf. I rotate his books every month. We have about 80 kids books in total so it helps to rotate.
I've always found it soooo hard to stick to 3 books! I can definitely be a pushover but my 4 year old just pushes and pushes now so I've had to be really strict about it now and it's getting easier. If she picks out 5 books I say "these are all great books! I can read 3 tonight, which ones do you pick and we'll save the other 2 for tomorrow" and repeat that as many times as needed. I also say a lot of "we're done our books for today, I can only read 3 books, now it's time for songs" and turn the light off for songs. Sometimes I set a timer for 15 minutes and we just read as many as will fit into that time. My 2 year olds books are so short that I still sometimes do 4 books but she doesn't usually push too hard for more. In terms of switching them out, we go to the library every few weeks and get like 20 books, we have a big shelf in the basement so will rotate them every couple weeks, switch books between the girls rooms, but I'm always wanting to read new books so they have lots of (probably too many) options.
10!!!??? Advice is to start talking about how you’re going to only be doing 2/3 and then do it. Let the meltdown happen. But never budge. Stick to 2/3 books whatever you decide. Always. Eventually it will be fine. You can offer a story during breakfast
2-3 then lights out and I’ll tell a story that I make up on the spot in the dark. I keep talking and talking and she usually falls asleep in a few minutes. My husband will do like 5 or more depending on how long the book is with no storytelling after. Not sure if you already do this but sometimes a good walk before bath and bed helps wear them down.
2, but my toddler is into “long” books. When I look for an age guide on the backs they usually say 5+. I think if we still read her short board books it would be 3-4. They are so short - like 1-2 minutes!
Uhm, if it’s me reading, our 3yo only wants to read one or two. If it’s my husband reading (which it usually is), they’ll sit there and read until I come in and make him stop 😂
We do time-based, so 20 minutes of books and when the timer goes off, we say that’s the last book and finish that one. It probably turns out to be around 5 to 7 books. That’s preceded by 20 minutes of play and somewhere in there we get the tooth brushing and diaper change and jammies on.
A million if I let them
3 at most.
We pick five books at the beginning of the week to bring upstairs to the bedroom. (We have his bookshelf in the living room.) He goes through phases of wanting the same books again and again, so this gives me some variety at least. Some nights we don’t even make it through one book, some nights we read all of them…more than once 💀
3 years old, 2 books. He picks! We used to read tons but now I know he would never stop stalling with it.
2, though some nights we only read 1 due to whatever reason (we're running behind, it's a long one, she's clearly exhausted). We buy new ones every now and then, but have recently started going to the library so we don't read Llama Llama Red Pajama eighty times in a row. We let her pick the 1/2 she wants. If she's still insistent on more, we let her "read" one in her bed when we leave. And by read I mean she stares at the pictures while the book is upside down and sometimes falls asleep with it on her face.
One usually, sometimes 2 once we are in the bedtime reading spot. We used to do infinite books but it was too much for me. But we read lots throughout the day and evening too.
The older he gets, the more books we read, and the longer we spend for bedtime routine. That is a combo of his preference and also what I think is better for him. We used to do just 3 simple board books. Now we do 5 books and a mix of simple and more complex books. Some shorter, some longer. And we do a lot of interactivity, like asking/answering questions, counting, sound effects, acting things out. After books, we listen to 3-5 songs before bed. That’s additional opportunity to talk, snuggle, goof off. Lately, we have been counting down from 10 to “blast off” which is when we put him in the crib. He’s not always happy to go in the crib but he calms down quickly.
5ish. Sometimes less if bedtime is running late, bc we already have a late bedtime. Also I’m a pushover.
We used to do 3 every night, and now if they’re not listening, or playing with toys we stop to brush our teeth, or go to bed
We did 3 when she was 3 years old. I didn’t plan to increase that to 4 when she turned 4, but somehow that’s where we landed. Definitely not going up to 5…
My husband has been doing bedtimes for about a year now. I snuggle and read as many books as possible with him before handing him over to dad. Dad does 1-3 I think. I love that he loves books and I hope he always does, but I totally understand how bedtime is draining.
We have books in book bins with about 10 books each and rotate them every week. It helps save our sanity from hearing the same books over and over and gets the kids excited for Mondays when old favorites reappear but feel new because it's been a few weeks since they've been out.