Bedtime Routines for Babysitters and Grandparents: What to Write Down

A bedtime routine runs on autopilot for the person who built it and on almost no information at all for anyone standing in. “Just do the normal bedtime” is a perfectly kind instruction to leave a babysitter or a grandparent, and it is also nearly useless, because the normal bedtime lives in dozens of small unwritten details that only you carry around.

Why “just do the normal routine” is not enough

The order matters, but so does the exact wording of the phrase you say at the door, the number of stories that counts as fair, and what “no” sounds like when you say it. A new adult, however capable, is filling in every one of those blanks by guesswork — which is exactly the situation most likely to produce a long, negotiated bedtime instead of a short, calm one.

What to actually write down

• The order, as a numbered list, not a description. “Bath, pyjamas, teeth, one story, lights off” is more useful than a paragraph explaining the evening.
• The exact phrase you use, in quotation marks. If you always say “sleeping time now, back to bed” to end a stalling round, write that sentence down word for word — a paraphrase does not carry the same weight to a child who knows the real one.
• The agreed number of stories, stated as a number. “One or two, whichever we agreed at the start” closes the door on a negotiation a new reader has no way of winning.
• The small props that matter. Which teddy is official, which side of the bed, whether the night light is on a dimmer — tiny details that a child will absolutely notice if they are missing.
• What to skip if the evening has run long. Give explicit permission to shorten the story or drop a step, so a tired sitter is not choosing between the full routine and a very late night.

Give them permission to do it a little differently

A grandparent does not need to recreate your exact voices or your exact jokes — a child usually knows the evening is different tonight and is fine with that, as long as the two or three constants are still there: the same order, the same closing phrase, the same teddy. On a night when reading aloud with confidence feels like a lot to ask of a nervous babysitter, a free audio story is a perfectly good stand-in for the read-aloud step.

More on the audio option in our guide to audio bedtime stories, and if the child is travelling with you rather than staying with someone else, see bedtime on the road instead. Browse the full bedtime collection to print a cover’s reading time alongside the instructions.