Changing Routines Through the Seasons of Life

Jennifer Thomas shares insight into how her family’s routines have changed over time and how she sprinkles elements of our Catholic faith into her current season of life. 

One of the first things I remember being told right before being discharged from the hospital with my oldest is “Just remember the 'three Bs': Bath, Breastfeed/Bottle, Bed.” I was grateful for the advice and am sure many other first-time moms have been told something similar. In theory, it seemed like a fairly simple routine that I could easily follow until I went back to work only 6 weeks later. This was the first routine I clung to and was determined to stick with for our new little family.  

Once I went back to work, however, maintaining what I thought was a simple routine proved difficult, not because the tasks were difficult but because our life circumstances changed. We were quickly in a different season of life. There were no more days when I could “nap when the baby naps,” or at least rest, because I was at work and she was at daycare.

By the time I picked her up from daycare and arrived home, I was exhausted and struggled to maintain the routine. I felt guilty those first evenings when I was just too physically exhausted to bathe her while my husband was away on his first business trip after I went back to work, but I did my best and added reading a book with the baby each night. 

Making Adjustments 

During the toddler years when I was home with the kids, I allowed myself to overlook the growing messiness of the playroom throughout the day because I knew at the end of the day, we would all work together to clean up the playroom. This meant we ended each night and began the next morning with a cleaned-up playroom. I also allowed myself to leave the sink full of dirty dishes throughout the day because I knew after the kids went to bed, I would unload and load the dishwasher.

This allowed me to not stress throughout the day, wondering when and how I was going to get everything accomplished. I’ve found this to be a commonality we mothers struggle with throughout our journeys, and any little glimmers of hope we find can often make quite the difference. One thing we still kept as part of our bedtime routine was reading a book together and saying our prayers before bed. 

Over the years, I’ve had to revisit our routines to determine what is still working and what needs to be changed based on the ever-changing stages of our family life. Between sending the kids to preschool and figuring out how to adjust nap times, when to drop naps altogether, and then me going back to work, our routine has evolved. The days of the "three Bs" are long gone, yet maintaining some semblance of a bedtime routine has been the one thing that has stuck with us. It just looks different now.  

Reading and Growing Our Faith Together 

One part of our routine that has stuck with us throughout the years is making sure we are doing some sort of reading together. While we have experienced some seasons when it just seemed like we were trying to do too much before bed, we finally found what works for us and may work for you as well. During the Advent season of 2022, we incorporated Lisa Hendey’s 5-Minute Prayers Around the Advent Wreath. It began as a way for us to do something for Advent and in 2023, I was excited that my children wanted to do it again.

After seeing the fruit of spending time together reading as a family, we decided we wanted to continue and began learning about the saints with A Saint A Day: 365 Stories of Faith and Heroism and Through the Year with Tomie de Paola that includes both saints and feast days for the year. 

Toward the end of 2024, I asked my trio if they wanted to read something different or continue learning about the saints. To my surprise, they all said they wanted to keep learning about the saints, and I happily ordered a copy of Belinda Terro Mooney’s Pray with Us: A Saint for Every Day. We have truly been enjoying this different perspective on some of the saints and also the fact that there are different saints for us all to learn about.  

It feels good knowing that, while it has been difficult at times, the fruit of maintaining this routine is multiplying for our family. I pray that my trio continue to have this desire to learn more about not only the saints but about our Catholic faith. I encourage you to figure out what works best for you and your family in whatever stage of life you find yourself right now.

How can you incorporate some little sprinkles of faith into your family's daily routine? 

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Copyright 2025 Jennifer Thomas
Images: Canva