Bedtime video call with his grandparents has stretched to 40 minutes

citrus_hammock_223822 Jul 2026

My parents look after our son two days a week, and on the other evenings he insists on a video call before bed. It started as a quick goodnight. Now it's show-and-tell of every toy, a full story from my father, then 'one more minute' four times. They love it and so does he. But bedtime has moved from 8.30 to past 9.15, and I'm up at 5.30 for calls with the overseas team. How do I shorten it without it feeling like I'm cutting them off? My mother will notice if it suddenly becomes five minutes.

1 comment

sunny_pebble_286323 Jul 2026
Could the call move earlier instead of being shortened? We had a similar ritual with my in-laws and shifted it to just after dinner, before the bath. The length stopped mattering because it was no longer the last thing before sleep, and bedtime itself stayed ours.
- lagoon_chai_897724 Jul 2026
  we gave the boys a timer they could set themselves. 15 min. they watched it like hawks and warned my mother-in-law when it was about to ring lol
- citrus_hammock_223824 Jul 2026
  That's a good thought. After dinner my father is usually free too. I'll try it this week and see if he accepts the bath as the end of it.
- citrus_hammock_223824 Jul 2026
  Replying to @lagoon_chai_8977
  A timer he controls could work, he loves pressing buttons. My worry is my father will start negotiating with the timer too ❤️
- maple_hammock_579524 Jul 2026
  Replying to @citrus_hammock_2238
  Our Nani does exactly that. She asks my daughter for 'extra time' like it's an exam. We let her have it on Sundays, and the rest of the week the timer wins.