Everyone recommends ten minutes of 'special time' a day. What does that look like on an ordinary Tuesday?

lilac_sketch_340117 Apr 2026

Our daughter's preschool teacher suggested it at the last meeting, after we mentioned that bedtime has turned into a long negotiation. Every article says the same: ten minutes, child leads, no phones, call it special time. On paper it's simple. In practice I log off at 6.30, dinner is at 7.30, and the hour in between is bath, food and an argument about which plate. Where does the ten minutes go? Do you do it at the same time every day? Does it have to be play, or does a walk to the shop count? I'd like the version people really do on weekdays, not the version in the handout.

1 comment

juniper_sparrow_173817 Apr 2026
We tried this when the baby arrived and our elder one started acting up. It was never ten neat minutes at a fixed time. It became the drive to his cricket coaching on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and lying on his bed after lights out on the other days. He chose what we talked about. Some days it was five minutes. The one rule we kept was that the phone stays in the other room. That mattered more than the timing ❤️
- lilac_sketch_340117 Apr 2026
  That helps, particularly the idea of attaching it to something already in the day rather than adding a new slot. Bath might be our version, if I can stop it turning into the plate argument. Did your elder son notice when it was only five minutes?