Mom Goes Viral After Sharing Her Toddler's Midnight Bedtime Routine

There’s nothing quite like the ceremonious hustle of getting home from work just in time to feed the kids, wash them up and put them to bed before the school night bedtime of 7 or 8 p.m. rolls around. For many, it’s a tale as old as time and a three- to four-hour block they’ve gotten down to almost a science. But one mom seems to suggest there might be another way. What if, instead of the rush, you simply pushed back bedtime? Not just an hour or two, though, we are talking way back—say midnight?

Victoria Yavnyi recently went viral for a TikTok depicting her toddler’s midnight bedtime routine. Instead of heading straight to dinner and bed after rush hour, Yavnyi and her little one head out for a night on the town.

Around 8:30 p.m., Yavnyi and her daughter go for a nice late night walk around their Williamsburg neighborhood. At 9 p.m., the mother-daughter duo head to Trader Joe’s for some grocery shopping. Around 10:30 p.m., her toddler gets into her pajamas and has some iPad time before dinner is served at 11 p.m., followed by reading books, coloring and playtime until midnight.

While definitely out of the ordinary, some parents praised Yanyi for depicting a different lifestyle, one that isn’t seen very often. “I love how unique your schedule is! We don’t see enough of it on the internet. I think the typical 9-5 is so often shown, so this is so interesting,” wrote one user. “I found my people! We’re night owls over here too,” added another mom.

Others brought up questions and concerns from if a late-night bedtime would interfere with her daughter getting enough sleep come school time to how mom got any sleep after getting baby to sleep so late. Yanyi naturally had answers for each question, sharing that she planned to homeschool and that she didn’t mind going to sleep at 3 or 4 a.m. herself.

Perhaps the biggest question at the top of minds though was why? Yanyi simply notes that she “doesn’t like to abide by circadian rhythms”, claiming they are man-made.“Time was only created by humans. This is how we built a society that everyone wakes up, goes to work, and goes home and goes to sleep. Just isn’t the case for everyone. My children don’t need to fit in society’s norms to be successful,” she explained.

Whatever the case, she notes it’s what works best for her and her family and that’s all the really matters. “[My daughter] decided this on her own when she was in newborn. Her longest hours of sleep was from 12 a.m. to 6 a.m., and it just stuck.”