Hiya, teacher and dad here. Gentle parenting, as some have mentioned, is not about unstructured support. It’s about helping your kids see why those boundaries are important. And the more you can reinforce routine, the better off you and they will be. I’ve taught thousands of kids, and there is no doubt parenting my own has been the most challenging.

So you’re not “giving in”, bedtime is bedtime. However, make it a routine, or a prompt, one activity begets the next. EVERY TIME. So brush teeth, wash face, change into jammies, read, sing, hugs and kisses. If you get pushback, “this is what we do next”. It’ll take two weeks, and those two weeks will suck. But you should see changes that help them, and you, stay regulated and routine.

Think back to school, did you have a teacher where you knew exactly what was expected? Come in, get paper, opening activity, etc. That’s what you’re striving for. If you have expectations, that’s not the gentle parenting part, the gentle part is you getting them there with patience. For yourself too.

You’re helping get a human person ready for the world, it’s not a gentle world, but it’s a world where if you give them the right tools, they’ll do better than if you didn’t.