Morning Routine?

Sxia

What is your morning routine?

What do you set out the night before?

How much time do you give your kids before they have to be out the door.

Is it better to let them sleep more or to let them take more time to get dressed, etc?

hikerbeth

DD is in kindergarten (first bell is at 7:55 am, I have to drive her).  DS goes to daycare 2 mornings a week and is dropped off immediately after DD.

I get DD up at 6:45 am and get her breakfast.  While she's eating, I make her lunch, feed the dog, make my coffee, pack up her backpack, etc.

I send her up to get dressed no later than 7:25.  She gets dressed and brushes her teeth and then I do her hair.

On DS daycare mornings, I get him up no later than 7:15 (if he's not up already) and get him dressed and sit him down with a light snack/breakfast while I help DD get ready.

On non-daycare mornings I let him sleep in if he wants until we're ready to leave and then we have breakfast/get him dressed after we drop DD off.

mattswife91805

What is your morning routine? We get up at 6am, I let M wake up slowly (she's in a better mood this way) I get myself ready, start getting DD ready at 6:30

What do you set out the night before?  I have DD's snack/drink for school ready in her lunch bag in the fridge. I set her out her outfit for the day. 

How much time do you give your kids before they have to be out the door. we leave the house at 7:20am, so DD has from 6:30 till 7:20. She has to be fully ready for the day before she can watch any TV.

Is it better to let them sleep more or to let them take more time to get dressed, etc? I find it with DD that if she wakes up slowly she is in a better mood. If she wants to get up before 6:30 and get dressed she can. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. She always has plenty of time to get dressed, just won't get to watch a cartoon if she doesn't get herself all ready.

bklynbridecesh

We are all awake between 5:30-5:45AM.  I dress 19mo old DS.  DH and I eat breakfast together while the kids drink their milk.  DD (age 4) dresses self.  They both play while I shower and get ready for work.  DH (SAHD) makes and packs my and DD's lunch and makes sure DD's bookbag is ready and the diaper bag is packed, since the kids love to eat on the way to school in the carriage. Sometimes DS will eat breakfast at home.  DH gets dressed and brushes his teeth.  He usually showers later when he has time.  I brush kids teeth and hair, leave for work at 7:00AM.  DH brings DD to school with DS along for the ride at 7:30AM.  Kids bathe at night.  Both kids get plenty of sleep since bedtime for DS is around 6:30PM and DD is at around 7:00PM.  It works for us and we don't feel rushed in the morning. 

peekaboo716

I get up at 6:00, get ready except for putting on work clothes, and feed dogs. DS gets out of his room at 6:30 (who knows what time he gets up - and he gets dressed). DD get up about 6:30-6:40. We eat breakfast together. DH will throw their lunches in their backpacks. DD gets dressed and then the kids brush teeth/do hair. The kids play for a few minutes while I get dressed and gather my things to head out for the day. We leave the house at 7:25.

For my DD, it's best if she's let to wake up on her own and not rush her. She's a grouch if you do. My kids have just under an hour to get out the door in the morning, and for us, that's plenty of time.

Clothes, backpacks, shoes, jackets, are all laid out the night before. Their lunches are packed the night before, and we just need to put in their lunch boxes in the morning.

surprise3rd

DS wakes up around 6, comes in and wakes me up.  Then he goes out and sits on the couch, turns on TV.  DD wakes up at some point and joins DS on the couch.  They eat dry cheerios and watch shows, have a drink while I make coffee, then they usually eat some fruit or yogurt.  They graze for about an hour, fruit, yogurt, cereal,  we don't sit down and eat together.  I make his lunch. 

At 7:30 he gets himself dressed, brushes his teeth, washes his face and hands, shoes and jacket on.  GOes in and wakes up DH (WAHD)  DD has school 2 days a week but desn't have to bee there until 9:00 so we don't even really worry about her, she stays home with DH while I take DS to school.  Then when I get home around 8:20 I will get her ready for school, help her get dressed and do her hair.  We have 2 hours from DS awake to out the door.

Raspberry807

I do nothing the night before except make sure laundry is caught up so we aren't scrambling for school uniforms or socks.

 

• 6:30 I get up, shower, get dressed, dogs outside and fed
  
• 7:00 wake kids up, get them going on breakfast
• 7:10 lay out their clothes and make their lunches
• 7:15 dry my hair, finish getting ready, kids dress themselves
  
• 7:25 do DD's hair, help DS with shoes and coat
• 7:30 leave to take DS to preschool and I'm at work by 8
• 8:30 SO takes DD to school (1st grade)

They go to bed at 7:30 and 8:30 so they're getting 10-11 hours of sleep.  They don't need much time getting ready, and I find if I give them too much time they get lazy or want to play video games and not get ready. 

superslug

What is your morning routine? I get up around 6:40, go upstairs to get the boys up. We pick out clothes and then head downstairs. I make breakfast, they eat and watch TV while I make lunches. When they're done eating we get dressed, they brush their teeth, and we brush hair. By that time it's usually time to head out so we grab backpacks and go.

What do you set out the night before? I have their backpacks ready to go but that's all I really do the night before. They're not picky about clothes so that takes like a minute in the mornings.

How much time do you give your kids before they have to be out the door? From the time they wake up until the time we leave is about an hour.

Is it better to let them sleep more or to let them take more time to get dressed, etc? IDK, I think it depends on the kid. Having an hour to get ready has been nice for us, I don't feel rushed and they boys have time to get everything done plus a little extra.

Sxia

Thanks for the tips.

So far, we go to sleep around 8:30, asleep by 9:00 usually.

Then we wake up around 6:30/6:45. DS is easy. He always wakes up around 5-6:00 and jumps in bed with us, so when we get up it takes us 5 minutes to take him to the bathroom and get him dressed and then he starts to eat while we get DD. She is a grouchy waker, as I am sometimes. I need to lay in bed for a few minutes before getting up. So does she, so I come in and wake her and then go do one or two things before getting her up. DH is a wake up and go type person.

DD is really slow to get dressed, but isn't always this way. When I asked her one morning she could go with me to Starbucks if she was up and dressed and hair brushed by 7:00, she did it without complaint and only needed to be zipped up.

DH has to have her out the door by 7:30 so he can get to work on time. (I leave with DS at 7:00.) They are always fighting each other tooth and nail in the morning and he needs some help.

jlw2505

My kids are currently in preschool and PreK and both programs offer breakfast.

DH and I take turns with who gets up first and gets ready and then gets the kids while the other is getting ready.

On my early wake up days this is the routine (DH does it basically the same)

5:15 - I wake up, shower, get dressed, hair make-up and then get all of my stuff ready to go - if I am going into the office, my bag would have been packed the night before and I would just need to toss in any food for the day.

6:15 - wake up the girls - they go potty, get dressed, brush teeth and hair and then head to the kitchen to get a pre-breakfast snack - we keep a number of things in the pantry or in the fridge that they can either eat in the car or at school (DD#2 can't eat anything at school and must finish everything in the car but DD#2 can bring anything in as long as its peanut free).  

6:35/6:40 - head to get shoes and coats (we give more time when its cold as then we need to mess with coats/hats, etc.  

6:45 - get into the cars and head to school (DH and I trade off who takes who since we have to go to 2 different schools - this will change in the fall when they will be at the same location)

We pack the kids bags the night before - they basically stay packed all the time and we only need to clean them out, add new clothes if their back-ups got dirty and stuff like like.  All meals are provided by school.

 All clothes are set out the night before.

We have this down to a great routine - have been basically doing this the same since they were infants so they know how it goes.  It only gets delayed or messed up on days when we forgot to lay out school clothes the night before (DH tends to forget this on the rare nights that I am not home for bedtime) and getting all the winter gear on can slow us down a little but we pad the time we need to leave.  If we leave around 6:45/6:50 - that still gives DH and I enough time to get the girls to school and then DH can still meet his car pool on time.  I either head back home for work or to my office and don't have a set time.

crazynervous

Holy cow everyone gets up so early! I start waking DS up at 7:30, he dresses himself while I get breakfast ready, then eats breakfast while I pack a lunch, pack his bag and then I take him to the bus stop at 8:15. After that I get ds2 and myself dressed for the day and leave at8:50 to drop ds2 at preschool for 9:00

DandelionMom

DD1 gets up at 6:30, she showers and dresses on her own.  I get up at 7 with DD2 and DD3 and make breakfast for all 3 kids.  At about 7:30 DD1 finishes up getting ready and is out the door by 7:50 for the carpool.  After breakfast DD2 gets a shower, etc.  Then DD3 takes one.  While they shower I make lunches (if I didn't make them the night before) and double check backpacks, feed the pets, tidy up breakfast, etc.  While they dry their hair and finish getting ready I get ready (I just throw on work out clothes since I shower after I go to the gym).  We leave at 8:30. 

They end up with about an hour and a half to get ready.  I don't do much the night before any more since they are all old enough to be pretty independent.  When they were little we chose outfits the night before and packed backpacks/lunches too. 

I try to make sure that they go to bed early enough that they can have 10-12 hours of sleep (depending on age) and still have plenty of time to get ready.