How long does it take you to get going in the morning?
From the time the first kid (if you have more than one) wakes up, how long does it take you to get through the morning routine and out the door?
For us, if things go well, it takes about an hour for breakfast, getting dressed, and into the car. But there's so much dawdling and the kids getting distracted. If I'm just supervising one to eat and get dressed, it's not so hard. But with two kids, it's hard to keep them moving, and I find myself getting worn out by the morning routine. When things don't go well it can take 2 hours which feels way too long to me.
We've recently started a star reward type system for the 4-year-old (nearly 5 now) who's the oldest, he earns a star if he gets himself dressed. That helps some. But there's still an awful lot of verbal shepherding to keep him moving.
2 Answers
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I love this question. We can make it out in an hour and a bit these days (with the bit usually including some play time as we get rolling) by:
- one adult beginning breakfast prep (usually fruit, some kind of carb, and a bit of protien/dairy) as soon as we get up, the other parent is usually on diaper changes/potty stop and play "duty"
- eating (takes, it seems, an inordinately long time but we don't necessarily want to encourage our children to eat fast or finish things)
- dressing & brushing teeth (fast if we apply one adult per child, medium if one adult dresses the kids in sequence, slow if we encourage kids to dress themselves to whatever extent they can)
- gathering bags / lunch whatnot to go (inordinantly long time too. we should be doing this the night before) and getting everyone buckled in (working on tricks to make this go better too)
My current thinking is that if we move at the kids' pace and encourage them the way we probably should - to develop good eating habits, to learn to dress/bus plates/do more themselves, to not rely on us "verbal sheparding every step" - then we need closer to 2 or 3 hours to get out of the house. On the other hand, they're good household citizens if they can operate as part of a team to get us all going as fast & efficiently as possible, so we want to encourage that too (we sometimes even use the "team" metaphor). So, we go back and forth on our approach depending on the day. But, yes, some days can simply be exhausting.
Should we do the stopwatch thing in Cheaper by the Dozen?
I think what's tough is that we have to get ourselves ready in that time too. Might be smart if I start getting up before the kids.
- Stephen M., Aug 23, 2010
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Hi Stephen,
It used to be longer. These days, we get up at 7 and leave the house at 8:10. I have an alarm on my iPhone for 8:05, that reminds us all to start the "get your shoes on and your backpack and pick up your lunch box and grab your library book" process. That's been a big help.
Now that they are older the boys dress themselves, sometimes help make their lunches, pack their own backpacks (new this yr for 2nd grade), and get their own shoes on (though usually while wrestling, arguing, or throwing stuff at each other so it takes longer). But since I know we are starting that process at 8;05 and that we've got time, I'm less stressed by it.
Hard parts for me when they were 3-5 yrs old was taking my own shower and getting dressed, which was just time for them to get in trouble or fights.
The other part that wore me out and brought me to tears during Kinder and 1st grade was when one of them would throw some huge fit during the morning routine, or whine through the whole thing, and I'd just be so mad and upset and exhausted by the time I was driving to work. One kid throwing a fit can cause everyone else in the household to be late. it's awful. And I couldn't ever figure out the right sanction b/c the timout in this case is completely counter-productive -- just makes everyone more late. This year they are old enough to (sort of) walk to school on their own, so I've told them that if one of them is making a scene, the other one who is on time will get to walk to school by themselves, which is a huge treat. You should have seen Andy rush this morning to finish his cereal and catch up b/c he didn't want to be left behind by Jack.
Heh, I laughed at that last part about the stopwatch. Thanks, Andrea, this is very helpful!
- Stephen M., Aug 21, 2010