Getting it together in the morning

I started working a full time job a few months ago and mornings have
become a major issue. I really need to be out of the house by 7:30 in
order to take DD#2 to daycare and then get to work by 8 a.m. This is
totally not happening.

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

I need suggestions for how to make mornings more manageable before I
lose my job since I'm always late!


TIA,

Tracy

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004 08:12:05 -0400, Tracy L. Cramer
wrote:

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

Do as much as you can to prepare the night before.

Pack lunches and put them in the refrigerator, make
sure all the homework is in the back packs.

Try getting them to bed earlier, eliminating naps if that is a
problem for the youngest. For older children, you can make
this a consequence of their dawdling in the morning. If they
dawdle and make you late, then bedtime is 1/2 hour earlier
that evening. If they are able to get up and get off on time,
then they can stay up until their regular bedtime.

Get alarm clocks for the older children and make them
responsible for getting up and ready rather than waking
them yourself. Sometimes just taking yourself out of the
picture helps kids be ready to get out the door.

Have breakfast ready before you call them to go or
get breakfast at McD's on the way to school if they
like that kind of thing.

With older children, sit down with them and brainstorm
solutions. Let them choose from whatever acceptable
alternatives they come up with.

If you can afford it and they don't have to be to school
early, hire a sitter to come and take them to school,
at least for a while until they can get into the routine
themselves.

Good luck.



--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

Tracy L. Cramer wrote:

I started working a full time job a few months ago and mornings have
become a major issue. I really need to be out of the house by 7:30 in
order to take DD#2 to daycare and then get to work by 8 a.m. This is
totally not happening.

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

I need suggestions for how to make mornings more manageable before I
lose my job since I'm always late!

I think the biggest thing that helps with mornings
is doing everything possible the night before. Pack bags,
lay out clothes, even put out the breakfast dishes if you
need to. If there are arguments over clothes, have the
child pick out the night before. Be sure to do the
same for yourself. Is Dad around to help out too?
If there's an issue with kids watching tv/playing
GameBoy/etc. before they're ready to go out the door, then
save the treat for when they're completely ready to go
(down to the shoes). We confiscate GameBoys at night and
dole them out only when everyone is ready to go ;-)

Best wishes,
Ericka

"Tracy L. Cramer" wrote in message
...
I started working a full time job a few months ago and mornings have
become a major issue. I really need to be out of the house by 7:30 in
order to take DD#2 to daycare and then get to work by 8 a.m. This is
totally not happening.

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

I need suggestions for how to make mornings more manageable before I
lose my job since I'm always late!

Like everyone said, do everything the night before. Get up extra early.
Brush teeth, change clothes and go. That's what we do at our house. DS
gets breakfast at daycare. With multiple kids, perhaps a competition will
work? Whoever gets done first gets to stay up an extra 15 minutes that
night?

"Tracy L. Cramer" wrote in message
...
I started working a full time job a few months ago and mornings have
become a major issue. I really need to be out of the house by 7:30 in
order to take DD#2 to daycare and then get to work by 8 a.m. This is
totally not happening.

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

I need suggestions for how to make mornings more manageable before I
lose my job since I'm always late!


TIA,

Tracy

Echoing the "do as much as possible the night before" advice. I've found
that, for my daughter, 1/2 hour is just not enough time for her to get
ready. If I need to be out of the house at 7:30, I would wake her up at
6:30. It sounds impossibly early, but she really needs a full hour to get
dressed, brush teeth and hair, eat breakfast and get ready to go. If she
finds the wake-up time too early, we talk and move her bedtime 1/2 hour
earlier.

DD also has ONE place where she has to put her "green bag" (her school bag),
jacket and shoes. I always put her lunch box in the same place.
Theoretically, all she has to do is grab the stuff and go. But in practice,
it's not so quick.

Echoing the "do as much as possible the night before" advice. I've found
that, for my daughter, 1/2 hour is just not enough time for her to get
ready. If I need to be out of the house at 7:30, I would wake her up at
6:30. It sounds impossibly early, but she really needs a full hour to get
dressed, brush teeth and hair, eat breakfast and get ready to go. If she
finds the wake-up time too early, we talk and move her bedtime 1/2 hour
earlier.

I thought the same 2 things - do almost everything at night and wake up
earlier.

DD also has ONE place where she has to put her "green bag" (her school
bag),
jacket and shoes. I always put her lunch box in the same place.
Theoretically, all she has to do is grab the stuff and go. But in
practice,
it's not so quick.

I do the exact same thing - backpack always goes in one place, as do shoes,
jackets, etc...

The main thing for me would be waking up earlier.

Bruce Bridgman and Jeanne Yang wrote:


Echoing the "do as much as possible the night before" advice. I've found
that, for my daughter, 1/2 hour is just not enough time for her to get
ready.

Heavens, no. Mine need at least an hour.

If I need to be out of the house at 7:30, I would wake her up at
6:30. It sounds impossibly early, but she really needs a full hour to get
dressed, brush teeth and hair, eat breakfast and get ready to go. If she
finds the wake-up time too early, we talk and move her bedtime 1/2 hour
earlier.


Since mine are often up at 6:30 a.m. without my waking them, I don't
consider it impossibly early at all. If I had to be out of the house by
7:30, I'd get them up at 6 so I didn't feel rushed.

Clisby

Tracy L. Cramer wrote in message . ..
I started working a full time job a few months ago and mornings have
become a major issue. I really need to be out of the house by 7:30 in
order to take DD#2 to daycare and then get to work by 8 a.m. This is
totally not happening.

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

I need suggestions for how to make mornings more manageable before I
lose my job since I'm always late!



You might just need to get them up earlier -- We get up at 6:15 in
order to leave at 7:30. My kids are younger than yours I think (3.5
and 1) and need my full attention to get dressed, etc.

You say your kids are not morning people -- maybe getting up earlier
(and getting to be earlier) would allow some waking up time before
they are expected to get ready to go.

Like others, I've found that doing as much as possible the night
before helps. I have also had trouble with extreme dawdling from the 3
year old. We used to eat breakfast and then get dressed, and she would
draw getting dressed out as long as possible, until I got mad. That
improved after I "left without her" (She was in tshirt and underwear,
refusing pants and shoes. I just picked up the baby and walked out the
door with all the stuff. She came crying out the door carrying her
pants and shoes. After I got the stuff and baby in the car, I helped
her finish getting dressed on the driveway.

Getting dressed as been better since then, but she started drawing
breakfast out (30 minutes to eat a bowl of cereal). So we switched
getting dressed to before breakfast, and just cut breakfast off at
7:30.


So it is something we constantly adapt.

-Jan

In article ,
Tracy L. Cramer wrote:
I started working a full time job a few months ago and mornings have
become a major issue. I really need to be out of the house by 7:30 in
order to take DD#2 to daycare and then get to work by 8 a.m. This is
totally not happening.

None of the kids are morning people, but this is getting ridiculous.
Without fail, I wake them up before 7 and they spend too long fooling
around, or throwing an extended fit (the smallest), and I get upset
and start yelling.

I need suggestions for how to make mornings more manageable before I
lose my job since I'm always late!

I don't know how old your kids are, but one thing that works for
a friend of mine is that if her kids leave the bedroom without
getting dressed, she gets to choose what they wear. It gets them
dressed pretty quickly! You could set a timer or an "alarming clock"
(one of my kids' expression) and if they're not dressed by the
time it rings, you get to choose what they wear *and* stuff them
into it. It's unpleasant enough that they might race the clock.

Also, half an hour probably isn't enough time. With my twins (age 3)
we wake up at 7:00 to get out of the house at 8:00 -- and that's
without eating breakfast at home! They each have a bottle while I
read them a few books (~20 minutes); this starts everything off
calmly. Plus, they get sugar in their systems right away so
they're not being cranky about breakfast. I dress them, and then
they dash off to play while I round up their breakfast (they eat it
at daycare) and my bags for work. I put on my shoes and socks,
their shoes and socks and jackets (sort of while they're playing)
and then usher them out the door. We're out by 8:00.

Can you possibly extend your morning routine to an hour with the
kids? Take a bit of time right away playing or reading to them;
that'll get them out of bed.

Again, most of this is geared toward smaller kids, but even teens
might react well to some of this....especially to your picking out
their clothes if they're slow!

good luck,
- marty
(mom to Andie & alex, 3-year-old girls)

"Clisby" wrote in message
...


Since mine are often up at 6:30 a.m. without my waking them, I don't
consider it impossibly early at all. If I had to be out of the house by
7:30, I'd get them up at 6 so I didn't feel rushed.

Clisby


Not impossibly early for DD - impossibly early for me

But yeah, we get up around 6:30 to 7:00 although we don't have to leave the
house until 8:30. If DD is dressed, brushed, clean and fed and she's made
her lunch, then she can watch TV until we leave.

Jeanne