How to get a busy family out the door on time by Karen Bleakley.
A few years ago I had three kids under three. I somehow managed to get my twins and a newborn out of the door to the local preschool for 8.15am twice a week. Some days it felt almost impossible. Over the years I’ve gotten better and better at getting out of the door without screaming the house down.
Here are my top tips to get the kids out the door for school or preschool/kindy … without losing the will to live!
There is nothing worse than trying to make sandwiches when you’re trying to feed multiple kids breakfast while also attempting to get everyone dressed. Have lunches ready and waiting in the fridge so you just need to grab the box and go. I have a few friends who even make packed lunches for the week and freeze them so they can just grab them out of the freezer. I think this idea is genius – unless you have kids like mine who all eat totally different things and like to change up their sandwich orders all week just to keep me on my toes.
If your kids are old enough to get dressed themselves, it will make it much easier if they know what they need to wear. If you have headstrong toddlers, then it can be easier to just let them get on with it – there is no point arguing with a three-year-old who is determined to wear a princess dress, a fluffy onesie or a Spiderman outfit for the day. Go with the flow and you’ll laugh about it all later. When your kids get older, they can organise their own clothes the night before.
As toddlers, my boys ALWAYS used to lose their shoes at 8am, every single day. I found the best way to avoid the last minute shoe panic was to have a few pairs available so that in an emergency I could always find a pair. Meanwhile my daughter walks everywhere barefoot so we often arrive somewhere and realise she has no shoes on! I try to leave a pair of shoes in the car as a backup.
If you have a baby, pack your nappy bag the night before. Make sure you have plenty of nappies, wipes and spare clothes so you can just grab it and go. If your little ones are at kindy, make sure they have what they need in their bags so you only need to add their lunchbox. If you have school-aged kids, remind them to pack their bags before bed and to put their homework, bags and books away so you aren’t scrambling around for them when you’re trying to leave.
Write a list of what your kids need to do in the morning so they know their responsibilities (you can draw the items if they can’t read yet). Stick this on the wall as a reminder. For older kids, you can include things like make breakfast, get washed, brush teeth, get dressed, then put lunchboxes in bags, fill up drink bottle etc. My kids all cope much better in the mornings when they have a clear idea of what tasks they need to do and in what order. It also means you can give them praise and rewards when they do everything on the list. My kids often compete to see who can be ready the quickest in the morning – a bit of healthy competition can make your mornings go really smoothly!
It sounds like a no brainer, but I’m the kind of person who likes to stay in bed until the last minute. I struggle with this one some days. It feels so good at the time … although as soon as you get up late, it puts you on the wrong footing from the start. Set your alarm early enough to give you plenty of time.
Use bribes or rewards wisely. My boys are computer game obsessed, and they know that they get to play computer games at the weekend if we have a great week. I’ve found it’s the one thing that they will do anything for, and it means that often they are ready and waiting by the door at 8am trying to impress me. Some mornings they’re up, have breakfast and are sitting watching TV ready to go by 7am! It’s an effort to show how well behaved they can be (aka they are hoping for more treats or maybe an extra session on the computer). My kids love rewards and I would much rather reward their good behaviour than punish their bad behaviour.
If you end up being late, so be it. It’s easy to get carried away and let mornings rule your mood. You don’t want to be late for school, kindy or work, and all that pressure can make you short tempered. I’ve been there so many times, and every time I’ve shouted at the kids for being late, I’ve regretted it and felt bad. In the scheme of things, what does one late slip really mean? It’s not worth letting a morning rush affect the tone of your whole day.
This isn’t a morning tip, but if I have time – and I don’t always – I try to do a couple of things that will make my evening nicer. I try to stack the dishwasher before we leave for school so I don’t come back to find a table full of dirty dishes, and I put a slow cooker on so dinner is sorted. I make a big batch of something at the start of the week that can be used for a few meals. I don’t prep the slow cooker in the mornings because that would be insane – I cut everything up and pop it in the pot the night before when I’m cooking dinner, then leave it in the fridge so come the morning I can just heat it while we eat breakfast.
The most important thing is to give your kids a chance to be responsible. If you always do everything for them, they will always expect you do to everything for them and your mornings will always be chaotic. If you don’t trust them to pour the cereal into their bowl or to pour their milk on their cereal, they won’t learn how to do it carefully. The short term pain caused by spills is worth it in the long run because it gives them the independence to keep trying until they do get it right. (And the cereal spills also teach them an important lesson in cleaning up too!)
I’m going to have three kids in school soon: one in prep and twins in grade three. I’m not dreading the mornings one little bit because I know how independent they all are now.
We’ve come a long way since those three under three days. I’m certain the skills I was forced to learn during that crazy phase of life have helped us develop a system to cope with the chaos!
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