To ask when it gets easier to get out the house on a morning?

So how did our parents cope. Maternity leave was four months if you were lucky in the eighties and nineties. And yet they did cope

8 weeks! That would have killed me on baby1. I can't even imagine.
Saying that I did manage by baby number 3 to do lots of things straight away. By the age of 5 weeks she had been to a wedding, 2 funerals, a camping trip and we had to do a major house repair. The older DC were only 2 and 4 so it was quite chaotic.

I went back to work when mine was 8 weeks old, so I had no choice but to get out the door at a certain time each morning. If you're happy with the way your day is structured then that's fine. If you would like to be out doing things earlier in the day, you can make that happen, you might just have to rearrange and re-prioritize some of the things you are spending your time on.

If it works for you it works for you. That kind of routine, being so tied to the house, would have driven me up the wall so mine alway nap on the go!

Cue my sister then having a baby who would only nap on her

Baby wraps and carriers are huge right now. There's a solution for everything.

You'll get different answers depending on the type of parent and type of baby they have had. My mum fit me into her life and not the other way around. She did this with all 4 of us and couldn't understand parents with strict nap schedules as she felt that was making a rod for your own back. Cue my sister then having a baby who would only nap on her and she understood things worked differently for different families and kids. They never tried to break the cycle as it was easier just to give in and who doesn't like baby cuddles?

For me, I always got out after the first nap. I didn't worry about the washing though, we'd often do it on the evening and put it out first thing in the morning or on dryers on the evening and often it would be my dh who did it. I also didn't feel guilty if I didn't get out as I'm a home body anyway. I found that mine when younger would get grizzly of we were out all day so we didnt burn the candle at both ends whilst they still has naps.

If you are different and need to get out for your mental health then you need to make it happen. Having baby nap on you is a habit that needs to either be broken or you work everything else around it by getting your partner to share more of the load.

You have rose tinted specs on about what it is like when they are older. I can only speak for mine but yes whilst they can pick up more of the physical load they still need constant reminders to get coats and shoes on and to hurry up. Mine are 9, 8 and 3.

Ha! That's what I was thinking the whole time I was reading the OP!

Well yes. With my sisters first and only the baby never slept anywhere, but a pitch black room with total silence.

Then wondered why the child wouldn't sleep in a car seat or pram.

I mean it depends really. Yes if you are at home all day with a baby you can be completely baby orientated. If you have to drop them at childcare and be at work for 9am when you have to make that happen.

My kids are 10 and 7 and it was hard work earlier this week getting out the house on time to drop them at holiday club then getting to work for 9am, because they didn’t want to go. Yes they are capable of getting up, getting dressed, getting their own shoes on. But they need more emotional support and encouragement than when they were babies. Babies need more physical help. It is very tricky to get my 10 year old out the door if he doesn’t want to go somewhere I can assure you, in some ways it was easier when he was a baby, because even if he was grumpy I could just put him in the car and go!

If we were going to Legoland, I guarantee they’d be fully dressed with their shoes on by 8am 😀

With your first I think you can be prone to oveethinking how rigid you need to be in a routine, so everything is focused on the baby's "needs" sometime to the detriment of our own. If you want to go out when you're ready to go then go out, the baby will be fine, and will probably end up being so much more adaptable when you aren't trying to fit in with their "routine" which is ever changing month by month as they grow. I remember being fixated on trying to get my firstborn into a regimented routine and if anything it made her more grizzly as sometimes the routine can't be kept to 100%. With my second she had to just go with the flow, maybe not napping at ideal times, and sometimes getting woken, as preschool drop offs and pick ups wouldn't wait, but she was much more adaptable because of it, and I realised that life doesn't have to revolve around the ever changing schedule of a baby, as they do just learn to nap as and when possible. Makes life much easier and more enjoyable for everyone in the long run.

First of all if you’re happy with your routine and set up then who cares about others opinions!

I’m in the toddler stage and sometimes I look back and wonder why it took me so long to leave the house. Especially when you go on to have a second child, the baby just fits your life. You HAVE to be out of the door early to drop the eldest off.

It also depends on you getting ready, if you want your hair and make up done all nice it’ll probably be hard to do!

How old is your baby? From 6-7 months my son was eating finger food for breakfast so I ate at the same time.

The more you take them out and sort of attempt naps in the pram the more they’ll get used to it xx

When my child was a baby I didn’t put pressure on getting out early as feeding slows down the morning. However once they were at nursery we got into an early morning routine quicker. I get up, showered, dressed and make up on. Wake my child and get them dressed with extra time included for cuddles/play so I wasn’t rushing them, and we’re out the door for nursery and breakfast is given there. I found it easier once I had that structure of nursery run before work. Not every morning is easy now with pre-school age child, but as long as I wake early enough to not rush them out, it’s a calm and easy morning routine

See I'm of the " grandparents" generation. Somehow ( necessity not to lose job) we managed to get a baby out, drop off to childcare and get into work by 9.

And I had 16 week maternity leave with eldest so was back at work when she was 13 weeks old

I think if you HAVE to do things you make a way of making them work

If you have 2 children you have to get the eldest to school or nursery on time. So people do

Of course if it's one baby and you don't need to actually be anywhere then you can make things far more baby oriented and take ages

Several things to make life easier:
do the dishwasher/wiping down in the evening when baby is in bed
no naps on you - stops you doing things
ignore grizzling - get ready at your pace
lay your clothes out the night before
playpen if the baby doesn't like the jumparoo

Have you lived with a toddler or primary aged child before? I definitely found it easier to get out of the house with babies. I now have a 5 year old and a 1 year old toddler and it is hard, very hard. Babies are portable and just join in with your day.

I definitely find my 15yo harder to get out of the house than when he was a baby. Then, I could just do everything to him and have it all planned and sorted. Now I have to persuade him to do it all. How can it take 20 minutes to get socks on and them still be the wrong colour for school? How is it possible that every single day there is something he needs for school that I didn't know about (and he can't find) that he only remembers at 7am when we are supposed to walk out of the door??

With my first it was so easy, he just slept wherever so could do whatever I wanted with him. He wasn't much of a routine kind of baby. The second one didn't like the pram or the car so he was much more difficult to manage. Do what's best for you. No need for lots of activities for baby but it may be nice for you. I found baby classes and such just exhausting. Mine were never those that sat in the lap and listened wide eyed 😅

Naps are really really important. I would happily schedule my life around the little one getting enough sleep because if they don’t get a nap during the day they sure as hell don’t sleep at night.

When they move out you'll be able to get out with ease at whatever time you like 😂

Celebrate the small wins and don't listen to others who have different children or likely have their rose tinted specs on.
You got out the house. That's a win.

I had ones that never slept in a buggy or the car seat. I had to make sure we were home for naps or my life just wasn't worth living with their grumpiness. Lots of days we didn't bother going out we just went with the flow. It's not forever but there are different battles that's for sure. The pain of naps have been replaced by making sure 24/7 snacks and food is available for mine. They are hollow. Even at 10,7 and 3 we don't often do full days out they prefer a morning or afternoon. They need downtime to decompress. Plus the endless snack times.

I tried to find comedian Victoria Woods sketch on getting to the Baby Clinic with her new baby but couldn't find that one but look at youtube at V Wood and baby comedy - they will at least cheer you up

Why is that though.
My sister was obsessed with napping and sleeping. Bedtime, routine and naptime routine involved, pulling the blackout curtains, complete and utter silence. She extended that downstairs when she had guests.
We didn't make a noise while she was putting her baby to sleep as it would stop the routine. She warned us before she went upstairs and woe it as if we spoke above a whisper.

Then to her surprise, she couldn't go anywhere because the baby wouldn't sleep unless it was pitch dark and absolutely silent and the baby wouldn't sleep in a car seat or a push chair And she was chained to the house and a slave to routine.

I've known her be so wound up that the baby wasn't falling asleep in the pushchair - by now, the baby was over eighteen months, that she drove home to put the baby in bed and said she'd come and collect us when he was awake. It was ridiculous.

If like another poster did from a very early age, my sister had got up, got out with a baby in a pram and taken him for a walk from a young age.He probably would have fallen asleep in there. But no, she got got him out of bed in the morning, fed him breakfast and left him in his pyjamas, so he could go straight back down for his nap after breakfast, in pitch dark and utter silence again. Then he wasn't dressed until very late in the morning, and almost ready for another nap in complete silence an pitch dark. So she had been in the house day till about two pm then complaints she hadn't got anywhere all day

I spent a lot of time as a guest at my sister's house when her son was little, tiptoeing around and whispering, whilst she was putting him in bed. Not able to go anywhere at all because of his sleep times. Make a rod for your own back.

You sound exactly like me with my first! If I managed to get out the door by midday I called it a great success. I think people (grandparents especially) can sometimes forget what it's like to have a really young baby. I only ever planned one thing a day (if that) and I have absolutely ZERO regrets about that, especially now my kids are older and I'm always running about daft with school/nursery pick ups/ playdates/ clubs. Enjoy your baby and do things your own way.

I really struggled until my DD was around 8 months. Now I put her in her cot with toys and/or YouTube baby music/mickey mouse whilst I get ready 30-40 mins. So much easier now and she’s 15 months I still do the same, I struggled when she was younger as she wouldn’t sit in her bouncer chair or anything. I don’t know how old your baby is but a jumperoo really helped too but obviously you have to watch her whilst she’s in it, I just used to put it in the bedroom while I got ready and she’d be happy bouncing and playing

Also, for the love of god can posters stop saying, "when you have another baby" as if it's a given?

Well, I had a pram-napping baby and I'm a scruff by default, but I can definitely sympathise with the arsehole comments from relatives!

When they say that you're being too restrictive, they generally mean "why won't your baby fall in with my wants, which are also restrictive, even though I'm a grown-ass adult who could shift my own wants a bit to accommodate a baby, but I in fact want to act like the biggest baby in the room".

It's perfectly fine to hit a rhythm that suits you. It doesn't last forever.

There are pros and cons to every phase, but they're all short.