Your help required - top tips on surviving the school run

Actually, the "shout a lot" one is the best. You can ask nicely once, twice, or a hundred times, nothing will get done until you shout so you might as well do it straight away.
Yep.

Nobody goes downstairs until dressed and wearing wipe clean aprons for breakfast.

Use TV programmes for younger children to measure time i.e. "you must finish your breakfast by the time Noddy finishes".

Never allow them to watch a different channel for a change - this can lead to a false sense of security in your timings.

Get yourself dressed while they are gawping at Noddy.

Send them to breakfast club even though they have eaten as the parking outside school is considerably quieter.

1. Get up aprox 15 mins before children and have a glass of wine - you will feel so much better.

This thread is verging on the ridiculous - anyone would think you were all planning the Normandy landings fgs!
It's getting a few poxy kids to school - wicker baskets and picture planners and all.

Glassofwine I like you. I am taking notes.

And School Run Mum should have fast hair. Long hair twisted up or pony tail or short hair that looks good 'ruffled'. Anyone with time to get a hairdryer out before school is evil.

All the below, plus (in case I missed it), I have a board on the wall and a big calendar above where I make the packed lunches where important school stuff is written down or pinned up - not just which days need music & sports equipment but forms to be returned, library dates, parents evenings, fund-raisers, party invitations, lunch menus. Blah, blah. It's priceless!

1. Get up aprox 15 mins before children and have a shower - you will feel so much better.

1. When you've dried yourself and bothered to apply body cream (again you will fee so much better) wake all children, open curtains, put lights on etc.

1. Get dressed in the knowledge that the children are still in bed.

1. When you are dressed stomp into bedrooms and start issuing orders.

1. When children have got up hand any slow ones (dd1 in our house) a timer and tell them they must wash face and be dressed before timer goes off in order to collect a piece of pasta in their jar (infamous MN pasta jar method).

1. Make a healthy and filling breakfast inc some fruit.

1. Hopefully the children will all be at the table by the time you've made the breakfast.

1. Train them to put plates etc into dishwasher.

1. Never put the tv on.

10. When they've finished breakfast issue bullet points in the order you wish them to do ie. teath, hair, shoes and get them to keep repeating it untill each task has been done. Mine enjoy this and would forget what they're supposed to be doing otherwise.

11. While they are brushing teath etc dry hair using hairdrying plugged in downstairs (mine is hidden under the sofa). This way you can keep an eye on proceedings and still be the stylish mum at school.

12. While they are faffing about with shoes nip to bathroom and quickly slap on some foundation (1 min) some lipstick (30 secs) and some mascara (30 secs). Again you will feel soooo much better.

13. Have bags ready from the night before.

14. Buy each child a £10 scooter and scoot to school.

15. Bask in the knowledge that you are one of the mums with clean dry hair, soft skin and a bit of make up not one of those couldn't be bothered types.

16. Invest in ipod/mp3 player and take it with you for the return journey, so you walk quickly (mine is 20 mins uphill on the way back) so that you can tell yourself you have exercised. Or you could download the Today programm podcast and keep up with world events.

17. Remember to intermitantly smile at the children during this process so that they think you are quite nice really even though all you have done is nag.

18. Please can I have a Wii

Put tea tree in the plant spray for spikey hair horror mentioned earlier, then just shake and apply. Tea tree oil puts the headlice off you see.

That's a double tip for you.

we have a picture planner, home made of course!
picture of childs bag. next to it, picture of each item, book bag, lunch box, pe kit and anything else needed, they are all velcroed on at the side of the bag, as each item is done it gets posted into the 3D bag.
as my three have autism this is a very useful visual reminder, which help with independence skills.

Ditto all the above.

But my best tip is make sure everyone has enough sleep as grumpy children and adults make for nightmare mornings!

Live far away from school to be early, live close and be late as said by my DS aged 10.

We live just under a mile from the village school and i would LOVE to walk my children to school.
There is a pavement all the way BUT at the last 20 yds or so it finishes and the only way accross is to stand in the middle of the road as the entrance is right accross a crossroad and the traffic is horrendous in the morning and afternoon.
Bad enough trying to get to school in the car had lots of near misses.
The local council refuse to extend the pavement and this crossroad would be much saf
er if it was a roundabout.

mine are not old enough for me to have to face the school run yet.. but my boss used to dress her son in his uniform while he was still asleep!!
then when he woke all she had to do was brush his teeth, smooth his hair and get some breakfast down him.

Reading this makes me SO pleased I don't drive to school.

Oh plant spray for spikey hair horrors. (YOu can use one spray for both by the way)

It also works to get kids to move faster.

If going to school is what you do why not?
If I was waiting for a special event to put make up on for, days would pass with me loooking like a ghost.

Sophy, some of us have to go straight to work afterwards. I make babies cry without makeup !

Cannot believe any of you actually put makeup on to do the school run.

Tell them they can play with the Gameboy (or should that be Wii? ) if there is still any time left between them being ready for school and leaving the house.

In the mornings, move in one direction only. Eg once you're downstairs, don't let them go back up. Get dressed upstairs, then go down for breakfast, and keep a toothbrush downstairs. Always move towards the door.

I think the only real solution is contraception.

( the Wii is mine)

You need tv in the morning to stop them trashing but agree only after they are ready.

My best one is to move house to be 60 metres from the school. You can then get up at 8 30 and still have full make up on by 8 45 to get them there in time. You can also send them to school alone - there you are school run done and not even got out of bed.

Ithankyou

Get ready the night before.

School bags and shoes left by front door.

Never return to the house after leaving - if it's left tough, they will learn.

Make them walk.

Keep toothbrushes and flannels in the kitchen, in order to stop trips upstairs, coz once they go up they are hard to get back down

Oh, and I don't know how this would work in other families, but when all else fails, I sing to my sons in the morning. They hate it and find it really embarassing. I make the most of it by threatening to sing at top volume if they don't hurry up. I have done this before with windows open, so they know I mean it.

I make up random songs on the spot ie 'now is the time to clean your teeth' to the tune of 'Here we go round the Mulberry Bush.' I sing deliberately badly and out of key, and only stop when my sons do what they should be doing.

Encourage children to dress themselves as early as possible (in terms of age)
School uniform is easy. All shoes are taken off by front door and are left by the front door so everyone knows where theyare in the morning.
We also have a basket with brollies, hats, gloves, raincoats etc by front door so if the weather is bad, it is all together in one place, easily accessible to all.