How long does it take you to get everyone out the house in morning?

[WhyNotMe40]

We always seem to take much longer than we should.
I have 2 small kids at school and 2 to get to nursery. DH just gets up and out.
I make pack lunches for everyone the night before.
Everyone needs sun creaming, hair done, teeth done, get dressed, breakfasted, locate various reading books , sunhats, homeworks etc. Then I wash up and get out the door.

It takes me 2 hours....

I have hooks by the door for nursery bags and book bags that theoretically everything goes back in to. But I always forget something like restocking the nappies (we use cloth so send them in every day) or they've been reading a book in the morning over breakfast and put it down somewhere.
Anyway

How long does it take you?

I suppose by that age they don't need pinning down to clean teeth get dressed and change nappies though!

Kids get up about 8 ish and we leave about 8.45 depense is we are walking or driving and how fast we can walk (childminder so sometimes I have young ones walking).
I do most things the night before and the kids don't take packed lunches anymore, they like school dinners. If I only had my own 2 kids to get out the door I could probably do it in about 20 mins, I have done

It takes us about 40 minutes with one nursery aged child. Bags all packed the night before and no lunches to prepare as dp takes leftovers, I keep food at work and nursery feeds dd.

Generally we have always got up at 7 and left by 8/8.30 (has varied over the years).

But wrangling four kids must be super stressful. My suggestions

Bags and lunches prepped the night before (50:50 with dh?)
Everyone dressed (and shoes on?) before breakfast
Clean teeth and do suncream and hair at same time before any reading
Have a visual timetable

2 DDs 5 and 2. Get them up and out in 20 minutes when I take them to breakfast club and nursery (I’m entirely ready before they wake up). Takes 45 minutes to an hour when they have breakfast at home, we also rush less on those days.

Two 6 year olds and it takes is one hour.

Do you have waiting time when you arrive at school? Do suncream there?

45 mins - 1hr but I only have myself and mostly independant 9yo to deal with.

We can manage it in much less than that if we need to hurry.

Takes an hour to get 4 & 1 year old (and myself) up, fed, ready, washed, teeth and out.

I'm lucky enough to have an older one who gets himself to school and a younger one who doesn't need to be anywhere on a regular basis yet. And I don't do sun cream or hair. If I need to go out, I tend to get up at 7 and throw the older one some snacks in a lunch box (he has school dinner but they have a mid morning snack) and give him his bus money, then relax a bit with DH until about 7.30, then take DS2 into the living room, get him changed and dressed, settle him with his toys, get dressed/shower myself, do teeth, and can then leave by about 8/8.30 if I'm really in a rush, but wouldn't have time for coffee or breakfast or breakfast for the baby. If I needed to eat and feed him actual food as opposed to milk whenever, it's more like 9 that I'm ready to leave. But I'm not particularly rushing around.

What time does DH leave and you? It really helps to divide and conquer with these things IME and must especially with four. 2 hours strikes me as ridiculously unbalanced if he's only doing himself and leaving. That's not on at all, unless he needs to leave at 5am and you don't need to leave until 9 or something like that, but I would guess he leaves at some point during the 2 hours, in which case he could easily "donate" half an hour or so before he leaves to do whatever task. Or even better, could you drop off two each?

I would also do some kind of military style planning. All bags sorted the night before. The older ones should have some responsibility for this themselves and reading books, homework etc is not to be touched or removed from bags in the morning. If you need to wear sunhats every day have multiples - for the cost of a few second hand sun hats which can be passed down it's not worth a manic hunt and scramble every morning. Get a box near the door that they can be kept in so when you find them later around the house they can be thrown in there too. Easy breakfasts which are either instant or can be prepared the night before and brought out of the fridge etc.

Do you also have to get ready for work or are you coming home again afterwards?

Agree with everything Bertie says above. We have all bags packed by the door and all uniform, shoes, hats, coats laid out night before ready for the morning. DSs in R and Y2 so can dress themselves and don't need as much watching.

Then in the morning the alarm goes off at 6.30, I shower and dress, DH showers and dresses. DSs usually already downstairs playing or chatting to us as we get ready. Whoever is ready first walks the dog while the other gets breakfast. We sit down together to eat (ideally...probably 3 out of 4 times we actually manage this), the kids get themselves dressed at 7.20 and we are out the door by 7.25.

Speeds it up that we don't do suncream except in the absolute height of summer. I would add at least 5 mins to our morning if we had to do that, DH and I each doing one DS. We also don't do lunches or snacks but if we did they'd all have to be done the night before like the bags and uniform.

5.30, my and DHs alarm.
DH starts his breakfast, I faff!
5.45, kids alarms. I make their breakfasts. They eat breakfast while I make packed lunch. DH in shower.
6 am kids get dressed, I eat breakfast, DH gets dressed. I shout reminders about who needs library books, pe kit, recorders etc
6.20 DH leaves for work. Kids play on tablet while I shower.
6.40 suncream
6.53 out the door, to catch the 7.05 bus.

Been like that the past 3 years, tho when the youngest was 4, I occasionally skipped the shower and came back home to do that bit.

When I am out for the whole day too, I need to shower instead of faff at 5.30. That allows dishwasher to be emptied, and refilled with dirty stuff. Otherwise I do that at 8am when I get home.

My kids are older now - 2 secondary, 1 primary. They all take themselves to school (abroad). It's an hour between waking them and the last one leaving, but it doesn't "take" an hour, dc3 and I often just sit and the breakfast table wiffling til it's time for him to leave. The older 2 are up and out within 30 minutes.

I work shifts so sometimes I've already left or not got home when the children get up, but it's the same when DH is home.

When I had a baby, a preschooler and one at infant school it still didn't take anything like 2 hours, but my kids have always been early risers, plus I've always had an everyone gets dressed before going downstairs rule and no tv on school mornings which I think helps immeasurably to avoid dragging things out.

If it's taking 2 hours your DH needs to be wrangling 2 kids and you 2, surely? Rather than him just leaving.

School bus is at 8.15. If they miss it, the only way most days to get to school would be to walk the 4miles... So we HAVE to be leave the house by 8.07 at the latest. DD7 usually up around 7. DD6 is not a morning person. I drag her up at 7.30. Breakfast, dressed, washed, teeth, hair... Not allowed to play, read, TV etc in mornings.

I also find tasks expand to fill available time. If we get up early we still have the 8.00 rush.

I am the same as you Op and I only have 2 DC’s I have to set my alarm for 6.45 and the rest of the morning is a shambles of uniform putting on breakfast faffing and somewhere in the middle I get changed somehow the other day I was half way to school when I realised I had put my bra on 🙄 in my slight defence my two are still young but out of the nappy phase and I use a wheelchair which does slow down the process slightly especially when my youngest is hiding under the dining table knowing I can’t reach her when she’s under there!

We can do it in an hour, any less is a nightmare stress and would result in DC2 not eating any breakfast.

How much earlier does DH get up and out? Would doing two DC each be feasible. So one does school run and one nursery run?

It's much easier now that my two are older, but when they were younger I made a laminated sheet with illustrations on of the things that they had to have/do before leaving for school. So (in no particular order) hairbrushing, teeth, dressing, making bed, finding shoes, coat, hat, gloves (as appropriate) pack school bag with lunchbox, flask, pencilcase, books etc..., eat breakfast etc...) The children found it really useful. I also used to serve breakfast and place the kitchen clock on the table and show them how long they had to get their breakfast eaten with the 'big' hand.

It was a long hard slog, but now I have two kids who are pretty selfsufficient and can get themselves (for the most part) sorted in the morning.

In theory we can all get up, dressed (adults showered), fed and out of the house in an hour. Two adults and 3 DCs under 5. However, it takes a lot of prep the night before, needs everyone to actually get on with whatever task they're meant to be doing, and mostly relies on the youngest (5 months) not faffing about with her bottle for two long.

It also generally results in a nervous breakdown for me, and I'm completely sick of hearing the sound of my own voice chivvying everyone along!

I do most of it myself because DH takes so flipping long in the bathroom (aarrgghhh!).

Alarm goes off at 7am, some mornings include a shower (very occasionally - 2. We tend to shower in the evenings though). Get ourselves sorted.

7.30 DH is downstairs and I go up to wake DD (if she's not already up and invaded our bed!). She sorts herself out now.

Downstairs, DH reads the paper online while having breakfast, I tend to just catch up on emails and life admin. DD sometimes eats cereal, usually makes her own smoothie, but often asks for a hot breakfast of some sort (we generally have the makings and the time).

Bags are theoretically sorted the night before but there's always something.

Usually leave the house roughly 8.10 to get to school, train and a local office.

I wouldn't allow reading over breakfast in your case. Keep them packed along with homework the night before and if they enjoy reading over breakfast can they read another book but one that isn't from school?

Apparently we're a bit pathetic because there are two of us, one baby and we lift everything out the night before and it still takes up an hour and a quarter! Tbf, baby will only self-feed and takes 40 long, slow minutes to eat his breakfast...

Up 7:15. Washed, teeth, dressed, hair then coats shoes and bags( sorted and by the door). My DC are 8&9 and I have to supervise the washing &teeth STILL. Leave house 8:00

Ages 6 and 4 takes 1hr if DH isn’t helping but could manage in less. More like 40 mins if he helps.

Why isn’t your DH helping in the morning? With 4 young children I’m amazed you can manage it all by yourself tbh. My DH has to leave fairly early but still gets the DC dressed and puts out breakfast stuff before he goes. Even if yours leaves really early he could at least put out breakfast stuff, restock nappy bag and check suncream/hats are in place before he goes.

1.5 hours for two preschoolers. 😞 Does not include me showering or washing up.