To think a 9yo should be able to dress themselves in half an hour?

[CroccyWoccy]

DS9 is driving me to despair. I wake him up half an hour before he needs to be ready, leaving him a neat pile of all his clothes. I go and help his younger sibling and pop back in every 3 mins or so to check how he is getting on. He still always ends up having lost a sock, or sat in his pants staring into space, or me having to shout at him to get a move on (or usually all three).

Do I have unreasonable expectations here?

We did a lot of “races” when they were a bit younger - “right, you’ve got 4 minutes till my phone timer goes off - pyjamas and teeth and back down here, go!” Not sure it would work so well with a 9 year old though.

Well my nearly 9 year old DC could not manage that. He showers in the morning so is fully awake but is easily distracted. It is so frustrating. If I don't supervise him he would happily spend 45 minutes in the shower under the warm water without washing an inch of his body, so OP you are lucky!

I have found waking him up earlier works best as then I am less stressed and frankly shouty and also less chance we will have to use the car instead of walking to school which we both really enjoy.

DS 11 still gets distracted and needs lots of reminders, as well as seemingly being unable to find stuff right in front of him, so would take that long if not chivvied along. I started waking him earlier as he also often spends 15minutes on the loo ( no, I don't know why it takes that long but his dad's the same).