AIBU to feel overwhelmed juggling two drop-offs before work by 8?

[wemustbe]

Tomorrow I have to get two children up and dressed, bags ready, and dropped at two different places and then work myself by 8.

Just feeling a bit overwhelmed, don’t even know why. Any tips appreciated.

Get the bags ready tonight, including yours.
Get everyone's clothes out ready to put on.
Put the breakfast stuff out before you go to bed.
Work out how long you think it will take to get everything done and get out the door, then set your alarm 15 mins earlier than you think you need.

Sage advice.

Is this just tomorrow or everyday?

It’s full on isn’t it. How close are the two locations, what is your method of travel, how far is the commute then to work?

I have to get two kids to two different places, then onto the train to commute to my office in central London by 830. It is quite stressful.

The only thing I can control really is how early I get up, giving us plenty of time / not making it panicked and stressful.

Other than that I do outfits and bags the night before. And get everyone eating breakfast as soon as they’re up as they are slow.

god speed!

No one needs breakfast at that time. Cereal bar in the car at most, eat at nursery / work.
Pack yourself a nice yoghurt & granola pot up tonight to chuck in your bag. And any lunch etc. Make sure anything you need to take is by the front door including water bottles and coats. Or even in the car boot already. Have a shower & wash your hair tonight if needed.

Then tomorrow set your alarm & get straight up , dressed & out.

As a one off?

do as much prep as possible in advance.

get yourself up much earlier and completely ready before kids even wake up

then just do it.

though to be fair that’s my approach as long term single parent. Different now but used to get kids to two different primary school breakfast clubs and then run to catch 0740 train to be in London for 9.

was hell tbh but doable. Needs a lot of organisation especially where there’s no choice as it sounds for you tomorrow .

My go to advice would be to get someone else to drop one of them off. I would feel overwhelmed too!

I used to do the bags the night before and get out all of the clothes. Knickers and everything. Anything that can go in the car, goes in the car. Water bottles and all that jazz out on the bench. If anyone is hungry they can have fruit.

Leave at least five minutes for putting on shoes.

By prep I mean all
lunches made bags packed shoes by door with respective socks. Triple check any required extras.

if you are travelling by train monitor train status for your line immediately upon early waking.
same for traffic

basically anticipate every possible disaster and have a mitigation plan ready. 😃

Forget the basics like brushing teeth etc. just get them up and out, give them breakfast in a bag (cereal bar and a carton of squash) and sign them up for a school lunch so you don’t have to make it for them

Get up 30 mins before the kids will wake up so you can just focus on them.

Ugh we have to brush teeth! I’ll happily cut corners but teeth, absolutely not!

It’s on Thursdays and Fridays going forwards, the locations are about ten minutes apart from one another. I’m just going to have to make sure I’m up early and lunches made etc.

How do people do lunches the night before? If I do the fruit is mushy, sandwiches aren’t nice etc so I have to do it all in the morning which adds time avd stress!

Echo PP’s prep as much as possible the night before, clothes laid out, coats and shoes ready by the front door, breakfast things laid out, pack lunches made with fresh stuff ready to grab from the fridge. Any forms needing filled in for school, £1’s for anything, homework all ready in school bags, do the minimum you need to do for yourself in the morning, focus on getting the kids ready. Depending on the age of the kids get them involved set a timer on your phone, have a who can get dressed before the alarm goes off challenge maybe have wee stickers as a prize. In case they rush too much in the morning and scrimp on essential tasks make sure they have a good wash / bath /shower the night before as well as a thorough hair brushing and teeth brushing.

Yes, one of mine has a hot flask as won’t eat sandwiches so I have to make in the morning really.

What do they have in it? One of mine takes pasta so I make a big batch every couple of days which then just needs microwaving while the flask warms (while I make my very important cuppa!)

Why is there a need to do this? Who misses cleaning their teeth in a morning? I got 3 children up, dressed, breakfasts & to school or a friends house before 8am so I could be at work by 9am. As a single mum there are no lie ins, no "just 5 more minutes in bed" and definitely no missing cleaning teeth.
When life is busy you get up early & learn to be organised. It's what being a good mum is.

I did this with my two small children for nearly four years until I had my third baby.
the key is have as much as possible ready the night before. And then get up on time to have a spare 10-15 mins for those “mama I need a poo” moments.

One has a sandwich/wrap/roll and then chopped grapes and strawberries which don’t last overnight! Chopped cucumber, yoghurt with sprinkles, some crackers maybe. I feel like I could maybe save a minute or two by putting boxes ready on the side but the actual prep needs to be done in the morning

Eww that's disgusting to say not to brush your teeth. How gross.
I have the same as you, but with 3 kids. I have uniforms ironed, lunches, drinks made the night before. It's a rush! Plan to leave 10 mins earlier at first until you're in a routine.
We all have breakfast before we leave also.

I had to do this for a while and in the end changed my job so I didn't have to. I hated the stress of it. Especially when it's 2 different places and you feel like you've already lived a day before you even get to work.

This is what i do.
It helps A LOT.

I also check the weather for the next day at 10pm and update kids clothes if needed. Sometimes you get "surprise weather".

Coats shoes everything is by the door.
Sometimes I preload the car.

My own clothes are put out and I shower at night.

I am experimenting with French braids so I can do dds hair at bedtime so save myself 10-15 in the morning

On teeth....
the Kids have 2 x toothbrushes and 2 x toothpaste now (1 set is kept upstairs and we keep a second set in kitchen utility- it's a game changer in the AM)

If the children are nursery age most nurseries practice tooth brushing every day at nursery anyway so it probably isn't quite as bad as you think.

I found I had a health issue and one of the first symptoms was struggling with normal everyday stuff-things like drop offs, caring for older family and work, which we all generally do without thinking of it, but felt like hard work. My iron was very low. Obviously not for me to diagnose, but it turned out a lot of people start off like this before more obvious symptoms come on, so I hope you don't mind me saying this.

I find it's fine if you put the made up lunch in the fridge, but I possibly solved the fruit problem as my kids wouldn't eat it anyway!

As others have said - get all clothes etc ready the night before . Put them on hangers for each person , including underwear / socks tights .

Make sure all shoes are paired and beside each other - wasted so many hours of my life searching for one shoe if a pair . Coats as well

• make sure they are hung on pegs , can easily access in the morning . I also find multiples of toothbrushes / hairbrushes / upstairs / downstairs - not all in the same bathroom .
  Have something easy for breakfast , banana and a croissant . All bags ready and packed night before .

Mine had hot food in a flask too. I got the flasks out with the lids off next to the kettle the night before. Put hot water in as soon as I got up, then food in the flask, flask in the lunchbox. Everything else in the lunchbox the night before including disposable wooden fork.