How DO you get ready for 8 in the morning?

[chicaguapa]

Am really struggling to be ready for 8 o'clock for the school run. DD wakes up between 7-7.15 and DH gets her dressed and takes her downstairs for breakfast with DS (22m) while I get dressed etc. But she's never ready for 8 and we always spend a good 10 mins screaming at her to clean her teeth, finish her breakfast before it all gets done.

Next week DH is away all week on business and I'll have to go it all myself. But I can't manage it even with DH giving them breakfast. So this week is my practice run. Any tips please?

I don't leave at 8, but DD is ready by 8... All clothes sorted the night before.

Set alarm for 6.35 and snooze until about 7am (gives me time to come to and I am able to just get up and get going properly at 7am iyswim). DH takes DD to toilet, washes her stinky bits and takes her downstairs whilst I get washed/dressed/makeupped.

He leaves, I give her breakfast (normally about 7.10 by then). When she is finished breakfast, its back upstairs to wash face, clean teeth, put clothes on and brush hair - no way can she eat breakfast in day clothes - she spills .

Normally all done by 8am. She then curls up with nick jr while I get DS sorted ready to leave for 8.30. If I am leaving at 8am and needed him properly sorted too, then I get up when the alarm goes off and get him sorted then.

I don't eat breakfast until after school run, if at all.

My morning life was transformed by me getting completely ready - and doing lunchboxes and things- before the children woke up. I was shocked to realize that I was the main cause of the problem - I was shouting at them to get ready but what I was really doing was shouting at myself to get ready - if that makes sense! Apart from that, I agree with absolutely no screen time unless the screentimee is completely ready including shoes, hat, gloves (makes playstation a bit tricky but heyho!). And breakfast in the car is good sometimes too.

Write a plan for yourself, bearing in mind that some tasks that could normally be done at the same time by two people will have to run sequentially when there's only one parent present, and remembering to timetable in the ten minutes screaming . Do as much as you can the night before. Get yourself and your children up earlier if you have to.

I have been struggling with this ever since ds1 started nursrey last week, but am now in a bit of a routine which seems to work.

I do lay out all of his and my clothes the night before, set breakfast table and get bags ready at the door.

6-6.15 wake up and get in shower.
Ds1 wakes around this time, but he's allowed to watch some TV whilst drinking his milk and whilst I shower, dress etc.
6.40 - breakfast with ds1 (dh getting shower and out of house at 7.10 so no help from there I'm afraid). Lots of nagging at this point though to get him to eat. Bribery and race tactics sometimes work!
7.10-7.30 ds1 teeth brushing and clothes on
7-7.30 ds2 usually wakes up (but can be later) give him his bottle
8.00 everyone downstairs to collect stuff up and get in car
8.10 leave house
DS2 gets brekkie when we get back (occasionally before we go).

We leave at 7.25, i get up at 6.45 am, showerand get dressed, wake children (12,11,8 and 5) up -8yo usually up and dressed an hour ago . their school clothes have been laid out night before as have mine. I go downstairs while they dress, and feed dog and cats, let dog out. Start making toast, filling juice etc, they struggle downstairs, eat their breakfat, clean their teeth, go to the loo and we leave. I pack all school bags, dinners, musical instruments etc into the car the night before, lay the breakfast table and make sure shoes are paired and ready. I don't do shouting or nagging in the morning, not becuase I'm supersmug but i don't want them to go off to school all stressed and un happy - sadly i've yet to master not shouting at teatime/bedtime

OMG! It looks like the solution is to get up & ready myself before DD wakes up! As I am a SAHM my whole day has always started when one of the kids wakes me up. And that still feels too early for me! I am going to have to find some inner discipline from somewhere.

Fortunately there's not much to do in the morning. As I come home again after dropping DD off, I can empty the dishwasher and tidy up then. DD has school dinners and I've always laid her clothes out the night before.

The main problem is that DD refuses to get herself dressed, eat her breakfast if someone's not sitting with her etc. So someone is always admistering to her instead of getting ready. So I shall have get myself ready before she wakes up.

If I've read this right and your DD is school age, she really needs to get herself dressed and eat breakfast independently rather than you planning your routine around what she won't do. Most kids respond to some variation of a star chart. One sticker a day for getting dressed, one for eating her breakfast herself with a small reward at the end of the week. (Stopping at the shop on the way home from school on a Friday for an earned comic or chocolate bar is a great motivator in my house though I'm sure there are plenty of people on here horrified at the idea of bribing with chocolate ) I'm all for sitting down eating with children, but not at breakfast time! BTW DS2 is a really slow eater so to stop the inevitable yelling at him to eat his breakfast every morning I started waking him up 10 minutes earlier. Simple and effective.

I shout. Like a fish wife on a Jerry Springer show. My lucky neighbours.

My timetable is
6.45 I get up, have shower.
7 am, children 9,8 and 6 get up. (they shower in evening) Clothes ready.
7.15 am children eating breakfast.(cereal, as they have a "2nd breakfast" at 9.30.)
Me making sandwich for 2nd breakfast, filling water bottles.
7.35 - 7.45 Wipe faces, check fingernails and assemble finished product, namely children in coats, shoes, sports bags, rucksacks.
7.45 - children out of the door.
7.45 - 7.55 I eat breakfast, clear up childrens mess.
7.55 - I leave for work.

we dont do morning tooth brushing, but can imagine that that would add at least 10 minutes.
All schoolbags MUST be packed the night before. I have quite a lot of spare sports clothes, so clean ones are always there.

Re screaming at the children: this was the norm when I was a child. I have since read, that frenzied panic over getting ready in the morning, leads to unconfident children. They need to see that you can handle stuff like this. From my own experience, Id say theres some truth in that. The odd scream does escape my lips, but I try very hard not to!

Try being me, my 2 children have to be in school for 8 and it 20 mins drive away. I then have to be in my school to start classes or 8.30. All a bit of a rush in the morning.

Our routine has always been as follows:

7 a.m. - get up. When the children were smaller, if they happened to be still asleep I would get dressed then wake them.

Everyone dresses and goes straight downstairs for breakfast (bibs/aprons for anyone who still makes a mess). All eat breakfast together.

The next bit always depended on whether my husband had left for work or not. If he was still around, I would take my cuppa into the kitchen and make packed lunches, he would supervise kids finishing breakfast and cleaning teeth before he then left for work. If he left early, obviously my packed lunch making took that bit longer.

Once everyone had had breakfast, cleaned teeth and lunches were done, we used to fit in a bit of reading from school books.

About 8-10 I would get everyone to brush hair, go to the loo, get shoes on etc, ready to leave the house at 8.20. Obviously, if I'd needed to be out of the house earlier like the original poster, I wouldn't have done the reading in the mornings, but we always seemed to have a bit of spare time.

Obviously, when my eldest started school at age 4 and I also had a 2 year old and a 2-month old, this was a much tighter schedule, especially fitting in feeding the baby and doing things for a toddler. So yes, it could be hard work.

But I always kept to the routine and it's been a breeze for years now - my 3 are 13, 11 and 9 and are totally used to our morning routines. We still get up at 7 a.m, and sometimes by 7.30 we're all sitting there ready and chatting before the elder two go off to school.

I think my main advice would be get the children up when it suits you, don't wait for them to wake up. Perhaps try 7 or even 6.50 for a bit. If they are going to bed early enough, it should't be a problem. And definitely no TV or other distractions in the morning.