How do people manage to get into work??????????

[fairyfly]

I want to go to college, three days a week, thats it. Everything in the world stops me. All ready to go today, loads of work done and my son has a sore throat and can barely talk. My other one only got better yesterday so i have been off with him. Before that all sorts happened to prevent me going. How do you all do it withpout getting fired, it's a nightmare.

The good news is that in 15 years' time they'll be off your hands...hopefully...well that's what I keep telling myself am I really mean?

I work from home

Seriously, one works out strategies (I am running late today, but I have actually fed and taken the inferiorettes to their childminder). All those cliches like 'get their clothes - and yours - out the night before'. If DP's away I actually try and get quite a lot of brekkie stuff done before as well (amazing how a task that takes 30 seconds at night, like filling the coffee machine, takes five bleary minutes in the morning). I know what time we have to be out. With a fair bit of chivvying, shouting and occasional VERY LOUD BELLOWING, we usually make it on time.

Rituals help - our 'fur fangs and faces' one means it's easier to get DD1 upstairs to do her hair/teeth/wipe the remains of breakfast off her.

Obviously everything goes pearshaped when they're ill, though. And that's with another parent to take time off with them too.

(((((hugs))))) to you....it's not easy when you have young children as you have to be there for them all hours of the day..

What sort of arrangement do you have at work regarding your children when they get ill...surely your employer is a little flexible...am sorry but don't know quite else what to say really...can you make the time up later by working extra hours?

We have two of us working on it for nearly 2 hours in the morning to get us all out in time (dh gets up first at 6.40 and we are usually ready by 8.15-8.30) I haven't had too much bad luck with illness - a bad run of a couple of weeks in the summer but no time off since then. They go to nursery with colds etc - as long as they are eating and cheerful they will get sent in!

I do think a step by step routine is the key - at least if your brain is as crappy as mine first thing.

Thanks for the tips for the morning, it is a matter of getting up two hours before isn't it. Then i have to walk to nursery school and college. I really admire you all for holding jobs down. I'm sure my tutor thinks i make up stories every week. Anyway he is going to the doctors getting drugged up and being put to bed so i can do some work. I just really need to use some priniting equipment and the dark room today.

Yes, we have cut down on our nagging since we instituted a clearer routine - now ds1 has to have breakfast, go to toilet and get dressed before he is allowed to have a video or start playing - then while he is doing that we get our lunch ready and dress ds2. It helps not having to think about what comes next.
Have to say the days I do it alone it takes forever...

I started to put the breakfast stuff out the night before, its a fantastic idea mi, your morning does run a bit smoother with a few preperations ( can't believe i just said that and what i am turning into)

The less your brain has to do in the morning the better. And sadly, as this has to be done every single day, I find it really is too stressful not to make into a brainless routine.

The good thing about the walk is (a)it does help focus said brain (b) you can then smugly feel that you have had some Exercise.

You could even - anal MI here - work backwards from the Point of Departure and make a countdown list. Quite honestly, with two kids to do on your own, I think that might be the easiest in the long run.

Luckily nothing too dire has happened with us yet (touch wood it won't) but then again it has just occured to me that I have only been back at work for a month so maybe I should shut up . . .

The "night before" prepping is really helpful though. What course are you doing by the way? sounds really interesting!

Art Design and Media, a bit of everything really, trying to smarten up my portfolio.
I will from now on sort myself out the night before, i will be known throughout the land as Miss Effeciency. As for never getting in well thats just luck, i jst pray they will be germ free for the rest of the year.

Yes, ill kids throw everything out of whack - thing is, if you can make that the exception, you can usually manage to cope.

Not trying to bully you, honestly, this is just how I do it.

I hate mornings, but we manage to do it in less than an hour.....

We are normally awake before 6 but tend to lie in bed and watch tv with ds.....then, at 6:40....

I go into bathroom - wash, put face on, comb hair, pull clothes on.
6:45 dh goes into bathroom and I take ds downstairs. He sits and eats breakfast. If I havent made his packed lunch or ironed his clothes or packed his bag (which I try to do the night before) I do that while he is eating.

Around 7 he is done. He sits and watches tv whilst I change his nappy, gets him washed (face cloth and towel in front of tv i am afraid) and gets his clothes on. Then i pop some toast in and eat my breakfast. By that time, DH comes downstairs!
He leaves for work at 7:20 and we leave around 7:45.

Dont ask what will happen when the new baby comes and ds gets bigger though!

The 2 hour rule is definitely the one I follow in my house. Anything less and I have to prepare the breakfast bowls etc and lunch box stuff the night before. I stick to the same routine every day. I make sure I get myself showered, make up on, hair dried etc first. Then I get the kids dressed and do their hair. Then we go downstairs (probably with 50 mins to go) and it's just breakfast, packed lunches, face and teeth for them and away we go. I even get time to put the washing on and hang it up if I have to.

Luckily we don't get much illness (touch lots of wood) which helps a lot.

It's very boring but make lunches the night before, have a shower at night instead of in the morning etc

oh and baths or showers and hair washing is ALWAYS done the night before

I don't feel bullied mi, do you mean if i make them being ill an exception then it will work, im a little lost.
Popsy, you iron his clothes?!!!

i iron ds's clothes yes...not dh's though! They are creased to death otherwise....no tumble drier.
Believe me, I am in no way a domestic goddess

have all bags, lunches, coats etc ready - clothes ready to step into
i can get myself ready in 5 mins..

I need to do this, im always sticking things in on a quick wash at six in the morning and screaming find some socks

I don't work but do have to be out of the door and on the way to school for 8.20am.

I get up at 6.30 have a wash and put makeup on, go downsatirs and have cereal.
By 6.45 Ds is usually awake so i get him and give him his milk whilst i do dd's packed lunches.

7.00 i wake up Dd's and they have their breakfast whilst i iron whatever i couldn't be arsed to do the night before. Then i have a cuppa.
About 7.30 the dd's go upstairs to have wash, brush teeth and get dressed and i get Ds sorted out.
About 8 i go and get dressed and then do my hair.
Then the last few mintues are spent with the kids rushing round cos they haven't got their bok or homework or something and me moaning about them being sooooo unorganised

If i did their lunches and ironing the night before i could probabaly have an extra 20 mins in bed, which is a sobering thought.

Must be really hard and just one of the reasons I decided to be SAHM - couldn't face the constant having to be off work if ds's ill. This way, I'm here to deal with whatever, no question. Friends of mine tell me it's a nightmare when the kids are ill - specially if they work part-time but kids always ill on days they are at work!!

DS1 goes to nursery 4 mornings now so still have to be out with all 3 ds's early. I make his lunchbox up the night before and make sure I've got clothes for them.

PS FF i basically do the morning thing without any input from DH - so it can be done.

Good luck hun!

I mean, if usually you manage OK, you can get away with explaining that you can't come in today/are horribly late/etc if one of the kids is ill.

Hmmm. Bearing in mind there are two of us, we're usually getting started at around 6.40 (URGH URGH URGH I HATE THIS SO MUCH) when DP throws himself under his shower. I b/feed dd2, aim to get her and DD1 dressed in the clothes I've put out the previous night, by around 7am when DP takes them downstairs and I stumble around transforming myself from Pyjamaed Horror into clothed person with washed face and possibly earrings (have started working out night before what I'm going to wear and possibly putting it out. Sometimes this works. At other times it means me coming downstairs in my pants to get the jeans which have been drying in the kitchen). We eat breakfast (dd1 sometimes with us, sometimes on her little table in front of the ahem telly). Some time around 7.40 DP buggers off, and I try and get through the fur fangs and faces routine and unfold the buggy. At the moment we have a hiatus - should everything have gone to plan, which admittedly it hasn't always - while Boogie Babies is on. Ideally, by the time it's over dd2 should have her shoes on and so should I, and possibly coats as well, and dd1 should be able to get into her outdoor stuff and leave the Inferiority Complex with a song on our lips and a smile in our hearts.