Any tips for how to get ready and out of the house in less than an hour?

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

I have DS (8) and DD who is 2.5 and a new baby. The baby's not a problem, I get her dressed v quickly, she doesn't puke, doesn't need changing. It's the other 2. I try and give them time 7 space to get dressed with what they want and in their own time. I try and be relaxed and start on time etc. But I always seem to run out of time (& patience!) towards the end. Any tips on how to get them to hurry up a bit? I don't like being late, whether it's for meeting up with a friend or a class etc. I've given up on making sandwiches, taking water with us, tidying up before we leave, to ensure it's not me that's the problem. We still run out of time.

how long did it take me? Well we've always got up at 8am (although I'm sometimes "up" - used very loosely as I'm usually dozing on the sofa - with DS3 before then I'm still in my PJ's and have done nothing to start getting ready.

And DS3 is 4 1/2 months - so it's taken me 4 1/2 months to get it down to a T (although took it easy for 6 weeks during the summer holidays lol).

Mondays are always the worst - I dread them - as DH does all the childcare at the weekends so I can concentrate of housework/myself/shopping etc - and I wake up on Monday morning knowing I've got 5 days of doing 95% of it myself (I dread evenings the most as he's not around at all LOL).

Same here QofQ we are up at 8am out the door at 8.40am. Mind you dd is up at 7 dresses herself and gets a drink. I have everything laid out the night before, clothes (even for me), book bags/ballet bag ready and by the door with shoes and coats, and dd has school dinners so no lunches to make. Either dh or I come down and make breakfast whilst the other showers, then swap over. After breakfast it is upstairs, for face wash, teeth and hair then out the door. TBH (and I don't mean this nastily) I really can't understand why some people are constantly late in the morning.

I seperate out the older kids so that they don't waste time messing about and chatting to each other. dd comes and eats bfast first and then gets washed and dressed, and ds1 does it the other way round. On their own, they do it far quicker than together.

We are up at 7:30 (DS1 8, DS2 4, DD 2 ) so it's like this
7:30 mass bathroom visit, wash, teeth etc
7:45 downstairs, kettle on - separate kids fighting over toys and give the two oldest their clothes(plus briefly feed DD if she shouts 'BOOBIES' loud enough, let dog out.
8:00 breakfast ( while yelling at DS1 to yet his trousers on or he's going to school in pants)make ds1 packed lunch (yes yes could do it night before, but my bugbear is dry sarnies)
8:15 find shoes left all over the house from night before, drink cold coffee
8:25 DH gets back from work, complains kids hair isn't brushed, brush kids hair
8:30 Mass stampede out the door, grabbing bags and coats as they rush past me
8:31 Breathe!!!
Looks like when #4 arrives I'll be getting up a bit earlier!
Lisa X

ds 5 and dd 3

7.30 all up teeth brushed
7.35 dc's eating breakfast in front of tv to avoid squabbles (me 5 mins in shower)
7.55 dc's upstairs to get dressed
8.00 me dressed
8.07 make up on
8.10 kettle on for tea whilst packed lunches made (ds reading homework book)
8.25 shoes and jackets on/ book bag taken off the peg on the back of the door
8.30 all out of the door

DC's have there baths at night otherwise add on an extra 45 mins and too much chaos

HTH

I get up at 6.30 to shower/unload dishwasher/load washing machine/check emails
Get the kids up at 7 if they don't wake before
Out the door at 8.25.

Almost 2 hours but.....

DS spends up to 45 minutes eating breakfast!

On the rare days when the kids crack on with dressing etc we have time for a couple of stories on the sofa

So absolutely no tips, I am amazed that you can enviseage less than an hour with 3.

6.45 i get up and have a shower
7.00 get three kids up and bath at least two of them
7.15-7-30 have a cuppa with steve and give him his meds
7.30-7.45 give kids breakfast
8am brush hair & teeth
8.10 in the car and take kids to meet school bus
8.15 wave kids off on the bus phew

phew - did it in 25 minutes this morning as I over slept in the chair

Our morning routine goes like this when I am working.

6.45 - me up and in shower
6.50 - me downstairs for a drink, DH up and in shower
6.55 - me dry hair (if I have washed it), make up and dress, DH shave and dress
7.00 - children up
7.05 - DS gets dressed, I supervise/help DD get dressed and do her hair, DH moves cars
7.15 - DH starts children's breakfasts
7.20 - I leave for work
7.30 - children upstairs for wash and teeth clean
then DH does whatever he does and they play until it is time to leave at about 7.55. But if DH is away and I have to do it all myself I leave at 7.40-7.45

Bozza - most impressed you get your make up on and get dressed in 5 minutes. Do you decide what to wear the night before?

Tonight I've asked DD1 to choose what she wears tomorrow. Here's hoping for the start of more efficient mornings. DS took out his uniform for school (they had something in their school bags about this and it's sudenly more imperative than mummy's nagging) and I even took things out for the baby to wear. It all took less than 5 minutes.

I do decide what to wear the night before. And this activity overlaps with the children getting up and starting to get dressed - so it takes longer than the 5 mins really. And I can be seen putting my tights on in DD's bedroom while supervising her getting dressed. It is not all total calm. And sometimes we do run 5 mins or so late.

One of my problems occurs is when DD (3) changes her mind about what she wants to wear in the morning.

45 minutes in this house with 2 dc of 6 & 4 and packed lunches for all 4 of us. It leaves no time for them to mooch about and play but I fnd if you keep them moving and on task it's alot easier. If they are allowed to start playing something like lego it all falls apart.

The upside is that we don't get up until 7.45 most days.

I'm seriously thinking of "knocking" 15-20 minutes of time off our 45 minutes we have in the mornings - yesterday I slept in so we only had 25 minutes - but got done quicker than this morning when we got going bang on 8am.....

I reckon that you tend to just do what you can with whatever time you've got - I know that if we sleep in, i can still get everyone out the door on time - It's just a lot more stressful when one of the kids doesn't cooperate. I used to do far better when I was working, I was up at 5:30 and had a bath, put my face on and got everything ready before getting DS1 up and ready for CM (I did have to travel for an hour though so i was glad to stop in the end.
Lisa x

Blimey, it takes me 2 hours to get myself and 2 children ready (aged 3½ and 6½). Dh never here to lend a hand though.

I am not a morning person.

Our morning routine

7am -we get up. Dh showers whilst ds and I go and start breakefast.

Ds has to get the mats out and put on the table then get bowls out and out on mats. He's 3.7 cupboards are low to enable him to do this. Are going to introduce him to getting the spoons out too soon.

I get the creals adn make tea/coffee.

7.20/30 ish ds puts away mats (I wipe them!) and goes upstairs for a bit of telly whilst I clear kitchen.

Ds dresses the bottom half of himself with me 'supervising' I help with the top half. Uniform is already out as I get it ready the night before.

I get ready whilst ds watches telly.

8.15 we leave for nursery.

When the baby arrives we will still stick to this routine as I found when ds was a baby he was quite easy to get out the house in the morning when I worked.

up at 7.30 - rice crispies slapped on table, washing machine put on whilst I have a showere and get ready for work

I go downstairswith wet hair and dressing gown over work clothes and wash up whilst three brush their teeth. If I get downstairs by eight I'm on time

They all take off their clothes and come into my room where I hastily iron what they need and get them dressed (the eldest dresses himself). This gets me to eight thirty.

fiteen minutes getting on shoes, doing hair ( I have a shoe basket in the hall which has helped in the morning hunt for shoes)and putting out washing

Out of the door and into the car by 8.45.

I dry my hair by letting down the car window and am one of those women who put on their makeup at the traffic lights

Mine are 6,3 and 2

Zookeeper, are they alone for breakfast?

Does the eldest help the youngest?

Yes - the kitchen is not a pretty sight afterwards!! The oldest doesn't help but the youngest is nearly three and pretty able to scoff down her rice cripies unaided

I get up at 6:45, wash and dress and do make-up and then wake the kids at 7am.

We all go downstairs for breakfast, and then all go back up again at 7:30, the girls wash, brush teeth and get dressed and I supervise Ds's wash, teeth and help him get dressed.

Then they all go down and watch tv, and I do the girls hair and then my own.

We are normally all ready for about 8 but don't leave until 8:20. I hate to have to go straight out, I like to sit down and check I have everything etc.

Thanks zookeeper, my DD is nearly three and I couldn't imagine leaving her alone at the table. DS is 4.7 and it is really hard.

He got up late the other day and was eating breakfast while I was dressing DD (and being 2 she insisted on doing it in the upstairs bathroom as usual) so I was running up and down the stairs eg pop the t-shirt over her head, run down to see to DS while she gets her arms through the sleeves. Run back up to make sure she's not getting her knickers in a twist, literally. It was a ridiculous situation and I am trying to work out a better way to deal with it next time.

It's not the mess but he just sits and daydreams unless there are other people with him. I don't have to nag him to eat when I'm eating or unloading the dishwasher at the same time. Even when he is concentrating he can take up to 45 minutes to eat breakfast. Sometimes he'll eat 2 weetabix with fruit on, some other cereal, a bit of toast and a yoghurt!

Oh and before anyone asks, DH isn't always there in the mornings!

I always dress mine downstairs - I hang uniforms on the door or curtain rail the night before ,socks and pants on the windowsill! I know from experience that if I put hanging clothes in the kids wardrobes, next time i go in they'll be on the floor, so they stay in our room until needed.
lisa x