getting a 3 year old toget dressed/get ready...any tips?

[loggybear]

Our 3 year old has become a nightmare to get ready. He essentially just plays around and mucks about. I know it's a phase etc and he's just being a kid but it literally takes sooo long to get him out of the door or to get him to do anything. I do try the count to three method but often he will still just laugh it off. I cant spend 45mins on getting him dressed in the morning.Any tips on how best to speed things up?

I used to give mine points. Ten points for a top, twenty for trousers ... and sometimes the big one, 100 points for SOCKS ON! Then loads of yelling and cheering as if he'd just won the jackpot.

You could try making it funny, especially since he already wants to play. With mine I would sometimes try put the clothes on wrong - socks on their ears, trousers on their head. They would giggle, tell me how wrong I was and then put things on the right way. Other times I would pretend to sternly tell them NOT to put their clothes on. They loved to be rebellious and immediately put their clothes on. They used to ask for that game.

At that age we made things into a competition, so would get ready at the same time and say "bet you can't get your t-shirt on before mummy does" used to work quite well, my MIL started it when she was a nightmare to get into the car seat, so we'd have a race with how could get in their seats the quickest

Definitely just a phase mine it just out the other side. I set an alarm for 6 minutes and tell him its a race. It helps if I'm getting his little brother ready at the same time and they can race together or I used to get myself ready at the same time. If he doesn't get ready in that time he gets a small treat removed or some other small sanction. I also used to say ok that's mummy heading out and start to walk out the door...he soon gets ready! You have my every sympathy, probably the hardest part of toddler rearing for me was spending the whole morning arguing about putting pants on.

Try to avoid turning things into a battle of the wills as they’ll dig in just to be stubborn! DD will often refuse to come and brush her teeth so we just say “ok then, I’ll be waiting in the bathroom for you when you’re ready” and leave. She doesn’t like being on her own so she’ll usually come within about 5 minutes and it means we don’t have to argue or threaten.

We’ve also had some success getting a teddy or toy ready alongside her.

Lots of choice as well- she has two toothbrushes to choose from, always chooses the same one but she likes having the choice xD

Panda was always rubbish at getting ready and DS would relish demonstrating how to put socks on (‘Not on your paws, silly Panda, like this!’).

Screen time. If I'm really in a rush then I put on a 2min Youtube video of someone playing with toys and she's engrossed while I speed-dress her. By the time the door's open she's keen to go out anyway so there's no battle about hats, scarves or wanting to keep watching.

As you said, it's just a phase so there's no need to sweat the small things. A 3 year old doesn't have to be expected to dress themselves every single day, and it makes a huge difference to your quality of life right now if you can get outside quicker.

Success varies but I find a race to get dressed or a timer is often successful. Also a bit of a game of making it funny by putting trousers on his head and then while he’s distracted get clothes on.
On nursery days I sometimes say that the DDs favourite nursery teacher has messaged asking where she is...

I lay two or three outfit choices on the floor, then leave the room to help sort the other kids out and tell her to come in and surprise me with what she's decided to wear.

At this age I found giving them independence and choice was really helpful, let them
Choose what to wear from 2 options etc etc

Thank you so much for all these tips! Will try to make it a bit more of a game from now on. I think that i get a bit exasperated on nursery days because I let DC sleep for as long as they want which invariably means we only have 30mins from wake up to being out of the door which I always find a bit of a rush.