How do you get ready with a toddler?

[TinnedTom]

Usually DH and I tag team in the mornings so one of us will get ready while the other looks after our 2 year old then we swap. However, DH is going away for work soon so I’ll be on my own - this might sound like a silly question but how do I manage to get showered and dressed? I could get up before DS but would rather not as he wakes at 5 usually!

Shower the night before

I usually either showered the night before or after I had dropped them at nursery depending on what I had to do in the day. Sometimes it was easier to shower with them; but not if we had to be anywhere quickly!

Depends on the 2YO, your home set up and your routine for "getting ready". When my son was that age, I used a stair gate on the lounge door (because the lounge was a safe space with his toys etc) whilst I was in the shower (downstairs bathroom, near lounge) for ten minutes, then I would check on him before I dried myself/ brushed teeth, then get dressed and do makeup in the lounge. He didn't like the hair dryer, so I would try to do my hair on days that DP was around or leave it to dry naturally instead of using the dryer in the lounge. The layout of our house made the lounge a good setup, but if your bathroom is upstairs the bedroom could work? My morning routine wasn't much though - shower, dressed and five minutes for hair and makeup.

Welcome to the shower the night before club, not a great club but necessary. It’s amazing how quick you can ready when you have to, my little one will play around in my bedroom while I get dressed and ‘help’ do my hair. Not so bad when you’re just doing nursery drop off but more challenge when you have to be office ready.

If I want a shower, she either plays without me downstairs or, if she's being clingy, has 10 minutes of Disney on my phone in the bathroom with me.

Beyond that, I don't know, I just get ready with her pottering about with me?

I'm a solo mum. When my DS was 2 I had a travel cot in my bedroom so I could put him in there while I showered. I made sure that he had toys and books in the cot plus I had a tv in my bedroom and I put on channel 5 milkshake which I believe starts at 6am or a Thomas DVD. I could see him from my bathroom and he could see me and talk to me. I have to have a shower in the morning otherwise I feel yucky so showering in the evening wouldn't work for me particularly before work.

Hmmm. I just don't remember this being a problem. I think he sat in our bedroom playing and I'd leave the en-suite door open and chat to him while in the shower. More tricky without an en suite I guess. Could you pop him in a playpen? I'm sure it wouldn't hold a motivated child but with enough toys...? Or play Peppa Pig or whatever on an iPad?
And now I'm really struggling to remember what I did when I had two under two...or worse two under four as both mobile and up to mischief! But I did get showered every day, and it was in the morning before dropping them off. (Do remember them once being quiet in the other room then my son proudly showing me a bucket full of his sisters hair 🫣😩😩)! My husband happened to be there and I sat on the stairs and burst in to tears - we had also just found out we lost the house we were trying to buy - and him saying 'you don't have time to be upset'!

How long are you solo for?

If not for long, then I'd probably just shower the night before, it doesn't seem worth coming up with a new routine. If it's a long time, then it depends on the toddler - is there anything he likes doing enough that he can be briefly left unsupervised doing? My eldest I could leave for 10 minutes at that age, my younger two I couldn't!

I used to have to just leave the bathroom door open and toddler would stand playing with the water of the shower with his hands (making me cold by moving the screen).

I tend to shower at night, it means my hair has a chance to dry on its own.

Mine are a bit older, 7 and nearly 4 but my 4 year old is a liability. She will get herself into all sorts of trouble if left alone. She sits on the floor in the bath room while I shower now with a book or my phone. Needs must for 10 mins!

Before your DH goes away, get however many outfits you'll need sorted before hand and hung up so you don't have to worry about looking for clothes. I've also perfected getting my hair and a bit of make up done in about 15mins, I have everything I need in a cupboard downstairs (mirror, face cleaner, make up etc) so I make the kids their breakfast and sit at the dining room table with them and get ready while they eat.

Clothes laid out the night before.
shower the night before

scrap the makeup and then have a brush and mirror by the front door so you can quickly at least brush your hair before you leave the house

He sits in my bedroom while I shower with toys or my iPad. Now he's nearly 3 I don't mind him being in another room for 5-10 min. He's a v calm toddler though.

Shower the night before and keep your makeup and hair bits in the kitchen with a bathroom mirror and just get ready around them whilst eating breakfast etc

I get up early for my work so I just shower in the morning with DD (20mo) on the bathroom floor while my girlfriend sleeps in. DD just hangs over the side of the tub and laughs at me.
If you're alone with a toddler just do stuff around the house and ignore them a bit if they grizzle. They soon get used to it.

My toddler follows me into the bathroom and will play with her toys lol then I put ms Rachel or moana on in my room for her when I get ready!

-set out clothes, hair dryer and make up in living room night before (all his toys are there and husband invariably still asleep in bed 🙄)

Bags by door

Get coffee pot ready and kettle filled before bed.

set alarm for 6 and keep fingers crossed

Put kettle on. Take monitor to bathroom. Either, shower very quickly as I know he’s awake and about to start yelling, OR luxuriate in shower (as in, add conditioner) think about shaving legs.

Pour coffee, throw on kimono thing and go to collect child if awake

Take child to living room to play/watchGecko’s Garage on YouTube as necessary and have a cup of milk. Get dressed, blast hair, put very minimal make up on, drink coffee until mouth scalded but am caffeinated, brush teeth.

Put on ‘buggy toast’ and place on buggy

I do not get him ready at all until I’m completely good to go, the same as when we go swimming. (He has a nice warm towel poncho on, don’t worry)

Sorry I know the above doesn’t work if child awake as early as yours. Mine sometimes is but have bought vehicle decals for walls and sometimes this buys me more time as he looks at them and says their names to himself. If he’s awake and absolutely livid that I’ve not gone in, I’ll throw on ten min min of YouTube and give him his milk while I shower down hall with doors wide open, it’s only a small flat. Sometimes he comes to see what I’m doing but mostly not since we bought grips for the toilet seat to lock it down so he can’t do a little splash play while I frantically plead with him with shampoo running down my face.

I honestly cannot believe people shower the night before because their toddler cannot sit for 5-10 mins doing something only half supervised.

Electronic babysitter. They hadn't invented smartphones so I put a video on though generally they would play with toys anyway

@ShirleyPhallus my youngest can now she's nearly 4, but she's incredibly clumsy. She falls off of beds, chairs, has a tendency to climb things she shouldn't, annoys her older Sister.

Now she's a bit older these things have calmed down. But at 2 she was fearless and only being half supervised at times led to her hurting herself. Not sure why I'd want that if the only compromise was me showing at night instead of in the morning.

I don’t like showering the night before. My DS either watches Mr Tumble while I shower or follows me in and asks ‘what doin mummy?’ 😂

Why can't you shower with a 2yo around? Just take them I the bathroom with you...

I did actually used to be completely terrified of leaving DS unsupervised at all as I was convinced he’d brain himself down the back of the sofa the moment I popped into the kitchen to grab my coffee. But with time and practice at our morning routine it’s become much easier to trust that he probably won’t. He’s fairly predictable now in what he’ll try and achieve in the space of a few short minutes.

Just have him/her potter around playing upstairs while you shower. Or watch telly in your bed if you have a telly in there!

My DS (2) will hang out in the bathroom with me and play with the shower squeegee/ stack shampoo bottles/ hugs the duck statue that sits near the shower. Then he helps me pick out socks etc and generally wants to help me put my socks on 😁.