Morning routines for preschooler / early primary child?

[ViaRia01]

If you have a fairly solid/ consistent morning routine for your little ones, say aged 2-6 years, would you be willing to share it?

My sons are 3.5 and 2 years but until now we just kind of cobble together each morning with no particular timings or order of things. Do you have breakfast in PJs and then everyone goes upstairs to get ready for the day? Do you let them play or watch TV for a while before breakfast or do they just eat first thing?

DD is almost 6. We leave for breakfast club at 7.45 in theory.

7am - drag DD up (not easy), she goes for a wee first then gets herself dressed while I get ready.
7.30 - I find her playing with toys, half dressed and lose my shit.
7.35 - We do hair, medicine, shoes, teeth, sun cream and leave the house, late at 7.50

Bag packed the night before, clothes out, shoes by door.

It’s bloody stressful as she is not a morning person and fortunately she likes to go to breakfast club even when I WFH. As getting her to eat on top would drive me mental.

@SlingFan i mean 2026 but that’s not the only reason I’m thinking about it now. I know a lot may change over the coming months anyway, and I’m not too worried about it. We have nice mornings but they are not very independent at getting ready so it wouldn’t do them any harm to encourage them to get themselves dressed (with help as needed) etc.

I’m also aware that at some point I’ll go back to work and I don’t want it to come as a shock to me when I only have and hour and 15 minutes to get us all out of the door! Currently I take leisurely 45 minutes to have two cups of coffee before I have to get myself moving!

I have a reception aged child.
I wake up between 7.30-7.40, I turn her light on and wake her up at 7.40
I go down stairs to make her breakfast and she begrudgingly comes down a few minutes later
7.45 we eat breakfast and I have a coffee
7.55 we go upstairs to get dressed
8.05 we do teeth then hair
8.15 shoes and coats and gather anything essential for the day
8.20 leave for school.

Neither of us are morning people so we do the bare essentials and as efficiently as we can manage. We started with getting dressed first so we didn't have to go back upstairs but she was still to angry about being awake at this point and it was just too confrontational so we do better when she has time to wake up with breakfast and get used to the idea of being awake. Usually by the time she's sat at the table for breakfast she has made peace with the idea a new day has started

I’ve got three under five. On days where I’m at work/they’re at nursery I need to leave at 7am.

So up at 5.50am. There is no
time for a shower/make up etc for me. I have to have a shower the night before and just go to work bare faced. If by some miracle I manage to get there a few minutes early I sometimes do my makeup in the ladies at work.

I lay their clothes out the night before downstairs. I dress them and brush their teeth while DH makes their breakfast. Eldest can absolutely dress himself but refuses to in any situation where I need him to get on with it. Haven’t got the time so end up just dressing him myself along the other two. I bring their toothbrushes downstairs. On days where I’m not at work I brush them after breakfast but I’m so tight for time and my middle and youngest can be so difficult about having them brushed I just do not have time to do it after. I put all their lunches in their cool bags (lunches made night before).

DH then leaves for work between 6.30-6.45am soon as he’s finished doing their breakfast. I get them sat down and eating, frantically try and eat something myself. Load the dishwasher and set it running. Try not to lose the plot while I try and clean up the huge mess youngest has made of himself/the table/the highchair/the floor while the older two fight constantly.

Commence the draining battle of getting everyone to go for a wee and put their shoes on. Takes a ridiculous amount of time. Youngest usually chooses his moment for a well timed poo that then needs changing.

Wrestle them all into the car. Try not to screech at them in the street like a banshee when the middle one goes into a plank in a bid to avoid getting in his car seat. Load about 15 bags of their stuff and mine into the car (wish I was joking). Lock the door. Put the fucking bins out that I’ve reminded DH 78 times to do and he hasn’t remembered. Get in the car and drive off thinking if anyone says to me “oh I wish I only worked part time, must be lovely” to me at work today I cannot be held responsible for my actions.

Wouldn’t advise doing things this way. Hoping this thread has some better ideas. Miss when my husband worked in his old job and didn’t have to leave until 7.45am and I had so much more help!

This is exactly our routine too! Down to the minute. How funny!

Routine here is:
6:30-7 DS wakes up and climbs into our bed
7 - DH goes in the shower. DS and I watch a cartoon while he takes his medication, has a drink and a little play.
7:15 Brush teeth and wash face (I do mine at the same time)
7:20 Downstairs for breakfast
7:25-7:45 DS eats breakfast while I put lunch bag in school bag with ice pack and encourage him to eat (or spend the whole time repeating “no you can have chocolate for breakfast” depending on the day).
7:45 Get dressed. We have a rail and a box in the utility room and after a fair bit of trial and error I’ve realised it’s just easier to keep DS’ school clothes in there (uniform hung up, socks in the box). I bring the uniform in to the living room the night before.
7:55 Playing (usually singing very bloody loudly)
8-8:10 leave with DH.

There are 2 days a week when he doesn’t need to leave so early and we basically do everything the same apart from the getting dressed. Instead we play for a bit longer/he plays while I load the dishwasher or put a wash on etc, but we always get dressed 20 mins before we need to leave as DS can be very slow at doing this.

As a disclaimer here, I’m on adoption leave so not working. I get DS ready while DH gets himself ready - I just go back upstairs and sort myself once they’re gone/take DS with me if we’re not going out until later.
I’m going back to work soon and one day per week we’ll all need to leave by 8, 3 other days DH and DS will need to leave by 8 and I’ll need to also get ready and I have no idea how we’re going to pull that off 😳

Just turning 4 year old

In the summer we’re very relaxed and have lazy mornings but there’s still a certain routine: breakfast in pyjamas when he wakes up about 7:30 followed by brushing teeth and getting dressed, then play at home and in the garden while I do various things about the house. Head out between 10-11 for the day.

On nursery days he wakes at the same time and we do the same routine: breakfast, brushing teeth, get dressed. Then he plays while I have a shower and get ready. Then we cycle to nursery for 9am.

I’m sure it’s easy as we only have one child but I don’t get the rushing about in the morning thing as all there is to do is eat, brush teeth and dress. Maybe we should stick with one kid!

@ViaRia01 she's almost 5 so she's perfectly capable of doing everything for herself but it is sooo much easier just to let her watch TV and say "open your mouth" and brush her teeth for her etc. It's terrible though I know 😭

She starts reception in September so I want to crack it over the summer and introduce a no TV in the morning rule.

My DD is 5 and just finishing Reception, but we’ve had the same routine since she started nursery (at the school).

7:10: wake her if she’s not already awake
7:10 - 7:30: she has a cup of milk and plays or colours whilst I get ready
7:30 - 7:45: gets dressed and I do her hair
7:45 - 8:00: has breakfast then upstairs to brush teeth
8:15: leave for school

Only have the 1 child so it’s a bit easier!

@Yourethebeerthief I can see from many of these responses that there really are 3 or 4 things to do to get the children ready for the day (assuming you’re organised enough to have packed lunches, laid out clothes, and loaded the dishwasher the night before).

For some reason I just find it quite difficult but I think it is largely because we have a bit more time most mornings that I have not really been focused on getting us all ready within a timeframe and I during that time I will also be doing various other bits and pieces, like laundry, online admin, breastfeeding 2yo.

We do school dinners, but yes definitely pack the lunches the night before if you’re doing packed lunches. I think you have to do everything straight away in the morning before anything else happens and then everyone can relax and you can get on with things knowing that they are ready to go straight out the door when the time comes.