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How long does it take your 5 year old to get ready in the morning?

30 replies

Acornacorn2 · 10/09/2025 08:38

my 5yo takes ages getting ready in the morning and that’s with constant reminders and me helping her. If I don’t help her or give her constant reminders, it’d take her much, much longer.
today it took 50mins.
10 mins to decide what she wants for breakfast. She avoids answering what she’d like and then deliberately tries to pick arguments - “but today I don’t need a drink because I’ll drink the milk in my cereal” me: “it’s important to stay hydrated so we all need to have a drink in the morning. What would you like?” Her: no answer despite asking her a few times so I got her water. 5minutes later: “wahhh! I don’t want water”

ate breakfast. She gets distracted chatting to her brother so it takes a while.
then get dressed. I laid out her clothes. She can physically get herself dressed but if I leave her unattended she gets distracted; lying on her bed, chatting to herself, playing with something. I have to break it down into small steps and may ask her to put her pants on, for example, 8 times before she does it. And even then I often end up just helping her get dressed or we’d be there forever.
brushing hair and clean teeth. Similar story. If I ask her to go to the bathroom she’ll often get distracted en route even though it’s opposite her bedroom.
I try to be patient but it all takes about 3 times longer than it needs to. No concerns about her hearing. She gets lots of 1:1 attention and love.
is this what some 5yos are like?
her brother was getting dressed and ready quickly and largely independently at age 3.

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Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
TizerorFizz · 10/09/2025 17:37

@Acornacorn2 How did dc know there was a choice? Mine had very little choice regarding food. It was limited. There’s no choice over clothes as it’s school uniform. Quick wash - face and hands and teeth clean after breakfast. Pick up bag and coat and go. Dressed upstairs. No coming down in nightclothes. Routine and speed is everything and I got a packed lunch ready too!

Acornacorn2 · 10/09/2025 18:18

The choice is just about breakfast, tbh: wheatabix or porridge or Cheerios. (Perhaps that’s too many choices) Water or milk.
Everything else is choice-free: school uniform, clean teeth, hair. The choice-free things are as painfully slow as those with choices, to be honest.

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TizerorFizz · 10/09/2025 18:31

Use timers. One cereal each day. Get dc dresses if they won’t. How do they manage for pe at school. Do you walk to school? Maybe a reward might be not walking if meeting time targets?

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Yourethebeerthief · 10/09/2025 18:56

You’re making your life difficult for no reason. It doesn’t matter how fast her brother gets ready, that could all change once he becomes chattier and his brain is firing off as much as hers is. 5 year olds are little thinkers- there’s so much on her mind.

Why the argument about drinking? If someone forced me to choose a drink in the morning I’d be ratty about it too, and I’d honestly want to pour the drink over there head. There’s nothing wrong with no drink if she’s having cereal with milk. There’s nothing wrong with no drink at all! She won’t faint from dehydration.

Don’t have a million options for breakfast. Mid week my son can choose porridge or cereal. That’s it. At the weekend he can go nuts and have all the eggs and bacon or pancakes he wants.

What’s that saying about madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? You know she gets distracted so lay her clothes out and sit with her while she gets dressed. Help her. It doesn’t matter, she’s only 5 and there’s no need to be so het up about it. Take the pressure off of both of you and just help her along a bit more. If she’s anything like my son she’ll sense your frustration, and for daydreamy kids this honestly makes them worse. They retreat as a stress response, so honestly lighten up and help her out.

Sit with her as she dresses, help her with some of it, take her physically by the hand and walk her to the bathroom, chat and laugh with her. You may feel like you shouldn’t need to at 5, but you do need to. Some kids are great at this stuff and some kids are little dreamers. Work with her, not against her.

Acornacorn2 · 10/09/2025 20:13

Thanks for the insights, advice, suggestions and opinions.

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