Get dressing in the morning - help before I explode!!!!

[Lulu41]

Every morning its the same old thing (supposedly across the country) but I go to bathroom to get ready for work tell Ds to get dressed while I spend 15 minutes or so in the bathroom only to return to find Ds no where near dressed the morning argument then ensues, I end up walking him to school absolutely seething - I know this a very very common problem but has anyone sussed how to get the little buggers to get dressed themselves!

[EmmaTMG]

Hi Lulu41, I meant to add a post on hear but somehow managed to post it on 'My son misbehave totally' in the Behaviour/development topic. It's quite along rely and I'm too lazy it write it again. Sorry,I hope it helps anyway.

[Tillysmummy]

Lulu41 I don't have a child of school age yet but does ds have breakfast before, would it work to say no breakfast until you're dressed or something similar? Maybe he doesn't like breakfast but I know that deprivation punishments always worked best when we were children. Perhaps docking a certain amount from his pocket money (if he gets it?) or something like this ? Or threatening to cancel an activity he's looking forward too ?

As I say I haven't got there yet but know that when I was a child and wouldn't do what was told the best form of punishment for me was to deprive me of something I really wanted to do.

[RosieT]

You may be a morning-Tv-free household, so this might not help, but I find producing a complete set of clothes for the day witholding Dennis the Menace until fully dressed usually works a treat.

[Bugsy]

Lulu41, my ds is a bit younger than yours but we had this problem with putting shoes on, so I made ds leave the house without his shoes on and he had to sit in the car with wet feet and socks (I did of course take dry socks and his shoes with me). It worked a real treat.
I did this following advice from a friend whose son is school age and she actually said to her pyjama wearing son, "right we're off now" (taking his uniform in a bag) and they weren't 100 yards down the road before he was begging to put his clothes on. School was a 10 minute walk away and when they got there, she put his uniform on and she says that when he starts playing up again, she just asks him if he wants to walk to school in his pjs again and he soon gets dressed.

[Nutjob]

My ds was TERRIBLE at getting ready for school in the morning, I would tell him to get dressed, go upstairs to make the beds come down and he would have his underpants and one sock on!! So, what I do now is, show him the clock in the kitchen and tell him that when the hand has moved to a certain point I expect him to be dressed and that if he manages to do this every school day, on Saturday he can have two pound to take to the Newsagents and spend on whatever he wants. So far it seems to be working!! HTH

[Lara2]

I did hear of someone who did a similar thing to you Bugsy - child still refused to put on their shoes and spent the whole day at school in socks!! The staff were great and acted as if nothing had happened! The child got NO attention for the behaviour and decided it wasn't worth trying again!!

[mam]

how about kitchen timer... we make a game of it and it works well til I tire of it and then start remembering to start doing it again. Trouble is you have to keep re-setting it for the one sock, then the other sock then the vest etc etc etc but it takes the problem away then again it takes time too!

[mam]

Must say I do like Bugsy's reply and the wet feet/no shoes suggestion - maybe I'll get organised and try it soon!

[tappy]

i have a new rule in my house that seems to be working. shower breakfast then clothes on.when thats all done they can watch tv. they have sussed that the quicker it is done the more tv they get. while they are watching tv all dressed i get time to get my self ready