I just can?t seem to reason with DS (just 6) why he needs to get dressed within a reasonable amount of time on school days.
He has always been a reluctant dresser but early last year we found a solution that worked for us. I would sit with him in his room for 5 minutes while he got dressed. If he finished within 5 minutes I would do his socks. If not, I would leave the room to get on with something else and he would finish alone. On school/work days we would do this straight after breakfast. On other days, whenever he was ready.
Recently this has stopped working because he would never be dressed within 5 minutes. He has often been taking over 20 minutes to do it and making us late for the school bus. He is sometimes still half dressed when DD is already strapped in the car (bus stop is in the next village) and I have to drive all the way to school because we miss the bus which makes it hard to get to work on time.
For info, when he is really tired (ie I have to wake him for him to be ready for school on time) I help him get dressed.
We talked about the problem a couple of days ago. We came up with me sitting with him for 6 minutes and always getting dressed before breakfast. (Logic is that breakfast which he usually spends over 20 minutes eating can be cut short/finished in the car if necessary; it's more difficult to put a child on the school bus when they are half dressed!).
This morning DS woke up refreshed with over 90 minutes before we leave the house but then got so cross at the idea of getting dressed before breakfast that he sulked for an hour, just lying on his bedroom floor while DD and I got ready.
I am quite prepared to go through this another few days if this is what it takes for him to realize that he is wasting precious play time and get a move on. But then again ?No breakfast until you?re dressed? feels like manipulation when he takes it so badly. But at the moment I have lost all faith in him getting ready in time after breakfast.
I know this issue is one that makes me lose perspective. WWYD?