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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

To all those who scorn and despise people who are always late for school...

41 replies

TooTicky · 13/09/2006 16:22

....how do you do it? I must have inherited a lateness gene. No matter how organised I am or how much I have prepared the night before, we are always late leaving the house. Why is this and how do I achieve perfect punctuality?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Twiglett · 13/09/2006 16:22

This will be addressed to me then

... you work out what time you should have to leave the house .. then you leave 5 minutes early

tortoisesdonotwearshoes · 13/09/2006 16:22

Set all your clocks 20 mins fast!

SoupDragon · 13/09/2006 16:24

Mornings in the Dragon House are run along the lines of military boot camp. Also, children not dressed and ready for school by 8:20am do not get a small piece of chocolate

I am never late for school (even when BabyDragon was a newborn) but am frequently late or by-the-skin-of-my-teeth on time for other thibngs.

Ladymuck · 13/09/2006 16:27

I'm midway - I aim for 15 minutes earlier than normal, and generally arrive with 3-5 minutes to spare.

Do you actually know how long your journey takes? This is often one of the bigger "estimates" that my friends seem to get wrong. They think "school is 15 minutes drive away", and don't allow the time for parking and walking at the other end. Or those that walk estimate the walking time at their pace, not at the pace of a 5 year old.

If I aim to arrive on time anywhere i am always late...

motherinferior · 13/09/2006 16:28

And you reach panic/shouting stage early in the proceedings. Here in the Inferiority Complex there is always, always, a stage when I bellow loudly about shoes/bookbags/teeth/clothes. However we are always out of the door by 8.05 at the absolutely, chronic, latest.

Ladymuck · 13/09/2006 16:28

8:20 would be a luxury Soupy - I've condemned us to a life of having to be in the playground ready for the bell at 8:15...

Having early risers helps!

motherinferior · 13/09/2006 16:30

Oh yes, a totally realistic estimate of how long it will take. I find walking more reliable for this reason. Even though DD1 did have to stop at a friend's house for an emergency poo this morning.

sorrell · 13/09/2006 16:31

You need to look at what happens in the morning (ie making & eating breakfast, getting dressed, washing, teeth etc, write it all down and then write how long it really takes (not how long it took once or in your dreams) and allow that much time. Put out clothes the night before, ditto book bags, dinner money and PE kit etc allow roughly twice as much time to get there as you think and aim to arrive 15 minutes early.

puddle · 13/09/2006 16:33

Get a timer and time them - make it a race to get ready
Good behaviour all week = treat in Friday's lunchbox in our house.

motherinferior · 13/09/2006 16:35

And don't forget to shout a lot.

sorrell · 13/09/2006 16:35

Or move next door to the school and put the kids to bed in their school uniform.

Twiglett · 13/09/2006 16:36

never think 'oh I'll just fit this in'

never stop to chat to people

just get where you're supposed to be then relax

MegaLegs · 13/09/2006 16:38

We're up and out by 8.30 without fail. My voice has usually peaked at about 500 decibels at 8.15. Kids arrive clean, pristine and fully lunchboxed up (apart from ds4 who is usually still in his pjs and liberally smeared in weetabix - he's only 1). My kitchen clock is also 15 mins fast which helps!

puddle · 13/09/2006 16:40

Don't think you can just put a packed lunch together in five minutes (never ceases to amaze me that people can do this).

Have three hairbrushes - one upstairs, one downstairs and one to be the lost one.

motherinferior · 13/09/2006 16:43

Build in emergency time for such emergencies as DD1's poo this morning. So you have to be out of the house by 7.55 - in order to have that time in hand - but if an emergency takes it up before you leave the house that (and only that) is permissible. This way, you can cope with something cropping up - which it quite often does - without wrecking everything.

multitasker · 13/09/2006 16:46

Make lunches night before, check uniforms are clean and schoolbags are ready also then just get up a bit earlier - you will even have time to fix hair and apply lippy - leaving you looking effortlessly smug and calm with your little darlings at the school gates.

Original poster

TooTicky · 13/09/2006 16:49

I'm not absolving myself in any way, but it doesn't help that none of my children have any kind of concept of being in a hurry, or even doing things at a reasonable pace.
Sorrell, your idea sounds the most practical...
And what if the children won't get up? If shouting makes no impression? If they just sort of evade every instruction?

OP posts:

lemonaid · 13/09/2006 16:51

Take them in their pyjamas. The next day they will be up and dressed.

Original poster

TooTicky · 13/09/2006 16:52

Puddle, what if somebody is naughty early in the week? Do they necessarily miss out on their treat? Surely this would give them no incentive for the rest of the week.

OP posts:

Original poster

TooTicky · 13/09/2006 16:52

Lemonaid, I have threatened this. Perhaps I should do it...

OP posts:

joelallie · 13/09/2006 16:56

Get everything ready the night before. Set the alarm for an unfeasably early hours. Cultivate a loud and sergeant-majorish voice.

I've threatened to the take-them-to-school-in-pyjamas thing but never actually had the guts to do it. More likely end up taking them to school with unbrushed hair and unbrushed teeth which would mortify me and not bother them one bit

NotQuiteCockney · 13/09/2006 16:58

Another option: Get your child taken to school by a very helpful neighbour. Since DS1 has started his new school, I've not done a "normal" morning. She picks him up just before 8, and takes the tube to school. Dropoff is 8:30 to 9, and they're there by 8:45 I think at the latest.

When I had to take DS1 to school, we were always on time ... except when there was an assembly which changed starting time from 9 to 8:45. Sometimes I forgot.

DS1 has clothes in his room, and dresses before coming down. Laying clothes out the night before means we can panic about laundry then rather than the next morning.

We also allowed for problems. It took 15 minutes at least to get to school, but you need to add 15 minutes to that really. So we had to be out the door for 8:30, so we aimed to be out for 8:15 - we generally were out by 8:30 or soon after.

puddle · 13/09/2006 17:02

tooticky they can earn it back by being extra super duper the rest of the week.

I have also instilled in DS a fear of being late -he doesn't want to walk in through the late door past the head's office and so he's pretty cooperative.

We also do tv in the mornings only when they are literally ready to walk out of the door except for coats on - so breakfast, teeth, dressed, hair, shoes on and bags packed.

MrsSpoon · 13/09/2006 17:04

Hmmmm, I'm not good at time keeping but when it comes to getting DS1 to School on time it's a different matter. I just don't stop from the moment I get up to the moment I have dropped DS2 at nursery. If it means I don't have breakfast before we leave then so be it. Also no TV for DSs unless we are mega organised and everything done, DSs dressed, shoes on, coats on, ready to go, only then if there is still a spare 10 mins before we should leave do they get to put the TV on. I also do very little in the way of chores in the morning unless I have loads of time, all my energy and time goes into getting the essentials for the School day ready, packed lunch, water bottles, snacks etc.

Mercy · 13/09/2006 17:10

You need to be ready at least 15 minutes before you have to leave. Or at least I do, probably because I have a 2.5 ds who is bound to have a mini tantrum at some stage in the proceedings. Last minute wee-wees, arguements over whether a certain toy/book/anything can be taken to school etc

(the last minute wee is usually mine }

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