NOW CLOSED: Tell Weetabix about breakfast in your house - you could win a £100 Sainsbury's voucher

[NewGirlHelenMumsnet]

Weetabix would like you to share your top tips for making breakfast time as stress free as possible. What are your top breakfast tips? Can you share your best breakfast stories with them on this thread? For example, do you run round trying to eat and feed the baby at the same time or is it a calm, relaxed affair in your house?

The best tips and stories will feature on their new page on Mumsnet (coming soon).

Everyone who shares a story or tip on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky winner will receive a £100 Sainsbury's voucher, from Weetabix.

Thanks MNHQ

I always set the table the night before, that way everything is ready for the mayhem of the morning rush :)

Breakfast is calm at ours, 2yo and 4yo eat cereal at the table, whatever they fancy except crunchy nut cornflakes which seem to send them both bonkers.. then they have toast or crumpet with butter in the lounge while watching some Postman pat, giving me a chance to have a big mug of tea and any leftover crumpets...

my tip is to keep butter out of the fridge so it is easy to spread, and always pack lunchboxes/ do homework/pe kits/uniform the night before so the morning is peaceful.

We have a 4 slot toaster, with 2 settings - one set to lightly toasted for me and DS, the other to burned for DP. Sad, but true, it has made mornings much less stressful.

Breakfast in our house is baby first, so I can relax and eat second. My nine month old, Leo, has weetabix followed by a fromage frais. I usually have the same but with sugar on my weetabix (shhh, don't tell the baby).My top breakfast tips are to use warm milk on the weetabix and chop in some fruit - Leo likes halved grapes best, but spits out the skins. Always rinse the bowl and the baby well afterwards!

Make breakfast the night before and get the kids up in good time to eat it every morning thus utilising effective time management skills.

Another family who do breakfast first here. At least, ds has breakfast when he gets up - I can't bear eating straight away. Used to do breakfast for all once washed and dressed but caused major hassle every morning with ds. Now he has breakfast first (cereal or toast and/or yoghurt) and then washes his face, brushes his teeth, gets dressed. Does mean, sadly, ds and I aren't eating together but there's plenty of conversation as we are moving around each other. And it's not shouting any more, it's genuine talking! Far less stress.

(dh has to leave for work really early so is gone by the time ds is up - although he does leave me a cup of tea, bless him.)

Breakfast time is calm for me, but it all descends into hell as soon as I have to prepare DS for school.
I never do porridge on a weekday, although I would love to, just do not have time. Pretty much always have one of two cereals (weetabix or fruit and fibre) and a coffee for me and juice/milk for DS.
I put out his uniform and his breakfast then eat mine in peace.
I wake him up and he eats whilst playing and reading at the table. He chucks his clothes all over the place, refuses to go to school and I tell him he has to, it's the law, he cries and we finally set-off ten minutes late.
When we arrive at school he skips in and chats to his friends, having forgotten how much he didn't want to go. My friends look as it they have just been through something similar.
Not sure that offered any top tips as such, probably not to have children?

I leave DC in bed so I can have breakfast in peace each weekday morning. I put my breakfast (usually shreddies or weetabix) in the microwave then I put up the ironing board.
60 seconds later, my breakfast is ready but I stop the microwave before it dings incase it wakes DC up (no point in getting up early if they are going to wake up to the microwave ding!)
I then eat my breakfast whilst ironing uniforms.

I get DC up at the last minute and then drop them off to school for breakfast club so I can go to work

Being a night owl I do most of the work the night before. Table set with spoons, sultanas, cups, etc and bowls out in the kitchen with weetabix or porridge in! All I have to do then is add milk and pop in the microwave in the morning. Then I get the kids up and we all add some kind of fruit usually sultanas. Our baby girl enjoys sitting at the table with all of us. She loves to copy her big brother and so she eats what we do. I don't give my son a choice or he takes forever to decide. I simply tell him its ready to keep things moving! We all have organic milk as milk is so important for children. I think it's a good investment in their health. Organic weetabix is great for our baby girl who really loves it as does the rest of the family. It is a real comfort food. We alternate it with organic porridge and milk for a change as its also quick to make and slow release so keeps me from snacking! Which really helps with losing my baby bump.

Then we all get dressed, my sons clothes are laid out the night before though he does insist they are left in the airing cupboard so they are toasty and warm for him! Next we clean our teeth (which has become much easier with our 6yr old boy since getting him an electric toothbrush as it plays music to tell him how long to do each part of his mouth and when to stop). He use to hate cleaning his teeth but now he can't wait to do it! He feels very grown up!

I change the baby's nappy just before we leave otherwise if I do it earlier she does something smelly just before we are going out the door and I end up doing it twice!!

My husband only gets out of bed just as we are leaving to go to school so to avoid the bathroom queues etc. He stays in bed with his iphone twittering which he says is work!

Then in the car we practice some maths or spelling etc. or the kids pretend to be in an F1 race and make really funny car noises! My son usually wins!

We have no TV or reading at the table as it always makes us late and we always eat at the table or it desends into total mayhem! Plus I don't give them any choices or my son will take half an hour to decide on something very simple, eg. what coat to wear! Children need routine and a strong guidance in the morning. I reward myself with a cup of tea when I get back from the school run and the baby has her milk which is a lovely cuddly time for both of us. Happy Days!

I always let the kids choose what they want, although they are both under 6 when they choose what they want and get the cereal out themselves they tend to eat more of it :)

Also if I make them toast then get to choose whether they would like it left whole, cut into rectangles, squares, big triangles or little triangles :p

MY BREAKFAST TIP IS - GET THE JOBS DONE THAT YOU MUST DO THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO DO OR THE THOUGHT OF DOING THEM WILL SPOIL YOUR BREAKFAST!!

I always lay clothes out the night before and prepare school bags.

In the morning we have a cuddle and then get dressed before we do anything else. Then breakfast is juice, a portion of fruit, a portion of dairy and a carbohydrate - I usually give an either/or choice or it takes too long for them to decide (especially the 3 year old).

As a motivator, if they are finished before 8.30am, they are allowed 15 minutes of DS or TV before we leave for school.

On a weekday the routine does not vary or chaos reigns - the weekends are totally different and we can still be in PJ's at 11am ..... just hanging out and chatting.

Set table the night before including tea bag in the teapot and coffee in mugs.

Don't let kids downstairs until they are dressed and ready for school.

Put toothpaste on toothbrushes first thing so that after breakfast, kids can go straight upstairs to clean teeth whilst you tidy up breakfast table.

Ask dcs to deposit their crockery in the sink once they've finished eating.

Absolutely no telly on weekday mornings.

Another set of 18-month-old twin toddlers. Weetabix every morning on a weekday, ideally spooned into mouths by mummy to save time and mess! Have had to make one concession though - they're really into dunking at the moment, having clearly seen Mummy and Daddy dipping biscuits in their tea all day long, so I give them a mini Weetabix in each hand and let them dunk them into the bowl of Weetabix mush while I shove the spoon in, they're happy as larry and I know they're having a good breakfast!

I always make sure their breakfast is ready and waiting for the when I call them to get up, make sure you know what they want the night before, makes a much smoother experience when you have 4 kids and a toddler to feed

I let 4yo Dd choose what she wants out of what we have in otherwise it's a struggle to get her to eat it (sometimes still is, but less so when she chooses). I've never introduced her to sugar so there's no arguments there, sometimes she wants yogurt on it instead of milk, so she gets it, so it's little stress with her.

My 12yo Ds gets his own; adds too much sugar (introduced by my Dad ) and no stress at all with him unless it's the stress about him making so much mess of course...

A couple of weeks ago, I treated myself to a box of Jordon's. It's too expensive usually, but it was part of an offer, so I got it. Not for the Dc's and I made that very clear, however! Dd was eating her breakfast at the table last week and I was in the sitting room getting her things ready for nursery. She came through looking a bit sheepish and saying 'I've got something to tell you Mummy' which is her usual I've done something I shouldn't have speech. When I went through I could've cried. A huge amount of my precious cereal was all over the floor...I picked it all up, put it into a separate bag and used it all over several days...I couldn't bring myself to throw it away. She said 'I just wanted to try it' all innocent like

Well breakfast is a messy affair in our house. The boys tend to go downstairs ahead of me and help themselves to cereal. By the time I get downstairs the kitchen looks like a giant cereal bowl and the floor is quite crunchy. ds2 likes to have a mix of several different cereals in his bowl. At the moment his favourite seem to be mini weetabix, honey hoops and crunchy nut clusters - so Weetabix if you could get all that combination into one box it would make him very happy and save me some space!

I have three DCs under five, breakfast is carnage in our house

My top tip is to get the eldest DC to feed the baby whilst you sneak in a quick doughnut healthy bowl of mueseli in the kitchen.

Also all kids are dressed before we go downstairs in the morning otherwise they mess about and we are late for school.

Sit them in fornt of the tv with their fav programme on. Then tell them you will turn it off if they don't eat all their breakfast.
A bit mean maybe, but certainly works for me.

If they don't eat their breakfast, take them to school hungry - you will only ever have to do it once!

It's a bit haphazard here as it largely depends on whether DH is home or not (he works shifts). If he is around, it runs quite smoothly as one of us will feed/change/dress baby and self while the other one feeds/supervises DD and gets themselves ready. That measn we're normally all washed, fed and dressed before school run. If I'm on my own, I tend to get the DCs sorted and have my own breakfast when I get back from the school run. However, I have noticed that if I do that, I tend to eat more

When I go back to work (on mat leave) it should be a bit easier as the DCs will eat their breakfasts at nursery/breakfast club on the days I'm not at home. I find cutting out eating at home saves loads of time!

I try to bribe encourage DD to eat and get ready quickly by letting her watch cbeebies when she's finished. This works once every 6 weeks .

Re weetabix in particular, DH drives me mad when he eats it - he feels it necessary to use the biggest pyrex dish we have to eat it out of Apparantly stacking them in a normal bown just doesn't do it.

Get everything ready the night before.

Set the table if it helps. Put the cereal out. Sign all those notes from school and put them in the school bags. Make packed lunches if required & store in fridge. Polish shoes. Put bags, instruments etc by the front door.

In the morning, don't give them too many choices for breakfast. Keep it simple. Don't offer anything which takes too much time to make.

If they are taking too long - turn the telly off and say it won't be on tomorrow until you can show me you can eat and watch at the same time. (Or don't offer telly at all).

And Weetabix - always best in a square Weetabix bowl!! But whatever you eat it from, leave it to soak afterwards!!

Most breakfasts are eaten in our local shopping centre!

My favourite breakfast is on DH's day off, because he makes me Weetabix and orange juice, and we sit down and eat together, in calm (after we've fed the cats).

Sebastian (cat 1) sits next to the dining table looking all forlorn as we eat, even though we've only just fed him!

simply put everything out the night before on the way to bed - fill the kettle, put out the bowls and cereal packets, spoons and cups with teabags in and teaspoons ready. It is surprising it take only 5 minutes to put everything ready but saves 15 minutes in the morning rushing around with everyone else around and your half asleep still.