Working parents - how do you cope with the mornings?

[HaHaBizarre]

I'm hoping to get a job when DD1 starts school this September. DH leaves the house at 7:15am every morning. He has no choice about that.

I'm worrying about having to get me ready for work and 2 children ready for school/child-minder all by myself.

Will I even find a job that starts at 9:30am? Will it be easier to find a job that starts early so I drop the childrne off at a childminder and they deal with the breakfast stuff and getting them to school?

What time do you start work? What are your morning arrangements?

Yes, DD looks like she's been dragged thru a hedge by 3.30.

Get your girls' hair bobbed. Saves a lot of time in the mornings (says working mother of 3 girls - 2 bobbed, 1 plaited).

I let mine watch TV if and only if they are totally absolutely ready to leave the house, shoes and coat on, etc. They usually only have about 5 mins of TV but it's a powerful incentive to get ready quickly. It also stops them wandering off and getting undressed again when you're not looking.

Also, reward good behaviour - star on star chart or pasta in jar for being ready without a fuss.

If they are sluggish about getting ready get them to bed earlier at night.

I have breakfast at work - in peace and quiet. much more pleasant than rushing first thing.

Choose school dinners over packed lunches if you have a choice. That saves lots of time. Ignore child's whingeing about this until they are old enough to make their own packed lunch.

It's really not that bad when you all get into the habit of it.

If you have a downstairs cloakroom or bathroom keep a second set of toothbrushes and paste there, so they don't have an excuse to disappear off upstairs again.

Do as much as possible the night before.... lunches packed, clothes ready etc. Get yourself up, washed and make up on, but put PJs back on.

Get DCs up... make microwave porridge and serve.

Whilst they eat messy porridge and put their own bowls in the sink... you get dressed.

Then all teeth cleaned, shoes and coats on ... out you go!

Fennel: "Get your girls' hair bobbed. Saves a lot of time in the mornings"

I have really been considering that :D

ATM - DH and DD! get up at 6:30am. No, DD1 does not need to get up that early but she has always been a light sleeper and early riser and she gets up the instant she hears DH up. So, DH gives DD1 her breakfast. DD1 dresses herself and the morning runs smoothly if I have got her clothes out the night before. DH says he'll make packed lunches.

DD2 gets up anywhere between 7 and 7:30am. I get up at 7. I just know I am going to have to get up at 6:30 too so I have time to wake up and get ready before DH leaves the house. In yet if I take DD1 to school, I won't be leaving the house for another 2 hours. Sometimes having more time means you end up starting the day in the wrong pace and then I end up rushing everything at the end.

I know, I just need to be more organised. What I really want to be able to do is not possible. Oh how I would love to just get myself ready and walk out the house at 7:15am and leave DH to do all the rest

I was fantasizing about that this morning, as I arrived at work a full 3 hours after getting up, having worked flat out to get myself and 2 kids ready (around nuisance dh getting in way as he got only himself ready as well), to school, drive through rush hour, nursery and finally work. Just get up, speak to no one, get myself ready, zip to work before the rush hour starts, get it done and leave with a clear conscience (and not have to do the 3 hour slog in reverse afterwards, either).

So far haven't found any lasting arrangement to get someone else to do the kid breakfast slog. My neighbor will take school child at 8 at the earliest for me (as her son goes to same school), but this just makes me hit the full-on morning rush hour.

When we had three under 4 or 5 we had a nanny who came to the house for about 8. My husband taught near our house (we bought somewhere near his work on purpose) and we both left home about then. I fed the baby just before I left and we both got the children up and did breakfast. Then once they started going to school I took the other at 7.15 and we walked to the train station, got a train to where the school bus went from, she got on the bus and I got the train into London.

Couple of years later second daughter was at school in London so she and I took the oldest on same route to her coach and then we got the tube in and our son went to my ex husband's school so he took him in the morning. By that point we just needed someone after school to pick up etc.

For us the rush was the fact they went to these really good very hard to get into academic leading schools a distance away which laid on their own coach services so you had to get the children to the coach by about 7.45am or else the school coach was gone and that was it so it was a very absolute deadline but it also meant at 7.45am you were then free of children and able to get off to work. Getting the baby twins into the car too for that school drop off dressed fed and ready by 7.30ish was not easy. Basically I fed and dealt with the twins (always breastfed one on each side which saves time) and my ex husband got the other 3 breakfast.

Now older 3 have passed driving test; youngest two go to school at end of the road and it's much easier.

I really enjoy the odd days in the school hols when it's DH's turn to take a day off and I get to just dress myself, feed myself and walk to work on my own. Bliss!

Mine are 5 & 7 .I do packed lunches night before.On my work days I can get us all up at 8am and I leave at 8.25 and Mam takes over with kids (only give meds and clean teeth, occaisionally do hair).
Kids are well trained and its military precision!
dd2 gets up and gets dressed (sometimes before me ) I drag dd1 out of bed and downstairs.do breakfast whilst they get dressed.I shower/get dressed while they eat.Do hair and hand over.

I am useless, and I mean useless in the mornings so I do everything the night before. 18 months ago I had 3 lots of sterilising to do each night, breast pump parts and bottles, when I stopped expressing it was so much easier!

slightly concerned about this as both hubby and i start work at 7.30am in london (we live in herts)
will have to find a CM before nursery i suppose?

We have an au pair, but generally, I get up with ds at around 06:00 and give him breakfast and get him dressed by 07:00 at which point dh gets up. We then take it in turns to look after ds whilst the other one gets ready. The au pair appears at about 07:30, but when she leaves us in a couple of months time, I will simply take ds to his nursery (which is near the station) before getting the train to work. I don't find it that hard, but it might be when we have two!

Our nursery opens at 07:30 - can you not find one that opens similarly early?

Hi

We're new to this as I've only been back at work for 3 wks and we only have 1 child.

I get up at 6.45 and shower and dress by 7am. DD gets up at 7am and I breastfeed her whilst DH has shower. 7.15am I leave for work to get in for 8/8.30. DH gives DD breakfast and gets her dressed and takes her to CM for 8am then gets to work for 9am.
I take 1/2 hr for lunch so I can leave at 4pm and pick DD up at 4.45 to get home for 5pm.

I get her bags for the CM ready the night before and get my clothes out as well. I invested in some better quality makeup so a little goes a long way so that only takes about 5 mins and a handy hint is always wear a smudge of light eyeshadow - makes you look much more made up even if it's the only thing you've applied!
We also needed to clear out our cupboards to make sure we had homes for everything we needed to lay hands on quickly - means house is kept quite tidy most of the time.

Lucy