Get Out the Door on Time: How to build an effective routine

Does it seem like your child is in a different time-zone than you when you are trying to get out the door in the morning?  You need to leave in ten minutes and your child thinks they have two hours and ten minutes!You can ease morning stress by getting organized, creating routines and setting ground rules. Make sure that when you do create routines, you are realistic about what your child is capable of and when they need supervision or assistance for a task.

Habits are Habit Forming

Children like routines. They like to know what to expect. They gain self-confidence when they delight their parents by exceeding expectations.

Write a list of tasks needing to get done

• Make creating the list for your morning routine fun. Draw pictures to show tasks like brushing teeth or cut out photos of toothbrushes from old magazines. Especially important if your child isn’t reading yet.

• Be detailed. Get dressed, eat breakfast, dishes in the sink...Putting on clothes can be separate from putting on shoes.

• Get your child involved in creating the list. Give them choices. Should washing their face or brushing teeth be first?

• Make it visible. Post the list on the fridge or someplace your child will see it often.

Here are a couple of good examples from www.girlinthegarage.net and http://www.operationorganizationbyheidi.com

Put stars or stickers on a calendar for each activity that goes smoothly. Have small rewards, pizza, or a movie night after a few weeks of smooth “out the door” mornings happen.

 The Night Before

Avoid some of the morning rush by preparing the night before:

• Get ready the night before. Even with our erratic Northwest weather, your child can still pick out clothes the night before.

• Get your child to participate. Do they want an orange or apple? They can help make a sandwich. Soon they will be making their own lunches!

• Make it special. Does your child need to bring a special book to school? Pack backpacks so they are all ready to go.

• Get to bed on time. A tired child (or parent) is often a hard-to-get-going grumpy child.

Remember Each Child is an Individual

Consider your child’s strengths and challenges:

• Lots of energy at night and not so much in the morning? Get in as many tasks the night before and give extra morning time for a few tasks.

• Audio or visual learner? Are pictures or words more effective to keep your child moving in the morning?

• Does your child love games? Play beat the clock. Can your child get dressed before the timer goes off?

• Which tasks are most challenging? If your child is having trouble getting their shoes on, have them practice when you are not on a schedule.

• Notice your child’s skills and accomplishments. They will love hearing you praise them for remembering their lunch on their own.

Don’t Forget About You

You too can benefit from routines. It will help make for calm mornings and set a great example for your child.

The night before

• Have everyone’s lunch made – even yours.

• Put breakfast dishes on the table and even parts of breakfast – cereal boxes can be out and ready to go in advance.

• Need to sign permission slips? Get them signed and in your child’s pack.

• Get enough sleep. It will help make everything run more smoothly in the morning.

Those Inevitable Un-smooth Mornings!

No matter what you do, there will be mornings when things just don’t go according to plan:

• You planned clothes for the every changing northwest weather, but no one expected 25 degrees in March.

• Your child easily brushed their teeth every day for months, but today they just won’t brush. Now every piece of your schedule is off.

• You forgot it was your turn to bring the class snack. You scramble to get something together and don’t have time to help your child get breakfast. Everything is slowed down.

The list can go on. The unexpected happens, whether it’s external events or your child not meeting expectations.

 When mornings go wrong

• Remain calm. How you act can affect how you feel and how your child acts.

• Be consistent. If every other day you tell your child they can skip putting out their clothes for tomorrow, they won’t take it seriously when you ask them to do it.

• Be clear and simple. Long explanations aren’t needed. “Brush teeth,” is better than explaining about cavities.

• Follow through with natural and logical consequences. Can’t decide which cereal they want to eat in a timely manner? You may need to choose for them and they may get one that is not their top choice.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning!

Even if you are not a morning person, you can make mornings more beautiful, or at least calmer, by getting organized and creating routines. Create a plan with your child for how it will get done. Give your child support when they follow through. Let them know exactly what they did that you liked: “You put your dishes in the sink this morning! Thanks for cooperating.”Of course, there will always be the unexpected, but the more you plan, the better prepared you’ll be. And remain calm – it will pass.See what other parents are doing about morning routines by sharing this on Facebook, and asking other parents how they get their kids out the door on time. This article is brought to you by Parenting Now! Parenting Educators and authors, Tova Stabin, Claire Davis and Lynne Swartz and consultant Jay Thompson (andupdatemywebsite.com).  Parenting Now! is passionate about happy, healthy families. For more information about Parenting Now! please visit their website (https://parentingnow.org/) or contact us at info@parentingnow.org

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