When you have kids mornings can be dicey. There is always someone who’s hungry, someone who’s thirsty, someone who needs their clothes putting on, and someone has to help with the kids’ shoes. Getting out the door with children can be difficult. Here are four things you can do the night before that will make your morning easier and help reduce the stress of parenting, or at least one aspect of it.
1) Get the clothes ready
This sounds simple, but this one step can save you more time every morning than anything else. By laying out the clothes the night before you can see if something that they need to wear tomorrow is still in the laundry and needs to be washed or if you need to choose something else for them to wear. Laying out the shoes with the clothes eliminates the drama that inevitably happens when we don’t do this.
Laying the children’s clothes for them the night before also encourages them to get dressed by themselves as they can easily see what they need to wear which makes their morning run more smoothly too and helps instil some independence.
2) Get organised
If your children, or even you or your partner, take lunch to work or school with you then make up those pack lunches the night before. This will save you time in the morning but it also means that if you are out of bread or anything else you will realise with enough time to rectify the issue instead of when you are in the middle of the morning routine.
Another suggestion that can help you make your morning easier is to lay out the breakfast items the night before, making them accessible to the children so those old enough can help themselves when they get up.
3) Pack All Bags
Anther way of making the morning easier is to pack the school and work bag the night before too. Once you have laid out the uniform and made the pack lunches do a quick check on your bags. Has all homework been completed and put back in the bag? Have any letters been signed and replaces? If anyone has PE make sure the kit is ready to go too. Then place all the bags by the door so you can all just grab them on the way out. One of the easiest ways to make sure this runs smoothly is to have a visible timetable or calendar up in your house clearly stating who has what when.
4) Go To Bed On Time
In order to be able to get up on time and deal with the mad morning routine it is crucial that you go to bed on time. Make sure you have a good bedtime routine and know what works for you and your family and stick to that as best you can. Going to bed on time and getting enough sleep will make it much easier to get up in the morning and thus helping to make your morning easier all round.
