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| me with the school girl |
UGH. Who hates getting everybody dressed and ready and out of the house in the morning?
Oh good, I'm not alone.
Lately our mornings have devolved into about 20 minutes of nagging, shouting, dragging, pushing, and rushing. It's a frantic, yucky mess. Today after putting a tearful Daniel in the car, and strapping in a yelling Lily and then sliding a shaking, severely under-caffeinated me in the driver's seat, I realized, this. has. got. to. change.
Part of it is that we need to be out of the house by 7:15 or I'll be late to work. And that is EARLY in the morning. Part of it is that Lily has been waking up earlier and wanting to snuggle in bed with me, which makes me later to get up and ready. Part of it is that Daniel has been waking up later, sometimes as late as 7:00. Yes, 15 minutes before we need to be out of the door. So, our timing is all messed up. Ideally, Andrew and I would love to wake up early, have a nice quiet breakfast, then deal with the kids. Ideally the children would wake up already dressed and ready to go too... Ideal is not real. But I don't need to be a frantic shouting mess every morning. I need to get a grip.
Some mornings lately have been so crazy that I've gotten to work without any makeup, jewelry or even a watch on. Some mornings both kids are crying in the car. Most mornings only one of us has actually eaten breakfast. A couple of mornings I've forgotten an important item (like my coffee cup!). And one stellar morning, I locked us all out.
I hate being late to work. I also hate leaving a messy house. I need to work on that. I need to start telling myself: It's okay that there are dishes in the sink. It's okay that there are toys on the floor. It's okay that the laundry isn't folded. It's okay that the beds aren't all made.
What really isn't okay is having stressed out, sad children in the morning. What isn't okay is feeling like I need something strong in that coffee cup at 7:15 in the morning.
So I here I am, committing to staying focused on having happier, less stressful mornings. Here is to not losing my cool because Daniel didn't pick his pajamas off the floor. Here is to leaving dirty dishes in the sink, and keeping smiles on our faces.
How do you do mornings?
put children to sleep in their shirts and socks that they will wear the next day.
ReplyDeletemake batches of breakfast on weekends (high protein pancakes and waffles).
Pick out a week's worth of clothes for all involved.
Hire someone to help clean every 2 weeks.
- Jennifer (friend of Lisa Q)
i think mornings are difficult enough without little people to try to herd! 7:15 is the time my alarm goes off, and i almost always have trouble getting up for it. is there any chance you can get Daniel to bed a little bit earlier so he will be easier to get up? that is soemthing i'm trying to do for myself, anyway.
ReplyDeleteand i think your assessment that you and the kids will be better off not being stressed out and upset in the morning is right. :) nothing bad will come of leaving the dishes in the sink in the morning and the beds unmade. (i often go to bed with dishes in the sink with the comfort of knowing i can do them in the morning when i am not quite as exhausted.) maybe the tidying up of pajamas etc. is something you can tell them they have to do in between after-school snack and dinner? my mom would sometimes threaten us with no dinner or no snack over our infractions (even though she never actually did deprive us of them, that i can remember) though i doubt that's a good tactic to use with kids who have experienced hunger the way they have.