For many of us, the rush to get everyone to school on time is the busiest and most stressful part of the day.
Before becoming a parent, you’d have probably said it was hard to get yourself out of bed and off to work on time every morning, but now, when you’ve got an extra person or two to get ready you can multiply that by ten. Here are some things I’m going to put into place to help everything run more smoothly on school mornings.
Make The Night Before More Productive
My two-year-old is keen to "help" with all the household chores at the moment; however, unloading the dishwasher isn’t very child friendly. To avert a potential crockery disaster and to avoid a tantrum, we’ve started putting the dishwasher on straight after dinner and emptying it before we go to bed. That’s one less thing to tick off in the morning!
And because all our plates, bowls and cutlery will be clean the night before school, I’m going to start setting the table for breakfast too. The cereal boxes can also be put out so it will just be a case of throwing on some cold milk and they’re good to go with full tummies. From now on, I’ll be singing "Be Our Guest!" rather than screaming "Don’t Make A Mess!"
My youngest has a little uniform for pre-school, but my eldest’s school doesn’t have one; so, I rely on him to choose his outfit every day. I’ve therefore made sure that the main colours in his wardrobe all go well together, his hoodies and joggers are all black, grey or navy and then he can add some pops of colour with brightly coloured t-shirts. It makes things so much easier to know that there aren’t going to be any combinations that will clash and look unsuitable for school.
Make School Mornings More Organised
My 9-year-old has a Minion clock that takes pride of place on his bedside table, but we’d got out of the habit of turning his alarm on. I’m going to start setting it for the appropriate time every morning and hopefully, the incessant beeping will get him moving better than I can. Dave, it’s over to you!
While our PJs are left on as long as possible on the weekend, in future on school days, the minute they get up they’ll need to get dressed. After that, it’s time to brush their teeth and drag themselves downstairs for breakfast. At least if they spend ages slurping up their cereal, I’ll know that the main preparation is done.
You’re probably quite good at making sure the children get enough shut-eye, but you need to get enough sleep too. It makes a huge difference to your mood and energy levels if you wake up having had eight hours (even if that means sacrificing finishing your favourite series on Netflix). Of course, sometimes it’s out of your control, if you’ve been up and down tending to your child; once you wake up, you’ll be craving caffeine. Instead of being disappointed that you only managed a sip before you leave, throw it straight in a travel mug to keep it warm and bring it in the car. Coffee is like mum fuel on school mornings, so don’t try and run on empty!
