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New
Beginnings: Morning Routines
The New Year
often brings new commitments for everyone in the family. Although
we have a sense of new beginnings, we may also need some new tips
for facing the persistent time crunch.
Here are a few
tips for the daily challenge of getting everyone out of the house
on time:
- Establish
a routine that everyone understands. Give everyone their morning
responsibilities and stick with the same tasks. Don’t try
to teach them something new at 7:00 am but do count on them to
do the tasks that they can do every day (make the bed, pick up
their room, do the breakfast dishes, get their books ready, feed
and walk the dog.)
- Be consistent
with wake-up time and breakfast time—the more consistent
the routine, the smoother the effort as the year progresses.
- Prepare as
much as you can the night before. Having lunches done in the evening
eliminates some of the morning confusion. An ideal time to prepare
them is after dinner before the kitchen is cleaned up. (Then you
won’t have to clean it up twice!)
- Keep coats,
hats, and backpacks in the same location, preferably close to
the door, to smooth the morning exit. Convenient hooks for coats
and bags can help you by making it easy for children to find their
own things.
- Create separate
folders, trays, or bins for each family member. Use these for
school papers, schedules and signatures so that everyone knows
where to find critical papers as you’re walking out the door.
- Ready as
much as you can and put it near the door or in the car the night
before. It is one less thing you have to worry about in the morning.
- Make it a
rule not to answer phone calls as you are leaving the house unless
you sense that it may be important. Usually your caller will leave
a message that you can retrieve later when the time crunch has
passed.
- And don’t
forget to keep your keys in the same location to avoid frustrating
last minute searching!
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