Daily routines with 3-year-olds

I'm glad to say that my 3-year-olds are getting a bit better about complying with daily routines, now that they're getting closer to 4. (So hang in there, those of you with just-turned-3yos!) But we still have struggles over many things.

The worst is bath time. We only do baths 3x a week -- they could probably use a bath every night, but I just can't fight that battle with them. They resist getting in, they scream while I wash them, they bicker in the tub, and someone nearly brains herself on the faucet almost every time. The only upside is that since they both hate it, it's usually over quickly. (When they loved their baths, it could take 20-30 minutes.)

Strangely, you would think that having to sunscreen two kids from head to toe every single morning (they often do water play at preschool) would be the worst. But they are actually pretty tolerant of that.

Are your 3-year-olds like this about baths? What's the worst part of your daily routine?

 

Brushing teeth is the worst part of the routine for me...doesn't matter if it's morning or night. They whine and cry or run away when it's time and then barely open their mouth for me to brush. :gah: My husband is out of town for 6 weeks which makes it a lot harder because when he's home he'll do the brushing at night.

 

Getting ready in the morning, but if I had to pin point one thing it would be teeth brushing (morning and night). I have one that ok with letting me do it, but the other resists it. Meals for them are not so easy as well b/c I feel like it can become a battle. Lately, it's just "If you eat, you eat. If you don't, the next meal is......". I'm so exhausted from feeling like I have to be on top of them all the time to do anything.

 

Don't hate me, but there isn't really anything that they resist. :tomato:

Okay, I know ONE thing. My dd hates to eat. :blink: I'm thinking of doing a DNA test to make sure she is MY daughter because I love to eat. A few weeks ago she started :bad: when I'd make her eat more then three bites. <_< I've given up on her now, she seems to be doing fine so I'm not pushing it.

 

Hands down I would have to say mealtime is the worst. At least one or both chooses to either not eat or gets food EVERYwhere every meal. Its a struggle EVERY time. Second worst would have to be bedtime, just for the shear OCD nature of my kids. Everything has to be done just so and it seems sometime to drag on and on. Then 5 mins after I leave inevitably one or both of them poops in their potty and calls for me again.

 

Mine are almost 3.5 years old. Toughest times are (in no particular order):

(1) Getting dressed in morning and to the b-fast table (much dawdling and resisting.).
(2) Getting into jammies at night (also dawdling and resisting)
(3) Settling down and going to sleep at bedtime (although, since we've gotten "tougher" about this, its gotten better.)
(4) Sometimes, getting out the house to go somewhere.

Not to high-jack, but any suggestions about how to motivate mine to get dressed/undressed would be appreciated!

Bathtime is still fine for us -- they have some "tub toys" (measuring cups and measuring spoons) that only get played with in the tub. But, bath time is still not one of my favorite times of day. I will sometimes do a VERY quick "shower" with the hand shower (wet down, soap up, shampoo, rinse) on nights when I just can't stand bath antics or we are running very late for bedtime.

Teeth brushing has gotten much better since we allowed them some control -- it takes MUCH longer, but now they can put the toothpaste on the t-brush, do a fair job of brushing, spitting and rinsing, then we do a little follow up brushing.

Here's to the joys (and frustrations) of having 3 year olds!

Much peace,

Meg -- mom to 3.5 year old boy/girl twins

 

What we do is tie some other part of the routine -- a part they like -- to how quickly they get dressed or undressed. For instance, if we start doing diapers & PJs at 7:00pm, I'll tell them "If you have your PJs on by 7:15, you can have 3 bedtime stories. If it's 7:20, it's 2 stories. If it's 7:25, 1 story." Of course they can't really tell time, but they understand the general concept. (And it's a sneaky way to start teaching them to tell time.)

That also helps me not stress as much about what time they actually get to bed, because I know that if they dawdle ferociously on that part of the routine, we'll make up the time with fewer stories. So I can just lay out the parameters and leave it up to them, without doing so much nagging.

In the morning, we tell them they can have a little playtime before school if they are all sunscreened, dressed, and ready to go by, say, 8:00. If it's 8:15 by the time they're ready, we have to go straight out the door.

 

For us I would say the most difficult time in our daily routine occurs at mealtime. Dinner especially tends to take a very long time. They are getting better, but we're still working on it.

As for other parts of our daily routine, here are some suggestions that might help make yours easier:

1. Bathtime - we have lots of beach/sand toys for them to play with in the bathtub. We've also used many of the Crayola bath products(i.e. crayons, finger paints, etc.). Another idea would be to use foam or vinyl alphabets letters and numbers. We don't use these, but here is a link to an example: Foam Bath Letters

2. Brushing teeth - we use battery operated toothbrushes. They come in all different sizes, colors, and characters. Maybe they can go with you to the drugstore and pick one out? They make brushing a faster and "cleaner" experience. We have also introduced them to Listerine's Agent Cool Blue. It's a plaque rinse that they use before they brush. It will turn the plaque on their teeth blue. Our children think it's neat to be able to see the "sugar bugs" and then brush them away. It is recommended that this only be used for children ages 6 and above, but we give them a very little amount and our children know how to swish and NOT swallow. As a precaution, you can always ask your dentist for his/her advice regarding this product.

3. Getting dressed - I lay out their clothes for the day on the floor next to their lotion. They put on their lotion and get dressed themselves. While they do this in the morning, I make their breakfast. I tell them that whoever gets dressed first, gets to help me make/choose breakfast. Another idea would be to allow them to choose what they want to wear (or perhaps choose from 2 different outfits that you have selected).

HTH!

 

Have you tried showers? Mine just turned 4 and suddenly want to take showers. It is so much quicker and easier.

 

We don't exactly do showers, but we have been doing "shower baths" recently. I leave the tub un-stoppered, and just dump water over them with a bucket. We actually started it because Sarah has recently been scared of the tub overflowing (which is probably partly behind the bath-hatred) and never wanted us to put the plug in. But the benefit is that it's much faster!

That's why I'm hesitant to introduce a lot of fun new bath toys. I'm not sure which is worse -- having them spend half an hour in the tub (on top of our ever-expanding dinner/bedtime routine) or having them scream for 5 minutes and then be done.

 

I can't get mine out of the tub! I pretty much just let them play in the tub for 30 min and hope they got clean by proxy. I do gave to fight them about washing hair though mostly Ainsley.
Our main issue lately is eating breakfast. I have tried just about every semi-nutritious breakfast food. Getting dressed and pajamas are another issue. It's mostly A, but she's always been the supreme dawdler.

 

Try throwing them in a shower and see how they like that. Either they will like it and it will make things quick and easy or they will hate it so much that it will make the idea of a bath very enticing LOL. Just a thought.

 

Luckily for me, my boys still love their bath. Actually, I've started to look forward to it myself because I bring a book in with me and read it while they play in the tub. They do fight occasionally, though, and my rule is that they get one warning, and if they fight again they both get out right away.

My least favourite time of day is after nap time. They've been resisting their naps recently, but if I manage to get them to sleep they don't want to wake up. Since I don't want to have bedtime battles, I wake them up after an hour or 90 minutes, but they are soo hard to wake up. They yell, scream, and if I drag them out of bed they just crawl back in. To top it all off, we're often in a rush because we need to leave to pick up dh from work.