Working Moms - Need Some Help from You

I have taken a short term assignment at my old job and I now need to get to myself and two year old toddlers out the door by 8:30. I know that sounds ridiculously simple but I haven't had to do it up until now and I am finding my morning breakfast, cleanup, get ready for the day at a leisurely pace routine completely inadequate. What tips do you have for me, before I say, "Forget it"?

 

yes, this will take some planning and some night time preparation in my opinion.
Here is what I do the night before:
1) get their milk sippies ready and cereal, breakfast bars, yogert/fruit ready
2) pick out their clothes, shoes, socks, etc... and put them in the upstairs bathroom
3) pack their bags and put everything near the door

The mornings that you work, I recommend
1) shower before they wake up (I know it sucks to get up early)
2) get yourself totally ready for work if possible before you get them up, including eating breakfast and packing your work bags/lunch
3) I wake the girls up and take them right to the bathroom where I shut us in, they are still groggy and can be grumpy in the mornings so we do potty, dressing (including socks and shoes) in the bathroom before we even go downstairs so that all we have to do downstairs is eat and get jackets on
4) While they are eating at the table, I load the car with everything needed, then I just clean them up quick, put jackets on and we are out the door

When i used to leave with them really early, I would let them eat granola bars in the car (i trusted them not to choke), so I would actually just carry them downstairs, get jackets on, and put them right in their car seats to eat breakfast/drink milk on our way to daycare/my mom's house.

of course our routine has been extremely complicated by an infant but it's not that bad. Leave yourself a lot more time the first few trials so you can see what it is like.

most important lesson I learned: You CAN NOT rush a two year old without tearful consquences...
I try to let them know what the plan is and what we are going to do before we do it to ease the transitions

good luck!

 

I'd time it to see how long it reasonably takes you. I know that it takes 30 minutes here just to get ready (without breakfast), then I count another 10 minutes to get in the car (yep, takes that long with my two and those stupid carseats, can't wait for Summer where I don't have to deal with coats too). Then I add another 30 minutes for breakfast and whatnot.

I'm a SAHM but it's what I do when we have to be somewhere in the morning... I'd rather be up earlier than having to rush things. I'd definitely get everything you can ready the night before though... my kids will follow me around and not eat if I try to do something in the morning, and I shower in the evening.

 

Get everything ready the night before... breakfast, pack lunches, set out clothes, and make sure boots/coats are by the door. Then in the morning, get yourself completely ready before waking your kids up. Once they're awake, hustle them into the already-laid-out clothes, herd them into the kitchen for the already-laid-out breakfast, and then it's out the door. My husband is in charge of mornings; he gets up at 6:45 and gets ready but stays in sweats, wakes the girls at 7:15, changes into a suit while they're eating breakfast, and the three of them are out the door by 8am. If they do breakfast in the car (almond butter sandwiches are great for this), they can make it out of the house in 30 minutes from the girls waking up, but it's tough.

 

I do a lot of the things mentioned above- get myself up and ready before they are even up, lay out clothes, etc. the night before. Mine eat breakfast at daycare so I do not have to do that part, but they get juice here so I have that setting out for when they get up (I get it out when I am eating breakfast). I learned from experience that getting them up out of bed and expecting them to instantly start getting ready does NOT go over well, so I get them up at 6:45, and they sit on the couch and drink their juice and watch PBS for 15 minutes. During that time I finish getting myself ready, load up the car, etc. At 7:00 when Dr. Seuss is over they are "awake", and know its time to get dressed, etc and get out the door. Most mornings it goes pretty well and we out the door by 7:20 and at daycare by 7:30. But I also have "extra" time in there (I don't have to be to work until 8), so that when there is a tantrum or some other glich, and maybe we don't get out the door until 7:30, I still have time and am not late.
It's going to take some practice and figuring out what works best for your kids, but you will get it. Good luck!

 

Do a dress rehearsal.

Take the amount of time you need to get the kids ready, then add on at least 10-20 minutes plus another 10-20 minutes to get in the car and going. Then add on your time to get ready in front of it. I can get the kids ready in 40 minutes, I can get ready in 20 minutes. Somehow it takes an hour and a half to go out the door, into the car, and on the road.

Be prepared for fights, whining, and general crankiness. A&R eat at daycare, but I still have juice boxes (and those horizon milk boxes) for the trip to daycare. I have blankets at daycare so they don't have to cart them back and forth.

 

Like everyone else, I do what I can the night before and I get up and start getting ready before everyone is up. Then as they eat breakfast, I finish my hair and make up. Once they are done eating, I get dressed while they watch something or play for a few minutes, and we're out the door(if I get dressed while they eat, it's inevitable that I have food all over my clothes).

 

The exact timing of our schedule has changed as they get older, but the basic principles remain the same:

- Do as much as possible the night before (down to setting out all the breakfast stuff on the counter).
- Get up in time for me to shower and dress before having to deal with them.
- Leave plenty of time -- better to get up half an hour earlier than to feel rushed (which we generally do anyway).
- Tell them what the expectations are.
- Figure out what time you really need to pull away from the curb, then start the "final leaving process" (getting shoes and coats on, going potty one last time, etc. at least 20 minutes before that).

In general, for the past 3 years at least, we've been getting up around 6:30 and getting out the door by 8:30. We do a cooked breakfast (oatmeal, scrambled eggs, etc. -- there's a standard rotation) -- it would be a little faster without that, but we all like it.

Like everything, it gets easier with practice!

 

I run and leave everything to my husband

Like everyone else, We do a bulk of it the night before. We then feed then breakfast snack at the table while we get the older kid ready and pack the car. For some reason, there is a lot of stuff to always pack into the car. We then transition to the car and they get to finish breakfast on the way in to daycare. They get a full breakfast at daycare so morning snack is usually nothing big.

 

Wow - I suck at planning! LOL I don't get ANYTHING ready the night before.

Around here, I'm usually up about 5:30, DH gets up between 4-5 depending which kid gets up first (yea, THEY get US up). We used to try to get up before them and get ourselves ready, but that's how we ended up with such early risers... We do that now and everyone in the house would be up NLT 4 a.m.! YIKES.

So, up at 5:30 and in the shower. We get the kids dressed after that. The girls pick out their clothes, and when our kids get dressed, they get everything on, shoes and coat included, in one shot. So they're usually ready to walk out the door by 6 a.m. They each get a couple waffles and Banana after that (full breakfast at daycare) and we put Sesame Street on to keep them entertained. Then it's time to get ourselves ready. I usually have everything together and ready to go by 7 a.m. Out the door NLT 7:15 so kids can be to daycare by 7:30. Getting hair done can be a battle - THAT I will try to do the night before. So long as I use Curl Formers or really tight ponies - they're usually good the next day. I do it in the morning and we usually end up fighting and doing ponytails.

 

Me too!!

 

I've always gotten everything ready the night before even before kids (my brain doesn't work well in the AM!) So getting most everything done the night before is key. The only thing I would add is that I take my showers and dry my hair at night. It allows me to sleep in and yes it makes waking up a bit harder but you are totally done within 20-25 minutes rather than an hour:

6:50 get up and get myself ready (wash face, blow out hair, makeup, dress)
7:25 or so get girls up and dress
7:45 breakfast (I even get my bowl and tea stuff out the night before so I can eat too)
8:05-8:15 head out the door

Just remember sometimes they get up early and want out of bed so I just get them up and tell them to go play. Normally I have one in the bathroom who likes to watch the process. Everyday is a little different so try not to stress too much!

 

I have my dh's help too , but this is what we do to get out the door by 8:00 and to work (where they go to school) at 8:30.

They are still in cribs ( :FIFblush: ) so we do not get them out of their cribs until 7:15 no matter what. They usually wake about 6:30 - 6:45 and are content in there and it just makes it a whole lot easier. During that time I shower. I lay out their clothes in the evenings. When we get them up we immediately let them potty and then get them dressed (learned from experience that it is a lot easier to do first thing rather than when you are in a hurry and they are being more obstinate). We let them watch tv (I am coming across horribly here, I know with the tv and the cribs, but it is what it is) so they always get to watch one episode of Dora or Diego or Yo Gabba Gabba, etc. from 7:30 - 8:00 and that is when they eat cereal bars, cereal in snack traps (that is taken with us if not finished), and milk. I blow-dry my hair, make-up, etc. while they are watching their show. I have "car toys" for them that they only get when they are in the car and usually the milk and snack traps go along too which helps speed them along getting in the car along with it now just being part of our routine! I am lucky that dh helps and know that it would be a lot more difficult if he wasn't able to do so - but thought I would chime in because I find that the things that really slow you down are the unpredictables with kids like fighting to get dressed, not wanting to get in their carseats, etc. so my advice would be to try to figure out your kids "triggers" that might delay you and try to come up with a solution. Along with the getting dressed first thing, and car toys we also use the snack traps and cereal bars because my ds especially is a slow eater and would refuse to leave until he was done until we made it portable!