Every parent is familiar with the dreaded weekday morning
problem, namely that there’s a million things to be done in the early hours of
the day but only so much time to do them. Juggling your household chores with
the responsibilities you have to get your children fed and on the bus with
their lunches packed is never easy. Luckily, there are a number of tips you can
keep in mind to help solve the weekday morning problem.
Here’s how you can get more done during the limited hours of
the early morning, and some key tips you’ll want to be aware of when it comes
to preparing your kids for the day ahead.
Set realistic goals
First and foremost, you need to learn the importance of
setting goals, and realistic ones at that. Far too many people like to wing it
in the morning and tackle their problems one at a time as they surface. If
you’re trying to juggle responsibilities like childcare with others like
needing to feed and clothe yourself, however, you’ll need to do some planning
to make sure everything’s running smoothly in the AM. You probably can’t knock
twenty chores off the list every morning, but if you plan realistically, you
could always take care of a few important task before the day even begins.
Learning how to get your stubborn kids out of bed in the morning
is one of the first places you should start. Far too many parents, especially
new ones, waste too much time here by only haphazardly waking up their kids,
only to find themselves forced to march back to their rooms in a few minutes
and wake them up again because they never got out of bed. Once you master the art of getting stubborn kids up and
about in the morning, you’ll find it much easier to focus on other pressing
matters.
Next, you should consider having breakfast pre-planned when
you wake up, so that you can immediately get to work cooking or preparing the
day’s lunches. For parents juggling multiple kids at once, making sure that
they all get amply fed is never easy. Thus, having some pre-sliced portions of
fruit or other ready-to-go foods in the fridge in the morning can help
alleviate some stress of the AM rush. You can even take this a step further and
have your kids prepare their own breakfast the night before, which will help
them get a head start on cooking and taking care of their own meals when
they’re older.
Many parents also worry about the
transportation their kids will be taking to school, and for good reasons.
Talking to your child about such things as school bus safety is imperative if you hope
for them to be able to get to and from your house and their school with ease
and safety. Younger children in particular those attending private schools, will need to be briefed well
ahead of time about life on a school bus, as springing it on them in the
morning for the first time can cause them to panic and refuse to leave home.
It’s worth creating a
list
Many kids struggle to stay focused in the morning,
essentially demanding that their parents grow a second attention span and take
care of their problems for them. Creating a list of the things your child needs
to accomplish before heading out to school is an easy way to avoid this problem
and will help you get a head start on teaching them to become sound and savvy
planners themselves one day. Parents of children with such things as ADD in
particular may find these schedule samples to be a real life saver
in the morning.
Above all else, parents need to recognize that solving the
weekday morning problem can’t be done alone. Even when you’re trying your
hardest, you’re still only one person with so many hands. Enlisting the help of
your children in the morning is by far the most effective way to get them up
and moving, and ensures that you’re not single-handedly expected to deal with
every household chore under the sun. Similarly, the earlier in the day your
child starts thinking and getting physically active, the easier a time they’ll
have of warming up to school and opening their minds to new information.
Parents trying to solve the morning weekday
problem should immediately embrace the power of scheduling, consider knocking
out such things as breakfast and school lunches the night before, and shouldn’t
be afraid to put their foot down with their kids when necessary. The AM drag
can be a nightmare to endure, especially for new moms and dads, but the earlier
you get a schedule ironed out and working the sooner you’ll see positive
results when it comes to your mornings.