Back to School: Tips to survive the chaotic morning shuffle

Getting back into the school routine has become a bittersweet event for me. On one hand, my days have freed up considerably without the stress of scrambling for childcare, but on the other hand, there is the ever dreaded morning battle that ensues between my daughters and me, and it's exhausting. Some of the problem is getting used to the early morning get-up-and-go deal. Some of it is the willfulness of my strong-headed girls, and some of it is just missing the lazy morning slumber of Summer.

After the first few weeks of school passed, I decided that it was time to stop the insanity, or at least try to make my mornings slightly less crazy. Here are a few ideas that will hopefully help you gain some control of the before school routine. Some of these ideas can even be useful if you don't have kids.

The most important part of minimizing the morning crazies is to prepare anything you can the night before...

1. Prepare lunches the night before; at least the stuff that won't get soggy.
If you are a procrastinator like me, don't wait until after the kids go to bed to do this. I have learned that when I tell myself I can do it later, I'm usually so wiped about after the nighttime shenanigans, that I have zero energy left to even consider setting foot into the kitchen. One way to avoid this problem: start bagging up dry goods while making dinner. If you're already in the kitchen anyway, why not kill two birds with one stone? You know, between your soup boiling over and the kids running around screaming :)

2. Get backpacks ready to go before kids go to bed.
This is something to teach your kids to do on their own even as early as Kindergarten. Of course help them and check to make sure they have everything, but the earlier they learn to do this on their own, the more responsible they will be as they get older.

3. Lay clothes out the night before (good for grown-ups too). I let my girls pick out their clothes because that is just another control issue I would gladly avoid. However, if they don't care which clothes they wear, then by all means, do it yourself.

4. Give kids their own alarm clocks. This way they have the chance to wake up on their own and learn the pleasure of the snooze button. More importantly, you don't have to be the mean mommy awakening them from their cozy dreamy slumber.

5. Set morning ground rules. Have a chore chart or some kind of set of rules that is a reminder of what is expected. My chart consists of getting dressed and brushing teeth (two of our biggest issues). The girls earn stars for doing both without arguing and/or procrastinating. After enough stars, they earn a little cash to put in their money jar, which will be used to buy Webkinz or whatever they so desire.

A note on Rewards and Bribery:

I fully support and use both, especially when it helps me get them out of the house on time. Sometimes it seems that no matter how prepared I am or how early the kids get up, they still find ways to dilly-dally. Find whatever makes them tick and use it! For my older daughter, the thought of me not being able to walk her to her classroom door is usually enough of a threat to get her booty moving. The younger one gets to have gum in the car. I've also used blowing bubbles in the garage, which was good a few times, but then lost its luster. It may take a little trial and error or re-evaluation, but is well worth it.

6. Lastly, know how long YOU need to get yourself ready and allow yourself that time, plus 5 or 10 extra minutes before getting the kids going. I have made that mistake of saving part of my morning routine to be done while making breakfast or brushing teeth. All that does is add more chaos and stress. If you are dressed with hair done and make-up on before the kids really need to get moving, you allow yourself the ability to focus all of your energy on yelling at your kids to hurry up. Plus it kind of nice to get ready in peace; the proverbial calm before the storm.

Three weeks into the year, and I think I have it down...only one hundred sixty something days to go!!! I wish you all the best of luck!

Time?!? Who Has Time for Time?

Here it is, January 31st, and I am pondering where exactly the month went. Somewhere between dance recitals, birthday parties, web designing, abandoned New Year’s resolutions and many, many more distractions, January has miraculously slipped away. I had set the goal for myself of blogging early in the month, because January is, or was, Get Organized Month. As organized as I am, it is still far too easy to fall victim to my ugly nemesis; procrastination. So, with one day left in the month (technically, I suppose this counts for a January blog), I figured Time Management was an appropriate topic.

Why is it so difficult to take charge of the day? The number one complaint I hear is, “I don’t have enough time to.... (you can fill in the blank).” Somehow the “to-do” list seems to grow exponentially, even after we are making progress crossing items off. Here are a few tips to help battle the “not enough time in the day” phenomena.

1. Identify your procrastination issues. The most common barriers are:

• You consider it low priority task (when it is not one)
• You don’t have enough information to finish the project or make a decision
• You did not set enough or a specific time aside to do it
• It seems overwhelming (if it does not break down into mini tasks)
• Something has kept you from achieving it (perfectionist personality)
• You don’t know what steps it will take to complete the task

2. Take a few moments to identify where your time is spent and discover where or who is sucking time away.

3. For one week, make a detailed calendar of exactly what you did and the times you did it. It is amazing how much wasted time ends up on this list. I know what you are thinking, “I don’t have time to do this!!!” Trust me; taking a few moments to make this list will really help you be more productive in the long run.

4. When making a to-do list, prioritize in order of importance. Try group activities that make sense to get done around the same time (such as errands that are close to each other). Always do the highest priority first. Even if it is the most painstaking item, it is the one you are most likely to put off. Once you get that big one over with, it’s much easier to fly through your day.


5. Finally, don’t be so hard on yourself if you don’t get it all done. We are only human and sometimes you actually do need to sit back and read that trashy magazine just to gain some peace and sanity. At the risk of sounding too much like Scarlett O’Hara, tomorrow really is another day.

I know for me, I plan to have a much more productive February, and hope you can do the same!