HOW I ORGANIZED MY MORNINGS WITH 4 KIDS

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Submitted Date 02/06/2019
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Mornings in this house are far from routine. Unless you call it routine craziness, or routine disorganization, something like that. Getting three kids ready for school, one ready for grandma’s house, and myself ready for work before 6:30 a.m. is a true task! There are some things that can and do help me during my morning craziness. It’s not a complete fix but it’s better than running around like a chicken with my head cut off. So how do I do it?

Aside from the fact that I literally MUST do it, planning, patience, and having a game-plan makes it so much easier. My mornings went from unbearable running around, speeding to work, always ALWAYS rushing; to laid back, chill, and a lot less stress and frustration.

**Do your prepping the night before**

This is the main ingredient. It’s an extra effort that makes all the difference and includes:

- Laying out outfits. This helps me infinity! If I take a few moments out of my night, I can save about 20 minutes in the mornings. Finding clothes for 4 kids in the mornings is so stressful because I, in no way, have an organized laundry life! I will one day make this a goal but as of now, it’s going to stay unorganized.

- Locating shoes and laying socks out. Y’all have no clue how much this helps in my home. Before I started doing this, the kids would be completely ready except shoes, running 5 minutes late already and then, of course, I can’t find their shoes. Just doing this, without laying out the clothes still saves so much time. I search for shoes longer than I search for clothes.

- Lay hair supplies out the night before such as leave in conditioner, the brush, ponytail holders, etc.

**Have a game-plan**

-Have a general idea of how you want the morning to go. This applies if there’s a certain time you have to be out or things you have to do in a certain order or anything you have to do out of the norm.

Sometimes it helps me to write it down because my memory isn’t great [to say the very least]. My mornings are typically the same unless I’m closing that day and then I need more push to get out of the house on time so having a game-plan comes in handy.

**Other things I do to make my mornings easier**

-Wake up early. You have no idea how much this can help you! I absolutely LOVE my sleep and I use to be totally against getting up early. I STILL sometimes stay in bed until it’s time to wake the kids up, but it always puts me behind.

-Come up with a routine. My basic and thrown together routine is as follows,

 

-- Wake the kids up at 5:30 a.m.

-- Eat if you are going to eat

-- Brush teeth

-- Get dressed (this includes Socks, shoes, and jackets)

-- Hair time- for me, this includes brushing my daughter’s hair and putting it in a ponytail, brushing my son’s hair, putting it in a ponytail, and putting a hot and steamy rag on my oldest son’s braids [which cures all].

-- Wash their face. I do this last to make sure they don’t get anything on their face at the last minute.

-- Kids sit down in the living room and watch TV while I get myself ready, which honestly doesn’t consist of a lot, brushing teeth and hair, getting dressed, washing my face, and getting all my things together. (I’m a minimalist)

-- All this must happen before 6:30. If we leave the house then, it gives us time to take my baby to his grandmas [15 miles away] take the kids to school and make it to work by 7:45.

**How organizing my mornings significantly helped me**

Its very time-crunched regardless of how I play it but mornings before I got a little bit of organization were so stressful and made my life seem to fly by because I was always rushing. I let it go on like that far too long before I decided to finally put my foot down and come up with a system that works for me.

Now I have plenty of time in the mornings. I use that time to either write, do housework, or talk to the kids about their schoolwork. It literally has taken so much stress off me

Comments

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  • Mary Jaimes-Serrano 5 years, 1 month ago

    Whitney, this is so very relatable. I have 6 children but only 4 at home. I have a routine much like yours. This has helped me in so many ways. The only hurdle I face now is a 13-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son. My son will be the first up and ready, however, he takes 10 minutes to get in the car. My daughter, she has everything set out the night before but refuses to get out of bed. When she finally gets up she has her own pace, which unfortunately is sloth slow, so it takes her longer to get ready. We manage to get everything done on time (normally). But it is still a frantic mess. I wish you all the best and thank you for sharing. Have a great week.

    • Whitney B McIntosh 5 years, 1 month ago

      Your mornings sound a lot like mine. My [only] daughter is 4 and she is the last one out of the bed as well but she is also the least needy in the mornings so I allow her a little extra time to sleep! Thanks for your comment and I wish you the best also!

  • Tomas Chough 5 years, 1 month ago

    I'm one of five brothers. I'm sure this could've helped my mom out! You definitely have your hands full as well. Keep it up Whitney!

    • Whitney B McIntosh 5 years, 1 month ago

      Wow. Your mother definitely had her hands full as well! Thank you for sharing that with me!

  • Andrea Hope 5 years, 1 month ago

    My sister-in-law and I were just talking about how we do things because we MUST do them. Like sometimes you think, how does so and so balance it all, and then when you get in hectic positions, you realize you can always make a way. I really like the tip of deciding things at night because you don't feel rushed or anxious like when you need to be somewhere on time in the morning.

    • Whitney B McIntosh 5 years, 1 month ago

      Yes! That is exactly right! Where there is a will there is always a way. That statement was never so true before I became a mom. Thank you for reading!

  • Miranda Fotia 5 years, 1 month ago

    Impressive! I have pregnant brain and ADHD and my husband and daughter have been diagnosed with ADHD as well. Our mornings are chaos and I only have one child to get ready for school! I will give your tips a try!

    • Whitney B McIntosh 5 years ago

      I feel your pain!! Pregnancy brain is no joke! And the bad part is it doesn't go away right away. It could take up to a year for everything to go back to normal so you can have your old brain back. lol. I am still struggling and my youngest son will be 2 in August. I'm praying it goes away and isn't permanent! lol. Good luck!!