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What is your before school routine?

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  • pigpen
    pigpen Posts: 41,152 Forumite
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    To be fair though, pigpen, haven't you got about 10 kids or something :D Fair play to you even getting them out the door before lunchtime!

    Only 8 children are at home :p

    Believe it or not the worst offender for being slothlike in a morning is the 8 y/o. She takes slow to a whole new level.. Her teacher said there is fast, slow, stop and Tiddles speed.. She is last ready for everything, I am just glad it isn't only at home she is like this. She is often going into school breakfast in hand otherwise she wouldn't get any.

    I don't have much issue with the teens, they get up really well and get sorted. DD2 just needs kicking as she wants to spend 3 hours straightening her hair (then puts a hat on!!) and faffing. DS3 'loses' everything but he is generally ready and DS2 is, well, DS2, you have to him to understand.
    LB moment 10/06 Debt Free date 6/6/14
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  • Alarm at 7am.. wake up. 3 year old will wake up at the same time when he hears my alarm..

    Chase 3 year old downstairs, go and make a cup of tea for wife, heat the bottle of milk for our 1 year old. Chop up some fruit for 3 year old to take to school. Take tea up at 7.20am to wake wife up. Help 1 year old drink his bottle (although he does it pretty much on his own). Wife gets dressed and then dresses 3 year old in uniform, finds his bag. He'll usually have his breakfast at about 7.50am. 3 year old gets driven to nursery at 8.25-8.30. 1 year old has his breakfast at 8.20 then goes for his sleep at 9.15..

    Then breathe and have a cup of coffee and some breakfast :)
  • LandyAndy
    LandyAndy Posts: 26,377 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts
    Only my younger son at home now. He is 16. If he isn't up at 7.00 I wake him.

    That's it. And I don't remember the last time I had to even do that. It's great.
  • onlyroz
    onlyroz Posts: 17,661 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    I can get everyone out the house in 45 minutes if I put on my "drill sergeant" voice.

    Typically I get the kids up around 7:20-7:30 and try to encourage (read "scream at the top of my lungs") them to get dressed while I get myself ready. Once I'm dressed I tuck in shirts and tidy up collars. Then I park them on the sofa with a lap tray and a bowl of cereal while I assemble the packed lunches (sandwiches made the night before so it's just a matter of slinging everything in the box). Then it's shoes on, run around to find all the school books, coats on and out the door by around 8:15.
  • pigpen
    pigpen Posts: 41,152 Forumite
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    aeb wrote: »
    I will admit there has been the odd morning when all three babies have been dumped into the pram in mucky night clothes and/or completely naked, covered with a pile of blankets in order to do the school run on time.

    I don't ever get the littlies dressed before school unless we have had a leaky nappy or, like tomorrow, we have a dr's appt at 9:30am!!

    I do not make plans before 10 usually :p
    LB moment 10/06 Debt Free date 6/6/14
    Hope to be debt free until the day I die
    Mortgage-free Wannabee (05/08/30)
    6/6/14 £72,454.65 (5.65% int.)
    08/12/2023 £33602.00 (4.81% int.)
  • shortdog
    shortdog Posts: 322 Forumite
    I ignore the youngest (6) until the alarm goes off at 7 - he's normally been up an hour or so by then. At 7, drag myself out of bed, downstairs, make coffee, feed the cats, give the youngest his first morning meds and creams, then feed him, bu which time it's 7.30, and the eldest (10) is normally awake.
    Spend next 15 minutes nagging the eldest to get breakfast (she's not a morning child, and doesn't really like breakfast - tough!), then 10 minutes nagging at her to eat breakfast. Send youngest off to brush teeth and find clothes, send eldest to get herself organised, realise coffee is cold and make a fresh one, sit down and drink coffee.
    At about 8.30, start shouting at eldest, continue for 15-20 minutes until she's dressed, teeth brushed, hair done (which is a battle in itself), schoolbag organised, shoes and coat on.
    Shove eldest out the door for 8.55, shove banana in her hand to eat on the way to school.
    At 9, give youngest his second lot of morning meds, apply his next lot of creams and put his wraps on, help him get dressed over his wraps, do his physiotherapy, set him up with his first lot of work for the morning (he's home educated), and make myself another coffee.
    That takes us normally until about 10 (sooo glad youngest doesn't have to get out the door for school anymore, his meds, creams, wraps and physio take us about 1 1/2 hours every day), at which point I can get myself dressed!
    I am dreading my eldest going to the academy, as the bus collects the kids at 7.45!
  • I aim:
    get up around 7:10am, make lunch boxes, get myself breakfast and cup of tea and shower and dress fill then put their bags at the door.
    wake DS8 and DD5 at 7:40am
    They dress then eat breakfast watching CBeebies. When Woolly and Tig finishes. They go to the loo, get shoes, coats, gloves etc on. Do DD hair into bunches.
    Then walk to school at 8:25

    In reality, I often have taken a few minutes longer to get up, so dash down stairs to do lunch boxes at 7:30, hurridly get them up and dressed and dash in the shower and get dressed in the few minutes before we have to depart. That is how our mornings get stressful
  • rachbc
    rachbc Posts: 4,461 Forumite
    Get up at 7, feed cats, feed chickens, put kettle on, start porridge, empty dw while porridge cooking, make tea, call kids for breakfast, kids clear breakfast table and load into DW whilst I make lunches for me and DD, I go for a shower whislt dd dresses herself and whilst watching Cbeebies, son dresses himself and makes his lunch. Check dd has book, homework anything else she needs. Check whats for dinner and take anything out of freezer/ make a note to buy anything I need. Aim to leave house at 8.10, son leaves at 8.20. now OH works from home he takes DD to school, previously I would drop her on my way to work. Also if I don't have time to do any of the above OH can now pick up the slack but generally its ok.
    People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • Routine....
    Different every day
    ~I work 3 days and on those days i leave the house 7.45. I get up 6.30-7 depending on when i wake up. In the time before i leave i shower, make 3 packed lunches, sort breakfast for 3, on most winter days fill the slow cooker, sort out the school bags and coats etc and remember gymnastic kit or swimming kit for afterschool. DH then deposits children at either school (8.55), bus (8.10) or my parents (8.00) depending on what he has on that day.
    The other 2 days are a breeze comapratively, i still have all the stuff to do but don't need to be out until 8.30. Ususally manage to fit loading the washing machine and cleaning a bathroom too.
    I am so used to it, it doesn't seem hectic, i actually find if i get up early it throws things as i feel i have time to sit down for a cup of tea and then the timings go pear-shaped!!!
  • Sammie_03
    Sammie_03 Posts: 2,026 Forumite
    pigpen wrote: »
    Only 8 children are at home :p

    Believe it or not the worst offender for being slothlike in a morning is the 8 y/o. She takes slow to a whole new level.. Her teacher said there is fast, slow, stop and Tiddles speed.. She is last ready for everything, I am just glad it isn't only at home she is like this. She is often going into school breakfast in hand otherwise she wouldn't get any.

    I don't have much issue with the teens, they get up really well and get sorted. DD2 just needs kicking as she wants to spend 3 hours straightening her hair (then puts a hat on!!) and faffing. DS3 'loses' everything but he is generally ready and DS2 is, well, DS2, you have to him to understand.

    8 kids at home, Wow! I'm trying to persuade OH for number 4!
    'Slothlike' describes my 9 year old exactly! Unless it has anything to do with food then he is always 1st to finish.
    X
    :)DS1 10yrs :)DS2 7yrs :)DS3 born March 2012
    "Mothers of little boys work from son up until son down"
    It seems that for success in science or art, a dash of autism is required. - Hans Asperger
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