My kids have been in school for 6 days today. The first 2-3 days were pretty smooth - I give credit to the “new” element of starting a new year, new clothes, new fever. *grin* However, Monday morning pretty much blew up in my face. Both kids drug their feet getting ready, I lost my cool after an hour of pushing to get everything done in time and it ended badly with everyone upset. When I finally dropped the kids off my son said quietly from the back seat, “Sorry for making you late mom.”

I came home utterly deflated.

It’s hard enough to not beat yourself up when schedules don’t work, when there’s stress or pressure in the home you’re responsible for setting the tone in, etc. But when your sweet 5 year old feels bad about it too it’s like dropping an anvil on your already growing pity party. So I did what any grown mamma does, I had my party, flushed the pity potty and came up with a new plan after discussing it with my partner in crime, dad.

We decided a new family schedule was in order as well as a few new rules for the mornings. So Monday night we spoke with the kids about some new basic rules for mornings. They are as follows:

1) Wake up happy. It’s your first decision of the day, it should be the best one too.
2) Spend 10-15 minutes exercising to get those endorphins flowing, appetites awake, etc.
3) Eat breakfast together.
4) Do ALL the above together…ALL 4 of us before anything else can be done.
4) Get ready (this includes socks, shoes, teeth brushed and hair combed)
5) Any free time left can be spent doing something they want until it’s time to leave.

I’m happy to report that it’s working much smoother than I thought it would. I worried that I wouldn’t have enough time if I tried to add a few more structured events into my morning but so far it’s been great. I never would have believe so much could be packed into one hour with such success. But we’ve been waking and starting the routine at 7am and by 8am we’re all completely ready for the day and out the door. This morning Taylor even had a full half hour to play his Transformer game. He left home so happy and content, instead of teary eyed and frustrated.

Now the hard part comes…keeping it up long enough to make it habit. Bring it on.

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