Save Time Getting Children Ready to Leave

January 26, 2012 > No Comments

180897 3835 300x225 Save Time Getting Children Ready to Leave

You all know how it is.

You’ve got an appointment (who cares WHERE?) sometime before noon, but not only do you have yourself to get ready – there are little munchkins needing to be roused, bathed, dressed, fed, etc. Exasperatingly, aforementioned Little Munchkin does not understand the concept of time therefore “Please hurry” has no more meaning to them than “caña al mono.”

So you are frantically thinking of everything that needs to be done, making sure everyone has what they’ll need for the outing. Inevitably you forget something…I know. I’ve SO been there.

There’s the time that we all loaded in the van in a rush to be somewhere and 1/2 way there someone realized that we’d forgotten to eat breakfast.

Then there’s the times that someone announces they forgot to brush their teeth and we’re feeding them mints hoping no one will notice.

Oh, and I almost forgot the time we were going on a picnic and in the rush out the door arrived at the picnic with no food.

So over the years I’ve realized that the better prepared you are the day/night before, the smoother the morning ritual will be.

Things to do the evening before:

Be sure the outfit each child (and yourself and the husband) wants to wear is clean and ironed if needed.
Don’t assume the outfit they want to wear will be the outfit they will walk out wearing. Always have a 2nd choice for when in the event they spill something rendering the outfit a total loss for the day.
Lay each child’s clothing out on a couch, unused bed, or in the floor complete with socks, undershirts, and shoes. This will make it so very simple for them and will alert you if laundry needs to be done. Sometimes I even have them sleep in the undershirt and socks they’ll be wearing to save even more time. Hey, with 6 kiddos, every little idea helps!
I knew a mom that always bathed her children on Sunday mornings before church. While that might work for some, it would not be happening here. So, I suggest the children take their baths the night before. Saves time and keeps the squabbles for the bathroom at a minimum.
Breakfast on mornings like this should be kept super simple. Muffins made the day before (or earlier in the week perhaps and frozen) are a popular choice. Then there’s always breakfast bars or PB sandwiches. I am not fond of cereal for my brood on busy mornings. They tend to dawdle for some reason when eating cereal. So while they’ve had cereal plenty of times on hectic mornings, I much prefer them to grab something they can unload the dishwasher or watch the baby and eat.
If you’re like me and dislike having the house in disarray, involve everyone the day before to clean house to whatever degree will make your departure AND coming home as peaceful as possible. Then just before bed do a general pick-up.
If you have a dishwasher (or even if you don’t) just take a few minutes to put away the clean dishes before bedtime. That will make clean up a breeze and you’ll feel better coming home to a tidy kitchen.
Have each child pick the toy or book they want to take the night before and either have it waiting by the door in a bag or backpack or already in the vehicle.
There’s nothing more irritating to my husband than getting in the van and finding he has no place to set his coffee because it’s already full with glasses of curdled milk or old tea. It’s a good idea to have the van cleaned out the day before if you’re like my husband. {smile}
I also have an unwritten rule that if we are needing to leave for an extended amount of time (for instance church on Sunday): once you are dressed and have eaten, you are to sit on the couch and read until time to go. This prevents individual messes being created all through the house. Obviously they can’t all sit there and read for 4 hours, but rarely is there that much time to waste in the mornings. Usually anywhere from 20 – 40 minutes.
If you have a little one you need to pack a diaper bag for try and pack it with all the essentials the night before and have it in the car already. Nothing like having a blowout only to realize the baby wipe holder is empty!
Have a chat with everyone the night before and explain what you expect of them in the morning. They cooperate so much better when they know what is going on. Include them in preparations and make an enjoyable time of it.
One last thing, we moms are often so busy taking care of everyone else, we need to remember to pamper ourselves. No, I’m not suggesting we go to the salon for hours necessarily, but just taking the time to shave our legs and paint our toenails. To save time the morning of, see if an older child or your husband will hold down the fort while you take a few minutes to pamper yourself. I know we moms deserve more time than that, but just trying to keep it real. For a lot of us having smooth legs is a real mood lifter. And we all know that if Momma aint happy, aint nobody happy.

Hopefully these tips are as helpful to you as they are to me. And I certainly could use more. Do you have something that saves you time in getting the little ones out the door halfway presentable?