Mornings can be a very challenging time of the day – particularly if you have a family. When your alarm goes off, you are probably dreading all the tasks that you have ahead of you like preparing breakfast, getting the kids ready for school and beating the morning traffic jam – all while trying to wake yourself up as well! If you have never really been a morning person, this is some advice for you to get your household running like a well-oiled machine in the early hours. Ready? Let’s go!
Start Your Morning Routine at Night
Rather than leaving everything until the morning itself, you should try to do everything that you can the night before. Making sure that everyone gets to bed at the right time will make things so much easier when morning rolls around. And it also helps you deal with the day that you have in front of you. There are also plenty of other time-saving tactics out there like planning the clothing that your kids will wear in advance and getting their bags packed and ready to go. Check out the weather forecast ahead of time in case you need to get any extra things ready like raincoats and umbrellas.
Begin Your Day Before Everyone Else
This may be especially hard if you are not a morning person, but there are plenty of advantages to getting up before the rest of the family. First and foremost, you have some time to take care of your own health. Start by drinking a glass of water to replenish the water that your body lost during the night before. Get half an hour of exercise in and you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day. Alternatively, this is a great time of the day that you can practice some meditation so that you can calm your mind ahead of all the tasks that you have in front of you. Another practice which some people like to follow is writing in a journal as a way of clarifying thoughts and calming the mind before launching into the rest of the day.
Prepare Breakfast in Advance
This first meal of the day is crucial for the entire family, providing you and them with the nutritious fuel that they need to make it through the day. A lot of adults also use caffeine as a means to start themselves off, so check out these espresso machines refurbished to a high standard if you are interested in investing in one. If you are looking for something quick and nutritious to serve up, oatmeal with fresh fruit is a good option. Of course, if you want to have some days to serve up something as a treat, homemade pancake batter will last for a few days in the fridge, so it is easy to bring out whenever you need it. Unless your kids are very messy eaters, you could make it a rule that they get dressed beforehand so that there is no rush to eat and race upstairs.
Give Your Kids Some Basic Chores
Though you obviously don’t want to bombard your kids with chores during this particularly stressful and hectic part of the day, you can give them one or two things to do to make your life easier. For example, you could simply ask them to put their dishes in the dishwasher, make their bed or put their dirty clothes in the laundry hamper. Even though these may seem like little jobs, they help to instill a sense of responsibility in your kids which will hopefully stand them in good stead for their lives.
Make a Morning Routine Chart
A morning routine chart ensures that everyone is on the same page, and your kids know exactly what they have to do to get ready. Just some of the activities to include in this are brushing teeth, combing hair, eating breakfast, and getting dressed. By teaching them things such as taking care of their hygiene, they will have fewer health problems (be sure to have the Best Pediatric Dentist on hand just in case) and learn responsibility.
Over time, you should encourage your child to take ownership of these different tasks. While you may think that it is quicker to do things for them in the short term, you are much better off considering the long-term gains that you will get by teaching them to complete tasks by themselves.
Remain Calm and Connected
As you are probably already well aware, kids tend to mirror your actions, so if you are grumpy, frustrated, and yelling in the morning, they are more likely to be the same. Try to focus your attitude and speak calmly when you are asking them to do things. The meditation that we talked about earlier can really come in handy here! Of course, your kids must understand that there are consequences to not following the morning routine properly, and you need to lay these out clearly and calmly.
Make Weekends Special
When the frenzy of the working week has finally finished, you can afford to make your weekends that little bit more special. Of course, you don’t want the morning routine to fall too far out of whack, or Monday morning will be especially difficult. Perhaps you can prepare the favorite breakfast of your kids or all gather together to watch some cartoons. Essentially, you can make weekends a time that you all look forward to.
Hopefully, the advice provided in this blog post will help to make your morning routine a little bit less stressful. Of course, there are always going to be good and bad mornings, but the key is to establish a sense of consistency. Not only does this help your kids know what to expect every day, it is also good for your own mental wellbeing as well. Remember, a great morning routine starts the night before. So, do as much preparation as you can to make things easier for yourself and the whole family. Keep yourself calm and your kids will start to mirror your behavior.
