Back-to-school time is fast approaching, which means the struggle to get out the door (on time) is, once again, also upon us. As any veteran parent knows, successfully leaving the house in the morning really starts the night before. Packing up lunches, stuffing homework into backpacks, and having shoes ready and waiting by the door are a few of the basics that most parents have learned to do to save time and frustration in the morning. But if you want to up your get-out-the-door game, here are a few of my other favorite tricks for you to try the night before and morning of.
Set your breakfast table the night before
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Writer Lorraine Allen recommends pouring out (and covering) the kids’ cereal, prepping the coffee machine and filling the water pitcher the night before.
For families with babies, whose hands are often full holding hungry, squirming offspring in addition to being super pressed for time, simply setting up the highchair with the baby bowl, spoon, bib, sippy cup, and jar of mush can make a huge difference. When I take the time to do this, I’m able to feed my little one while enjoying a cup of coffee and my own breakfast, too.
Create a kids’ lunch-making station in your fridge
Making lunches the night before is good. Having the kids make their own lunches the night before is great. As Michelle Woo writes:
Let children pack their meals themselves by setting up a lunch-making station in your refrigerator. Just buy a few plastic bins … and stock them with grab-and-go lunch components, like string cheese, yogurt pouches, or little baggies of fruit and veggies. Then place them on a refrigerator shelf that your kids can reach. You can create a similar setup in a low cabinet for non-refrigerated items—bread, packs of nut butter, applesauce cups and granola bars. For the youngest kids, it might help to number the bins and tell them they must pack all six (or whatever number) items. Yes, you’re still doing some of the initial legwork, but they’re gaining autonomy by making sure their lunches are complete.
Best Bento-style lunchboxes for kids
Get your kid dressed for school after breakfast
My son is unique in that he likes to get dressed the moment he wakes up. This seems great, I know, but once in a while, it’d be nice if dude could just lounge in his PJs for a sec. Plus, it would eliminate those frustrating moments when the spilled orange juice or syrup on the sleeve means a second outfit change before your day has even started. As we’ve previously written:
One thing you can do to get everyone out the door faster is have your kids get dressed after breakfast. You’re anticipating disaster (which is more of the norm than the exception when you’re dealing with tiny humans who haven’t mastered their fine motor skills). Pajamas can be tossed into the hamper if some jelly and syrup gets on them. It will not mess up the process.
Post a visual reminder
This one worked wonders for my son in the preschool and early elementary years: Post a visual reminder (with pictures) of your morning routing, from eating breakfast and brushing teeth to getting dressed and packing up the backpack. But the real trick, as writer Sarah Showfety points out, is to get their buy-in first.
I resisted my first inclination to quickly whip up a morning timeline myself and instead worked with him to devise a schedule. After asking him to list the morning “get ready” steps, I asked him to decide in what order he wanted to complete them. Once they were ranked first to last, I assigned each of them five-minute increments. We now have a customized morning schedule—that he designed—with assigned times for doing each task, posted on the refrigerator for easy reference.
If all else fails, just leave
You know you want to try this.
Recently, I came across some advice from Katherine Reynolds Lewis, author of the new parenting book The Good News About Bad Behavior: Why Kids Are Less Disciplined Than Ever—And What to Do About It. She says that if your young child is resisting the morning schedule (or stalling in other ways), walk out the door. Don’t yell, don’t nag, don’t threaten. Simply walk out the door, stand outside and wait. Stand there for five or 10 minutes or however long it takes your kid to get moving. And if they’re older and you’ve established your expectations, you can leave.
I actually did this one myself on one desperate morning. My son was taking four and a half hours to get his shoes on, and I decided that I was tired of spending so many hours a day watching him put his shoes on. So I opened the front door, turned the lock on the knob and headed down the front walkway to my car, yelling, “Pull the door shut behind you when you’re done!” behind me.
He came out just a moment later and I was feeling rather smug about the whole thing. That is, until he realized he forgot a book and I had to go back to unlock the door, but these things are to be expected.