Advice for morning routine, please??

[lissy]

I am after a bit of advice cos i am getting really stressed out in the morning and starting to feel unfair towards my own children.

I start work at 7.15 in the morning. I try and get my two dds up at 7 so they can get dressed and be downstairs having breakfast when my first mindee arrives. Trouble is they dont want to get up at this time and would quite happily stay in bed for another 1/2 hour so they dawdle and then it all ends up being a rush and i feel i am either leaving the mindee on their own to sort the girls out or not looking after my girls properly cos i am with the mindee.

It all then gets worse as at 8am i have anothr 2 mindees dropped off, a 9 mth old baby who is into everything and a 5 year old who can t be left on his own with the other children as he is a bit rough!

So if my girls have ate slowly or mucked around they end up getting shouted at cos mummy has got all these other kids to look after rather than them. Teeth cleaning is another nightmare cos once it goes past 7.55 i cant go upstairs and leave the other children.

Please please please can someone suggest something as i feel like its all too much at the moment and could just pack it all in!:(

[Tired]

how old are your girls and the 7.15 mindee?

[lissy]

my girls are 5 and 7 and the mindee at 7.15 is 5 also.

[tammerisk]

first how old are your own children?

from what you say i does look like they need to be done by the tiem the others arrive at 8 so if eat break fast is the thing that is making it all slow how about getting dressed first then ocming and doing the breakfast
could they brush there teeth down stairs then you wouldn't have to go back up

how do they feel about gettign dressed down stairs with all the others about this might convice them to hurry up a bit if they have to do that if they slow!!(it worked for my son!)

at the end of the day if they are not old enough to be left to get on with getting them self ready in the morn then they have to be ready before hte mindees get there.my own children are quite good at getting them selfs ready(they are 7 and 10)but my 2 year old is not so i just leave him to get on with it and sort him out really about ten mins beofre we go

[grindal]

I keep tooth brushes and paste in the kitchen for DS1 and 2 if things are a bit rushed in the morning. I also make sure I have everything they need for the day sorted the evening before - so bring clothes down, get their playgroup bags ready with snaks etc, make sure I have a bag with drinks, food etc ready. Mind you, my 2 are normally up by 5.30 am at the latest, so i often wonder why I bother!

[madasahatter]

I would be tempted to have a reward chart where they get a sticker for being up by X time, dressed by Y time and eating breakfast by Z time. They are both old enough to either be learning the time or for the 5 yr old perhaps learning what key times look like on the clock. This would equate to 15 stickers per week max and I would offer maybe a comic for 30 stickers, trip to cinema for 50 stickers or some other treat maybe.

What time do you have to leave the house for the school run?

In my house my mindees arrive between 7.45 and 8am. They all need breakfast. I have cereals ready on the table, and usually do toast and crumpets as well. DS (12) will often help me out by doing drinks and helping feed my 11month old mindee. We start getting ready for school at 8.30, leaving at 8.40.

[cowboy]

Don't forget if you were rushing to go out to work they'd have to be dressed by 7.30am, most people get up at around 7 so I think you are helping them get into good habits for their working life when you can't have lie ins during the week.
I also have to wake mine up sometimes and feel mean, then I spend the rest of the week trying to get them in bed early to catch up on extra sleep!

Not sure if that helps- the idea about keeping a set of toothbrushes and paste downstairs is a good one!

Paula

[emmadines]

awwww, I'm prob gonna get shot:panic: :panic: . I got to admit mine get up no later than 7.30 but my mindees normally start to arrive on average 7.30 but are booked on for 7am. I have a 7 and a 3 year old of my own and they come down for breakfast in their pjs, eat, go upstairs to get dressed. (they can be messy eaters)
one of my 3 mindees have breakfast and brushes her teeth here too, after breakfast I ensure the other children are safe and occupied (they are 7 and 5) they normally free play with the train set or the Lego. I then go and grab my twos clothes and egg them to get dressed, the 3rd mindee comes up and I watch them do their teeth to ensure they do it properly as 3rd mindee normally just introduces her toothbrush the puts it back. in the mean time i do pop my head downstairs checking on the others.

by this time there is about 10 mins before they leave for school.
and off they go, all then mums seem happy with the morning routine and the children seem happy and very rarly get into bother ( ie, the odd squabble over a piece of lego or a bit or track or train.)