Real Parents' Top Tips For Surviving The Morning Routine
Do those school/daycare/need to leave the house on time mornings leave you feeling like you’ve been dragged through a spiky hedge backwards by 9am? If they do, don’t worry, you’re not alone and we’ve experienced our fair share of them too. That’s why we reached out to six sensational parents (just like you) for their top tips to survive the morning routine.
- Prepare all of the lunchboxes/snacks/drink bottles the night before, and pack them into their insulated lunch bags. That way you’re ready to pack lunch straight into their backpacks and away you go. When the warmer weather arrives, don’t forget to pop your ice pack in.
- Set aside a day a month to prepare a range of snacks that can be stored in the freezer until you need them. Think mini quiches, mini pizzas, scrolls, sweet or savoury muffins, cakes and slices or bliss balls – they all store really well and make it so much easier when you have no clue what to pack. When planning a month in advance, you can also buy all of the ingredients in bulk which helps with the shopping budget too.
- If you’re worried about those apple or pear slices going brown, I’ve got the perfect lunchbox hack for you. Simply cut up your fruit with our crinkle cutter knife, place in a bowl with 2 cups of water and 2 tsp of salt. Leave the fruit to soak for 10 minutes, rinse and pat dry. You’re then good to go and we promise those fruit slices won’t come home. Yes, I know salt sounds weird but I promise it doesn’t change the flavour.
- Do homework the night before and pack everything back into their school bag straight away. That way you can avoid the last-minute chaos looking for the notoriously missing library bag or pencil cade. We like to put all of the school bags, shoes and socks near the garage door in a dedicated bag/shoe zone with hooks for all of the kids’ names.
- For the younger kids who largely wear their sports uniform or are heading to daycare, we let them wear their clothes to bed the night before. This works particularly well in cooler weather. Alternatively, lay uniforms out before bed so no one is looking for that missing sock or pair of undies the next morning.
- We adopt a “this then that” approach – have breakfast, get dressed, brush teeth then watch TV. The TV goes off 15 minutes before we have to leave and I set a timer so that the kids know in advance how long they have left.
How do you manage the morning routine? If you’ve got a hot tip, let us know so we can add it to the list.