4 tips for a routine day

When you have a routine to follow, you will find that your day flows much more easily.

Mornings are often rushed and stressful, so have a simple routine that everyone knows and can follow. This will make getting everyone up, dressed, fed and out the house on time that much more doable.

Did you have a routine for your new-born or toddler? If you did what happened to it?

Often as our children grow older the routines that got us through those early years fall away. What about a routine for the adults in the house? http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/routine-mornings/

It is time to take control! Spending your morning rushing around looking for missing uniform pieces, lost shoes, vanished textbooks, your car keys, can get the entire household off to a bad start.

One of the first things I learned with my second child was that she didn’t like surprises! So telling her five minutes before, that it was time to leave for school, just threw her into a panic and the rest of the day was a nightmare.

Whether you have your routine up on a wall in picture form or a pegboard, or somewhere else visible to everyone, let’s family members know what is expected of them at any given time. In a large family, mostly made up of members with inattention ADHD issues, even the grown-ups get distracted easily. It is therefore very important to have routines for everyone.

Tip 1

The grown-up routine – some of us are just not morning people. Set your alarm slightly earlier than needed, giving you those few extra minutes of peace and quiet to have your cup of tea or coffee before the craziness sets in.   Because teenagers can be difficult to wake, set the alarm 15 minutes earlier than they need to be up and then wake them up and ‘reluctantly’ allow another 5 minutes.   You can wake them 3 times.

Grown-up schedule

• Have your tea/coffee
• Get at least partially ready if not totally ready to leave the house on time
• If you make breakfast then begin now, or if it is a ‘help yourself’ cereal/yoghurt type breakfast, then have yours first.
• Do your first wake up of the family round
• Brush your teeth
• Do the second wake up round
• Finish getting breakfast ready and start on school lunches if you didn’t do it the night before
• Do your final wake up round.
• Finish getting yourself ready for the day

The morning routine should include:

• Brushing hair
• Getting dressed
• Checking the school bag that all necessary supplies are within
• Putting the lunchbox in the school bag
• Having breakfast
• Brushing teeth
• Final check before going out the door

Tip 2

If you regularly have lunchboxes that are either left at home, or in the car, there are two solutions. If they are only at school from 8 to 1:30 and they are in high school, then too bad. They will not starve but they will remember to take the lunchbox next time.

The second option is to pack the lunchbox the night before and put it in the bag yourself. It may be a little stale, but at least they have something to eat.

For work lunches follow the same rules. I do keep some instant noodles in my drawer at work and my husband also has some at work.

After school routines

If your children are home from school and not at an aftercare facility you need to have a routine in place

This would include

• Down time – just time for them to unwind after school and for you to check in with them
• Lunch
• Homework
• TV or other electronics

No matter what age your children are, they do need to transition from the structure of school to home.
Home-schooling parents will have a different routine to suit their study needs.

If you are a work from home or stay at home mom, think of a routine for your day too. You need time to get things done.

What hours are you going to work? How do you structure those hours?

Evening routines are just as important as morning routines. Without a routine, bath time, supper time, and bedtime can be the worst time of the day. Children and parents alike are tired after a long day of playing, learning, parenting or working.

As with a morning routine, having the evening routine somewhere visible will allow even young family members to know what they need to be doing.

Evening routines are just as important for parents as they are for the children. http://kasheringyourlife.co.za/good-mornings-and-good-nights/

Tip 3

This tip works well with teenagers as well as toddlers, even though they can’t tell time.

The 15-minute notification – 15 minutes before they have to pack up their toys, set the table, do their homework or turn off the TV, let them know that the time is coming up to end what they are doing and the next item on the evening list is coming due. For example, you can let a toddler know that they have fifteen minutes left of playtime before dinner time and then every 5 minutes remind them that playtime is coming to an end. We avoided many temper tantrums this way. 

With older children, you should only need to go back and remind them once that their time is coming to an end.

Evening routines include

• Bath/shower time – some of our household shower in the morning because there are too many of us all to have a shower at night
• Setting the table – we have this on rotation
• Dinner
• Brushing teeth
• Loading and starting the dishwasher or washing the dishes – everyone puts their dishes in the dishwasher and there is a roster of who gets to put any dinner/cookware into the machine. My husband or I turn on the dishwasher before going to bed since we usually have a cup of tea after everyone else is asleep.
• checking their school bags
• getting the clothes ready for the next day
• bedtime 
• lights out

Tip 4

The app, ScreenTime, was and is a great help. You put it on their devices and then set time limits. When the time is up, the phone locks and the child has to come to you to unlock it. I have it on my phone too, otherwise, I would not get work done or I would binge watch Netflix till 2 am and then have to be up 3 hours later.  With an evening routine in place, you may even get some time to yourself. https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a24886599/self-care-routine-tips/

Do you have routines in place to make your life easier?