When people find out I have five children, one of the things they often say (once they have picked their jaws up from the floor) is 'you must be so organised!' Whilst I'm the first to admit this isn't always the case, we do often need a routine to help us get through regular days. We generally have two routines we follow. I like to affectionately call them the Good Routine, and the Bad Routine...
The Good Routine:
Hubby's alarm goes off just after 6am.
6:15-630 hubby in shower, me snoozing, often with a child who has already woken up.
630-645: somewhere between this time I crawl out of bed (I am NOT a morning person) and jump in the shower. I like to shower before hubby leaves for work, otherwise WW3 tends to break out whilst I am unable to play mediator. Hubby heads downstairs, starts breakfast for the kids that are awake and usually empties dishwasher.
645-7 get dressed, head downstairs, wake anyone who isn't already awake, other than the Toddler. She gets to sleep as long as possible. Teenager goes in the shower (everyone else showers at night) Take school uniform down (keep it in my room so I know where to find it in the mornings)
7-715: hubby leaves for work
7-730: Help with breakfast, tidy away breakfast, encourage kids to get dressed. Finish lunches (try to prepare as much as I can the night before)
730-750: Head back upstairs, wake and dress toddler. Clean my teeth. Ask kids to clean teeth....do a quick room tidy.....get dressed....put dirty clothes in the washing basket.
750-805: Back downstairs, quick breakfast for toddler (we usually eat again after the school run) and chance for second breakfast for early risers. Put on load of washing if I get chance.
805-815: Final calls for teeth cleaning, gather book bags and lunches, put on shoes and coats, head out the door.
820-830: Drive to school.
835: Arrive at school.
840- School bell rings.
The Bad Routine:
6am hubby's alarm goes off.
615:630 hubby in the shower.
615-7am- me asleep, not snoozing, completely asleep.
7am: hubby comes up to kiss me goodbye, having unloaded the dishwasher and breakfasted any awake children.
Somewhere between 715 and 730: slightly panicked I jump out of bed and into the shower, ignoring any noise that does not sound life threatening.
730-740- get myself dressed, run downstairs (yes, I can shower in two minutes if the need arises)
740-8: frantically throw together 4 lunches. (On a Bad Routine day, I have of course not only overslept, but ALWAYS forgotten to make the lunches the night before) make toast for the toddler and 5 yr old, call (not quite yell, but fairly close) out reminders to clean teeth and hurry up to everyone else.
8am- back upstairs to help 5 yr old dress and toddler dress (on a BR day he can never dress himself, and toddler wears the first outfit I grab from her drawer)
820: meet in the kitchen, dish out lunch boxes, ask for shoes to be on,
825: jump into car.
838: arrive at school
840: school bell rings.
845: breath sigh of relief in car, return home with toddler for breakfast and to tidy up the war zone.
Both Routines have the same end result, everyone still makes it to school on time (I have issues with being on time- the kids always have to be on time, but I don't always manage to be myself, I'll cover why in a later post) but the differences are obvious!
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