It works for me!

Being a Mommy is hard work. I have a great group of Mommy friends and we all share our stories, advice, tips and misses. A good friend of mine recently shared her morning routine horror stories and it made me cringe. The poor Mommy has to be up for work early and drop her daughter off for care before school. Daughter however hates mornings. She refuses to get out of bed delaying by 5 minutes at a time which leads to stressful mornings and leaving in a rush. I am not a morning person, but I refuse to be late and start my day off in a huff.

Here is our morning schedule:

Up at 7-Mommy showers and gets ready first.
7:20-Izzy showers and gets dressed.
7:35-Breakfast.
8:05-Wash hands, brush teeth, shoes and then play time until 8:25 (School is a few blocks away)
8:25-Load up the car
8:30-Lined up in school and happy to start his day!

Now, my friend did not believe that I could have a morning without nagging, complaining, yelling and rushing. Then I told her my secret. Kitchen Timer. I use the kitchen timer for everything. When I serve Izzy breakfast, I put the timer on for 30 minutes. He knows when it beeps, he has to clear the dishes, potty, wash hands, brush teeth, and put shoes on. After the first beep, I put it on again for our second warning of when to leave. When he hears that beep, he grabs his stuff and we head for the door. No rushing, no stress!

Could we sleep in a little bit? Probably. But, if we did, we would be rushing around and I would much rather lose 15 minutes of sleep than start everyday in a mad rush to catch up.

The kitchen timer, comes in very handy. I use it for time outs, to keep us on schedule and for timed play. For instance, if Izzy wants to play online at pbskids.org, I put the timer on. He knows when it beeps, he needs to find something different to play with. No arguments! Or if he has 20 minutes to play before bed, set the timer. It really eliminates so much stress and lessens arguments.

Izzy doesn't have a complete concept of time, but there is something about the timer that lets him know you have a specific amount of time to do this one task, when you hear the beep, move on to the next thing. I have to say, my biggest pet peeve is repeating myself. This one concept has almost eliminated my need to repeat our daily steps.

Before school started, I feared the mornings and it was all for not. Mornings have been a breeze and I have to thank my kitchen timer, it's simple beeps have brought us peace each day.