You know those hectic school mornings where you’re running around looking for socks, packing lunches you know your littles won’t eat, trying your best to get them to school on time, God forbid you have to actually vacate the car to walk them in! You can’t be late, because that means you’ll need to put on proper pants and mascara, or some version that resembles a human mama. How in the world do teachers always look so put together so early in the morning? WHY on earth does Elementary school start so early anyway?
Thats another post, I’ll save that for later. For real.
But back to the busy morning, the forgotten homework, the sign up genius you forgot to sign up for, it is enough to make you crazy!
How do some moms do it “all” or seem to anyway?
When I was a young mother I hated mornings, I hated yelling at my little, trying to find matching socks, socks were the bane of my existence, and still sort of are! I actually searched the internet for ways to be a better mother. How on earth do you survive having multiple children, multiple mismatched pairs of SOCKS!??
There wasn’t anything out there to help prepare me, no easy clues on what to do, so I had to devise a plan of my own.
For me parenting is just like any other job, only it involves unruly, sometimes bratty customers, ie. kids. I approached this parenting thing like a job, any task at hand needs a solution and a formulated plan.
The key I believe is to find the things that are your #1 stressors and slay them. Here are a few tips to help set yourself up for success.
#1 Pin Point the top 5 stressors and slay them.
Figure out what makes you crazy, what stresses you out and then slay it. As a mother of three littles I know that school mornings are the hardest part for me. I want so badly for my littles to go to school happy and unstressed. So, my goal was to make it as such, which took some time to figure out and our process is not perfect but most mornings I send them off with smiles!
Identify what makes you stress, what are some task that stress you out to no end? Identify them, and devise a plan to fix it, or at the least improve it, even if by small measurements.
#2 Plan ahead and prepare in advance.
If socks are one of the hardest parts of your day, devise a plan to fix it. Wash the clothes the weekend prior to school, pair the socks up, and for Heaven’s sake, throw away those mis-matched socks you’ve been holding onto forever! They just bog down the process.
For me it was washing all the clothes on the weekend, having clean clothes and paired socks before the busy week that really helps with our sanity! And it makes me feel like a better mother for my kids to have clean options to go through. This may seem like a duh thing to some, but for me as a young mother, it was a total learning curve. The more children we had the more the laundry grew.
- Picky dressers? Have them pick out their outfits the night before, make sure they take part in choosing what to wear. Do they have an ugly shirt you hate but they want to wear all the time? Get rid of it! Poof, it’s not an option anymore!
- You do not need to keep everything they own, and that goes for toys and shoes too. Less is more and it’s easier to keep clean, sort through and so on.
Lunches. Now I’ve never been super fabulous in this category but I still like to throw a lunchable, water bottle, and chips together X 3 kids and that can be overwhelming in the morning when you’re also trying to make breakfast. So DO IT THE NIGHT BEFORE. Poof, it’s already done when you wake up! More time to focus on teeth brushing and hair.
Forgot to do the homework or sign the report card? DO IT THE NIGHT BEFORE.
I have found that if I take the extra hour to do everything from socks, to outfits, to hair bows, to signing binders and making lunch, the night before, then our mornings are much nicer.
There are many keys to succeeding as a parent but the number one and easiest to control is to be PREPARED. If you’re going out of town, if your kids have a game or field trip, if you know they have dance on Wednesdays that will last all evening, whatever it is, set yourself up for success! Do as much as you can the night before, trust me it makes all the difference.
#3 WAKE UP EARLY
This is a hard one for me. I work from home when my littles are sleeping, so that means I stay up into the wee hours of the night. I know that I can not be at my best for my family when I’m running on empty. So I’ve been working on going to bed earlier and then waking up at least 30 minutes before my littles do. This allows me time to brush my teeth make some coffee, visit my instagram, whatever it is you need to do in the morning to allow you to wake up and get a clear mind, do it! Give yourself that little bit of silence.
#4 ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE
You know that mom that seems to have it all together, I bet you 100 bucks she’s organized. Yikes, I know, this is a tough one. But it’s totally worth the work. For me, I have to stay on top of this one constantly. I’m a creator, and by nature, I’m quite messy. But a messy house, messy paper work, unkept drawers of SOCKS, makes life harder. Clean out their closet, clean out your closet, declutter that play room. Organize your Tupperware! It’s much easier to keep your life together when it’s organized and simplified. Get rid of the things you don’t need, I promise you’ll find that less is more!
#5 GIVE YOURSELF SOME GRACE
Look, I know everyone says this, but damn woman, DO IT! We aren’t perfect, and neither are our kids, identify what makes you a boss at being a mama and then focus on that. You don’t have to be the Pintrest party designer if thats not your jam! Comparing yourself to other moms is hard work. You can’t be a better version of someone else, you can only work on being a better version of yourself. When you mess up and lose your temper, apologize to your little one, talk it out and move on. Don’t dwell on it, chances are they’ll forget about it the moment you hug them. Don’t forget that your kids are people too, they do have feelings and an apology goes a long way, for both of you.
In summary, devise a plan to knock out what stresses you out. Taking care of your stressors will leave more time for happy moments with your littles. Now, go hug a baby! That always puts my mama heart in a happy mode! 🙂
Hugs!
Nancy
