I absolutely admire the mums I know whose houses run so smoothly without an actual conscious need for a routine. But basically in our house we need them. I often need to write them down and sometimes we even have a family run through of said routine. It seems ridiculous but it has helped us stay sane and on time for so much more and I genuinely feel now the kids work with me and not for me when we are in our normal busy routines. It also really helps me as my husband has his parts of the day and I get a chance to get myself sorted.
1. Getting dressed- by working together I find getting dressed and ready to leave for school has reduced the stress levels of our day by so much. It is all about the preparation the night before and the organisation of where things are kept, being in a new house has meant we went backwards on this for a bit and I am trying to reclaim this. I endeavour to make the lunchboxes, snacks and even fill the drinks bottles the night before and they are kept in the fridge at child height so they can help out the best they can the next morning.
2. Home from school routine. My friend used a really clever peg system and I copied it! It really works for the younger members of our family. It reminds them what they need to do each evening, gives them something physical to “tick off” and helps everyone else feel the fairness of doing their bit, in a more age appropriate way. Any sort of help I can get from the children to do some quick wins really helps.
3. Bedtime routine- this has always been the key in our household to a successful adult time evening. The kids are all really good at going to bed. It’s the old fashioned; bath, book, milk and bed routine. Nothing fancy, no strict times and kept all very calm from when we go upstairs! As calm as our family gets anyway! This routine works for us all, even if the eldest isn’t quite tired to go to bed, we follow the routine and encourage quiet time in their rooms before we settle down. It has enabled us to have evenings together.
4. Morning routine. My husband has been doing this totally mad thing of waking up at 5 to do his paperwork, exercise or anything needed for wellbeing. I say it’s mad because I am trying so hard to do it and failing miserably. I am frankly so jealous because I hate waking up at the same time as the kids but it does take discipline to wake up before you need to. The ideal morning routine for us is that I wake up at half 6 and get myself ready, i call this my protected time until 7. I get half an hour to shower, dress and listen to whatever I want before the day starts. At 7 our day starts and my husband disappears to get ready for work and head to his job.
5. The cleaning routine- this can come about in various forms. I try not to leave all the cleaning for the weekend but it really depends on how the week has gone. Equally sometimes the kids just want to play in their rooms at the weekend so if that happens I try to blitz. Sometimes when the house has gone to new levels of messy and dirty we get everyone involved for a family team clean. We set timers for each room and work together. It is soo satisfying at the end and we usually make sure the kids get a film or a game on the iPad as a reward.
Just having these recurring routines has really helped our house run better and happier. It doesn’t mean these things happen all the time, it just means they are there especially when we are exhausted or too busy to think. What routines do you have that help your household run better? How do these evolve with children growing up?
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