Are you the kind of mom that just plays things by ear all the time and is kind of routine averse? There are a lot of moms out there like that who are kind of afraid of establishing a routine or who have never learned how to have a routine in their life.
The more kids you have in your life, the more important routines are, and even with one kid, a routine can make big difference. We’re going to look at what routines do for you and give you a few ways that you can go about establishing your own routines.
The Benefits
First, let’s look at what routines do to help you. It may not be obvious but having a set way of doing things gives your kids a sense of security and normalcy. If they never know what is going to happen or what you are going to do, then they have a tough time feeling safe and secure. They need stability in their world. In the same way that a divorce can hurt a child’s sense of security and stability, not having established routines can make a child feel insecure and unsafe as well.
When your child knows what to expect, then going through those routines feels comforting to them, and even when they are feeling bad or things are not going their way, then they know what is expected of them and how to react to the events of the day.
Routines also help you to get more done and plan your day more easily. You know what you must do and how long it takes to do it. You can schedule things like nap times, meal times and breaks when you have an idea of where everything fits into the day. The morning routine is the most important routine to have because it gets everyone started out on the right foot.
It also reduces stress for you, because you know what to expect to some degree, and you aren’t trying to figure out how you will fit everything into the day. Yes, you can still have those days where you are feeling overwhelmed with all you have to do, but you will have a better sense of how to handle it all if you can just fit the changes that need to be made into an already established routine. There is comfort in routines for your child and for you, and it helps you both to feel less stressed and more at ease about how things are going to go.
How to Set Up Routines
Once you are in the routine and everyone knows what is expected of them, then it is easy to keep the routine going, but how do you go about setting up the order of things in the first place? You are going to have to work hard at it and figure out what you want the routines to be.
You may want to figure out where changing clothes, eating breakfast, brushing teeth and packing lunches fits into your routine. Determine what the best order is to do everything, and then start getting everyone involved in the routine. You’ll need all hands on deck to make things work.
You need to talk to your children and tell them how things are going to go. You can even write it down, with a timetable for what is supposed to happen at every interval. You can specify, for example, that everyone should be awake by 7:00 a.m., and that they should all be at the table in their clothes to eat breakfast by 7:15 a.m. It may be tough to stick to the routine at first and get everyone moving at the same time, but soon, you will have them doing things for themselves. You’ll get more things done and have a better sense of order in the house, and everyone will know what is expected of them.
You may also want to schedule breaks in the chores from time to time. Routines are great to have, but they should not be treated like the rule of law. It’s okay to splurge and let yourselves have a chance to relax. If cleaning is part of the regular schedule, then you may want to hire a cleaning service to step in and do the work every few weeks or so. Ryan who currently is the head of Diamond Cleaning Calgary says “That can ease things for your family and make it easier for them to participate when they know that there will be another break coming later”.
If preparing breakfast is part of the routine, you can buy frozen meals or something microwaveable to make breakfast easier every so often. Think of ways to reward your family for participating in the routine rather than punishing them for deviating from it. That can help everyone to work together and feel like their efforts are being appreciated.
The morning routine is so important because it helps to get things started. Once you have that routine figured out, then you will be able to establish more routines for throughout the day. You’ll probably be amazed at how much more you get done each day and how much discipline your children begin to develop. If you want them to do things orderly and neatly and to take responsibility for themselves, then setting up routines like this is a great place to start. You always want to begin with simple things like getting dressed and brushing teeth that they already know how to do. Once they can do all those things and make the routine work, then you can start teaching them new things to add to the routine or you can add in more complicated things.
Moms who have morning routines know how helpful it can be, and you’ll start to see it for yourself after a little while. The amount of work you get done and how happy and emotionally stable everyone becomes because of the routine will make all the initial hard work well worth it.
What does your morning routine look like?
Definitely need to be better with our routine. Need to get stricter on timing, and actually sticking to the routine itself. It's so hard sometimes, though.
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