Survival tips to ease your school morning chaos

The kids are finally back in school and back into their routines. They are probably going to bed a little earlier, waking up a little earlier and beginning to whine and complain about having some homework to do right?

I think it usually takes a few weeks before we really get into the flow and things begin to run smooth, but the first few weeks can be crazy for us parents. In preparing for this week’s article, I wanted to give you parents a few survival tips that you could implement to make your house less chaotic on those school mornings, which in turn will leave you and the kids less frazzled. While some of you might prefer a glass of wine at 8 o’clock in the morning after you get the kids safely out the door, I think these simple steps might have you reaching for a breakfast smoothie and conquering the morning circus performance.

Survival Tip No. 1 — Make sure your kids get their backpack ready and their clothes laid out that they are going to wear the night before. School mornings are busy enough without having to look for Suzzie’s P.E. shoes or her favorite pair of socks that she was going to wear five minutes before the bus arrives.

Survival Tip No. 2 — Prepare lunches in advance. If your kids take a cold lunch to school, get it ready in advance. It will be much easier to grab it out of the fridge in the morning than to make sandwiches while you are trying to also get their breakfast ready. That’s a whole lot of morning crazy that could be avoided.

Survival Tip No. 3. Make sure your kids get to bed on time. There is nothing worse (on both the parent and the child) than having a difficult time waking them up in the morning because they are too tired. You will go bonkers yelling down the hallway “time to get up” six different times before you go stopping into their bedroom to drag them out of bed. I know you laugh, but trust me on this … it is much easier on you and your son and/or daughter when they go to bed early enough to get adequate rest.

These above tips are just a few things that you could implement now to make things run a little smoother. Getting organized doesn’t have to be overwhelming — just do a few things at a time and you will see a big difference.

Natalie Dreger is a certified fitness professional and can be reached at nataliedreger.com.