Revamp Your Mornings

Devorah* had the craziest mornings, every morning.

From the moment she opened her eyes until the kids were out the door, she was racing from one thing to the next in a flurry of non-stop motion. It started with waking everyone up, changing diapers, helping the little ones get dressed, finding matching socks, and searching for the missing shoe. Next, she made different breakfasts for each child and negotiated what they wanted in their sandwiches that day.

Inevitably, there was at least one child in tears about something and another throwing a tantrum. Between resolving sibling arguments and cleaning up messes, Devorah would rattle off demands: “Brush your teeth!” “Put on your shoes already!” “Find your coat!”

She was always late out the door, and just as they finally got going, one of the kids would suddenly remember that he needed to bring something for school that day, or had left his homework on the table. There was no calm, loving send-off. Instead, Devorah would be shouting, “Go! Run! You’re late!”

By the time Devorah dropped the kids off at school, she was exhausted and just wanted to crawl into bed. She’d replay the negative exchanges that took place that morning and wish she could go back and press redo. She realized that instead of blaming her children for their crazy, stressful mornings, she needed to take the lead and make changes herself.