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Bribes

Having clothes picked out the night before also helps

I think we need more information to help you out.

How old are you kids and where are you going?
What are you having for breakfast? Who is running breakfast?
What feels like its taking too long? You feel like you are running around, unorganized?

It sounds like either your expectations are too high (we can all get up/dressed/eat/leave in 15 min!) or your not as organized as you think you are (lunches are packed, but backpacks are not)

@erinbaderin: Hahahah. Having my 3.5 dress himself does NOT make things faster. Far from. I dress him while he's sitting on the toilet in the morning. My Sweetie always waits and tries to get him dressed later and it is a big battle. I just get it over with while he's captive and still sleepy.

My daughter is around the same age. We have toys designated on the changing table for distracting her while she gets dressed. Usually they are non age appropriate and are coveted items like her brother's stuff. I eat while I feed her / pump the other side. I get dressed while she roams the room.

The biggest tip I have is to start as you want to end. My son gets himself dressed, entertains himself reading in his room, and makes his own breakfast in the morning. Since the beginning we have always taught our kids that mornings are busy (two working parents) and that we have exactly 50 minutes from wake-up to out the door (this includes pumping and nursing). We do not have time to deal with antics and I don't allow screen time in the mornings. As a result, he is incredibly independent in the morning. We are currently trying to teach our daughter the same thing. She was crying at my legs this morning while I brushed my hair and I just said, "LO2, you need to find something to entertain yourself, Mama is busy. Will you bring LO1 a book to read to you?" She then crawled off to go get books off her bookshelf.

Another idea would be to consider getting a high chair that rolls so you can put it in your room and feed cheerios on the tray while you get dressed. Breakfast + entertainment!

ETA: When she was going through the distracted eater thing we had to nurse in pretty much a deprivation chamber. Lights off, no phone usage, etc. Then I could go back to eating over her head.

@periwinklebee: It really has paid off because I get home before my DH and I can just tell LO1 I need to make dinner and he will go do his own thing. He definitely gets into mischief sometimes, but he knows his boundaries usually. I do the same thing with LO2 - she is in the kitchen with me but I just set her up (usually just opening the kitchen pantry and let her go to town) and if she cries at my legs I ignore her. It's so hard when you are in survival but I really try to remember that at this age the CIO principal is sort of applicable everywhere ... so much of behavior is conditioned / learned. The self sufficiency has also really bled over into all aspects of my LO1's life - it's one of the main praises he gets at school!

ETA: Just so you know it's not all sunshine and roses over here - most of his "independent play" involves trashing his room or the playroom ("I was searching for xyz book!"). I guess pick your battles.

@periwinklebee: following, I have to get out the door early on Thursday with both kids! I am a pm shift person, I never have to be somewhere earlier. It’s a struggle to get to preschool by 830 when it “starts” but on Thursday i need to bring him at 710 or so, which is 5 min away, then drive across town (small town but still a good 15 min) to take baby to her nanny share by 730 and then to work by 8! Pretty nervous about pulling this off!

I have a 2.5 yr old and a 9 month old and frequently get them ready in the morning alone due to DH's work travel. I ditto pp on getting toddler dressed while sitting on the toilet! I grab her clothes before getting her out of her crib, carry straight to the toilet, get her dressed while she's peeing and talking non-stop. She hardly even seems to notice. Then she gets a sippy of chocolate milk and a youtube cartoon music video on my phone (don't judge, haha) as a bribe to sit nice while I get her socks and shoes on and hair done. Then we go in to get little sister. I still nurse her, but have started doing bottles in the morning because she's way too distracted by big sister now to nurse in the mornings if DH isn't there to occupy big sister. I pump before waking either of them. So I go in with the bottle ready, grab her clothes, lay her on changing table with bottle - she usually sucks down at least half of it while I'm changing her and getting her dressed. Then sit on the chair with her til she's done with it, grab our stuff, and get out the door! (Breakfast is at daycare). I can usually do this in 20-25 minutes alone.

That age is just hard. They take soooo long to eat and are so messy when they eat! I'd recommend waiting till the last minute to dress them or getting an IKEA bib like this one: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/80307223/

Now that my kids are less messy, we get dressed and they eat dry cereal in the car on the way to daycare. My 3.5 year old throws fits about his clothes in the morning and uses it as a stalling tactic, so thanks to another hellobee tip, we dress him the night before (no pajamas for that kid) and just stick socks and shoes on him in the morning.

I forget who it was on here (maybe GingerBebe) but they kept the socks and shoes in little bins in the car. Buckle them, put the socks and shoes on while they're captive

It's hard for me to remember back to that age, but I know I was doing most everything and DH was hands off. My kids were also in their own room so I didn't have the issue of them waking up when I did. Though sometimes just naturally woke earlier. I would get myself as ready as I could (minus clothes, I had spitters, so the last thing I did was dress myself, I wore my bathrobe all morning). I also either would eat a breakfast sandwich in the car or oatmeal at work, so my breakfast wasn't slowing me down. At one point we did have a safe play area in our room (pack n play) where I could set a child to play where they were contained safely.

Now at almost 4 and 7 and a more hands on DH, we are up and out the door in 60 minutes consistently. I shower at night, makes my hair quicker in the morning as I'm not having to dry my hair. Here's our morning:

6:30 - everyone gets up - DH in the shower within about 10 minutes, girls start to rise, get to the restroom and get dressed all while I work on my hair and makeup. I do the girls hair as they are ready.

7:00 - DH and the girls head downstairs to get breakfast, I typically am finishing my hair, getting makeup and brushing teeth. I then grab my clothes and jewelry and also head downstairs.

7:15 - I'm grabbing my lunch and making DD1 lunch if needed. Making sure both DD backpacks are ready and at the door.

7:20 - DH is wrapping up breakfast for them, he's packing his lunch and I'm hustling kids to the bathroom to brush teeth.

7:30 - Me and the girls are grabbing our shoes and bags and kissing DH good bye. He is usually right behind us out the door. I buckle up DD2 and DD1 handles herself. We are backing out our drive no later than 7:35.

DH used to sleep a little later and not help with breakfast, when he made this change over the summer to shift his morning so slightly and manage breakfast it made my life remarkably easier.

I should also add, that my girls are also picking out clothes the night before now so we don't have that to deal with in the morning. Again, another game changer with two dramatic girls.

I won't claim that our mornings are "easy" but they are "easier" than they used to be. I still do lots of reminding and pushing kids to move a bit faster.

We also do no electronics in the morning. And for our DD1, no books until she's done everything. I hate saying no to books, but she will quickly fall off schedule if she starts reading.

Is daycare willing to feed breakfast and will your son tolerate it? If so it's a great time saver. I wake up at 5:30 and am showered and dressed by a little after 6, it takes 15min to pack E's food and bottles and my lunch, then I feed her a bottle change her diaper and get her dressed and we are out of the door by 6:30-6:40. Daycare gives her breakfast around 8 which saves our morning some.

@periwinklebee: just remembered another tip - during this season LO2 doesn’t sleep in anything but a diaper. Makes getting her dressed so much easier in the AM!

@periwinklebee: I didn't read the replies so sorry if someone else already mentioned it....but.....

When I room shared I bought a fitbit to use as an alarm. It vibrates on my wrist....super cool and didn't wake my littles. I literally put it on before bed each night....hah strangest fit it used ever!

@periwinklebee: Well, seeing as how DS enjoys waking for the day at 5 A.M. ... we have over two hours before we leave the house 🙄 If we had to leave quickly for some reason I’d probably skip breakfast and give him a snack in the car. Dress him myself instead of letting him do it (endless). Skip my own makeup. But I guess these aren’t things you’d want to emply daily!

We wake up around 7am (sometimes 7:30) and I either leave at 8 or 8:30. Kids are out the door at 8:30.

7-7:30 - Girls wake up, goes downstairs, DH gets them milk/breakfast and sits with them when I get ready
7:30-8 - I change the girls, DH makes their lunches
8-8:30 - When I am busy or I can, I leave for work by 8. Sometimes if they wake up later, then I stay later to help them get ready first

I have to say it helps a lot that DH doesn't have to go anywhere (he WFH/for himself essentially) so he doesn't need much get ready time.

@periwinklebee: When mine has work trips, I just do everything he'd do, which is packing lunch & make breakfast, the night before. I find that when I LET them drag their little butts everything takes longer but if I just do everything like okay, time to change, okay, you only have this much time to eat, they usually comply.