My children both suffer from Fatigue-Induced Molasses Syndrome.
It’s a condition in which, when sleepy, they move at the speed of – you guessed it – molasses. Our early mornings have generally involved a lot of forced cheerfulness on my part, followed by increasing levels of anxiety and frustration until, at some point, I would lose my cool. In some instances, I have been known to carry bare-footed, hollering children one by one into the car to finish dressing while I drive to the bus stop. I knew I could benefit from help – I needed tips to get out of the house by 7 am with two ADHD kids.
And complicating the situation is the fact that I have ADHD myself.
This is what happens if I’m not careful:
After waking up to my alarm, I might make a good faith effort to wake them up, and then I’ll check the email on my phone because something critical have come through between 11 pm and 6 am and what if it can’t wait another hour?! Then I’ll glance up a second later and, of course, ten minutes have gone by because with ADHD, minutes cease to be an objective measurement of time.
At this point, I’ll be behind schedule, so I’ll start rushing the kids (who have been staring at the ceiling the whole time) for losing track of time (how dare they!). If I can avoid checking my phone again, I’ll fix them a real breakfast and make sure the backpacks are ready to go with lunch boxes actually packed inside (I learned that lesson!). I’ll put on some clothes myself while begging them to quickly brush their teeth because “didn’t you hear me, we are going to miss the bus!” On the way to the bus stop, we will think of whatever we forgot: homework notebook, sweater, etc. Argggg!
Gosh, what a lovely way to start the day!
7 Tips to Get Out of The House – On Time!
Over time, I have learned what works (and what doesn’t), and we have developed a few ways to make the mornings a bit easier on us.
The first involves taking advantage of the times when we are not as tired and under-medicated, so that we can leave ourselves little morning care packages for the mornings:
1. Choose all the school clothes for the week on the weekend. Yep, the whole week’s worth of clothes, and I mean from the shirts to the socks, and even the headbands (if your child is the type to accessorize). I purchased a small shelving unit for each child just for this purpose and they put each outfit in a small stack, complete and organized, ready to wear. In the morning, there is no searching for matching socks, no hunting for clean pants, and no mid-week parental laundry crises, either. This requires ensuring that you provide enough clean laundry by Sunday to do this chore, but it’s the least you can do. And it’s totally worth it, trust me.
2. Alarms. Use them. You probably have a smart phone. You can set it up so for specific alarms that for specific days (like school days), and you can set alarms for getting up, taking medication, giving your child’s medication, brushing teeth (10 minutes before leaving the house), and one to remind you of when you have to get shoes on and go (so you don’t lose track of time). My phone alarms save me daily. I even have one that reminds me to eat lunch!
The next tip thing that makes a big difference, for me at least, for us is aimed at other ADHD parents especially.
3. Wake up at least 20 minutes before the kids. Take your meds first thing. Have a coffee and check your email/Twitter/Facebook. Just get it out of your system. This way, by the time my next alarm goes off (the “wake up the kids” alarm), I am more awake and less distracted. Now, go and wake the kids up!
4. Set the tone for the day. If you go in all guns a’blazin’ because you already lost track of time, you will set the tone for the rest of the morning, and it won’t be good. The point in getting up early is to give all of you a chance to have a more peaceful morning, so wake them up with quiet words and a gentle rub on the back. Tickles may work, but be judicious. Some people hatetickles in the morning, and fair enough. Open the curtains, because sunlight cues our bodies to be awake. You can remind them that at least their clothes are already picked out!
5. For breakfast, the key is limited choices. I try to give the children a sense of control by offering them options when appropriate, but the trick is not to ask, “What do you want?” but to say, “For breakfast, you may have ___ or ____. Which would you like?” My son, in particular, will often dislike all options given him, but that’s alright. I just repeat his choices, and he usually chooses one. If he doesn’t, or if the kids take too long to get ready and miss breakfast, that’s where the next tip comes in.
6. Keep emergency rations on hand. Ziplock bags of cereal, Ensure shakes, cereal bars, or whatever you choose – have something handy to take with you on those mornings that you aren’t able to get breakfast in them. This achieves two things. Obviously, you manage to feed the kids, but perhaps more importantly, it eliminates that factor from the negotiations. The kids know you need them to eat, so if you are unprepared, they may take advantage hoping you’ll give in and allow them to eat whatever they please. No more! You are now armed with Cheerios to go! They can eat option A, B, or Cheerios in a Ziplock and a milk box on the road.
7. Rewards. In another post, I’ll write about something we use called the Token Timer, a device that limits screen time. You can add an incentive to managing the smooth morning routine by giving the kids a token, worth 35 minutes of screen time later, for getting ready and out the door on time. We have a chart posted on the wall that outlines what tasks are worth a token and when tokens may be redeemed (for TV or computer time). This is a motivating factor in our house!
I’m always trying to find ways to improve our game, and mornings are undoubtedly the most difficult time of day for us due to the time constraint.
I’d love to hear your tips to get out of the house on time! I know it’s a struggle for many… so please share your solutions!
No comments:
Post a Comment