Working parents, what's your morning and evening routine?

[kozachka]

I am going back to work on Monday. Got an offer this morning. That's the good news. Now I am freaking out trying to figure out how to manage our morning and evening routines. Any advice would be appreciated.

A bit of a background on our situation. DS is in daycare where he gets hot meals so no need to send food with him. The daycare is relatively close to DH's work. DH has volunteered to drop DS off in the morning, at least for most part, and I will do my best to pick him up in the evening. If I am running late, DH will pick him up but no earlier than 6:45PM. We also have a do that needs to be walked twice a day. We both work in high-pressure jobs and need to look groomed and presentable.

How do you both manage to shower, get dressed, style your hair, take care of the DC's needs and not get late to work? DS does not have a predictable wake-up time, sometimes it's 6AM, most days it's closer to 7AM and on good days it's 8AM. I need to be out the door by 8:30 at the latest, so got to have at least an hour, probably more like an hour and a half before that. We all sleep in the same room so if I have an alarm on it would wake DS up.

[kijip]

Well, I am doing this a single parent since J and I each have an apartment. It is tough but not that hard since Toby is pretty sleepy and calm in the mornings (ha! Let's see how much longer than lasts!). Here is how it has been playing out on the three days a week I have to do it:

-6AM wake up, shower, blow dry my hair (thank goodness it is shorter now) and toss on work clothes.
-6:25ish- get Toby dressed, grab his breakfast and get in the car. Toby is sometimes asleep during this but usually wakes up by the time that I lock the door.
-6:45, drive off, hand Toby his food. he gets a straw cup with milk and a container of cut up fruit, maybe a sandwich or a biscuit, a piece of cheese or whatever.
-7:15, drop Toby off at my mom's and drive 5 minutes to work. I work alone and have flex time so that helps.
EVENING- Set aside Toby's breakfast in the fridge when I clean up dinner. Set out Toby's clothes for the next day, make sure the clothes I want to wear are clean and ready to go.

It sucks that he eats in the car those three days but I really need the sleep and trying to feed him when he first wakes up alone AND when I need to get out of the house at a specific time is not fun. 1 day a week he wakes up at Js and the other day Joshua and I both cook him breakfast and sit down together. Weekends are easier (Sat eat breakfast at home, Sunday go out for brunch)!

[pampamz]

Well, this was my routine w/one DC, when I go back to work w/2 DC it will be very different! It worked very well, except for the days when DH had a meeting etc. early in the morning and left before us...

5.50am -- I get up and start getting showered & ready
6.25am -- DH gets DC up, fed & dressed
7.00am -- I finish breakfast, tidy up, get DC & bags together etc.
7.15am -- out the door to daycare
At work by 8.00am

DS got pretty used to the routine and, unfortunately for weekends, sort of automatically started waking around 6.25ish.

Getting into a routine won't take you long and before your know it you will be a well oiled machine.

[Momof3Labs]

I used to have to get myself out of the house with Colin in the morning (without DH - he'd still be at work), and here's how we accomplish it.

I get up 30-45 minutes before I expect Colin to wake (which can vary by as much as an hour), and close to 1.5 hours before we have to leave the house (it's way too much time, but with train schedules, I'd rather be safe than sorry). My goal is to be showered and dressed by the time he wakes. If he wakes before I'm fully showered and dressed, he gets to sit in my bed and watch TV for a little bit.

Once I'm dressed, I let the dogs out and feed them. Then I get Colin up and get him changed and dressed before he even leaves his room. We go downstairs for some breakfast; if he is moving slowly, he gets cereal in a baggie in the car (when we used to drive farther, he'd also get a bag of grapes or a banana). Or if we are running late (sometimes I wait to wake him up), he automatically gets the cereal in the car.

Honestly, my secret weapons are: allowing more than enough time, using the TV to keep him in one place as needed, and being open to the idea of breakfast on the go.

Could you use a vibrating cell phone or something to wake yourself up in the morning?

[lilycat88]

Morning
5:45 DH gets up and showers
6:15 DH gets DD up and brings her into the bedroom where she has about 1/2 a sippy cup of milk while I wake up and DH reads the paper.
6:25 I take DD into her room to get dressed, do her breathing treatment and brush teeth.
6:45-7:00 DH and DD out the door to daycare. She has breakfast there at 7:30
As soon as they leave, I shower and dress. I can be out the door by 8:00 or earlier.

Evening
4:45-5:00 I pick up DD and head home
5:30-5:45 Get home and prepare dinner
6:15 DH gets home and we eat and have play time
7:00-7:30 Head upstairs for bath, breathing treatment and books (I usually will get DDs clothes ready for the next day and tidy up while DH sits in the bathroom for bathtime)
8:00 Bedtime

We've been doing a fairly similar routine since about 3 months. We are lucky, though, in that DD preferred her crib to sleeping with us and she slept through the night at 11 weeks. We do have to wake her every morning except on the weekends when she is known to sleep until 9:00. My work situation is very flexible as well. As long as I get my work done, "facetime" in the office isn't all that important. We're also lucky that her daycare is only about a mile from me and 2 miles from DH.

[kath68]

Honestly, mornings are when t.v. is our babysitter. Our routine is ever-evolving around here, but currently this is what we do:

6:00 Charlie wakes up, so we all do. DH takes shower while I dress Charlie and get breakfast for him. I often have a stash of pancakes in the fridge to reheat, or it's cereal. Fruit and a sippy of milk round it out. I eat a bowl of hot oatmeal while Charlie eats/watches t.v. I feed the dog and let him out.

6:15-6:45 Charlie sits in his high chair eating breakfast/watching t.v. while I take a shower and get dressed. DH keeps him in earshot and/or hangs out with him. If I need to dress fancy, or need to do something extra around the house and DH is still shaving or something, Charlie sometimes gets a second installment of t.v., or sometimes just plays by himself. I often go into whirling dervish mode in the mornings, doing several things at once, so it is nice that Charlie is coming to a point where he doesn't need constant attention.

7:00 DH leaves for work; sometimes DH takes Charlie to daycare, but usually it is me -- daycare is two blocks from my office. DH has over an hour commute each way; when he worked from home he did much more of the daycare duties.

Charlie and I can play for a while if we have time, but these days we have been getting on the road early. I've been swamped at work, and I have been trying to exercise in the mornings after Charlie is at daycare. So I am usually out the door well before 8:00.

Evenings:
6:00-6:30 arrive home. Cobble together something that resembles dinner (usually DH's job), or eat out (more often than we should), feed the dog, let him out
7:30 start bedtime routine, earlier if it is bath night
8:00 Charlie is in bed. We are pretty rigid about that.

After he is asleep, we do basic house stuff and laundry, and set out clothes, etc for the next day. We usually watch some t.v. until about 10 or 11 -- but these days we fall asleep on the couch during the shows.

Pretty glamorous, huh?

[denna]

Well my DH has to be at work at 730am on Tues/Thurs and 645am on Mon/Wed/Fri I have to be at work at 800am and my DH and I commute together. With the baby we are getting up at 500am. I take the first shower while my DH feeds DS. Then while my DH is in the shower I blow-dry/style my hair while DS is laying on the bed 'talking and smiling'. Then we get everything together to take to work and we take out the trash.
We have to drop off my son about 5 mins from our apartment (but in the round about way to work). so it takes us 15-20 mins to drive to work.
However our sitter is now moving to 30mins away from us and another 30 mins away from work! So who knows if I'll be getting ANY sleep by then.

AFter work my DH sometimes picks up our DS (he gets off at 430pm I get off between 430-600pm) or we will pick him up together. When we get home I clean up while my DH entertains our DS then my DH cleans the rest while I entertain our DS. Then my DH makes dinner and after I do the dishes. By this time we may have a little time to watch something on TV together and then it's off to give DS a bath, after bath DS usually wants to eat. Then he sometimes falls right to sleep or he wants to be played w/ for awhile (which is great). Then aww... sweet sleep til its starts all over again at 500am :D. And DS has been so great about not waking through the night (since its usually about 6 hours).

Good luck w/ this new task, it tooks us a little while to get a good routine but now it works! Maybe you should try a practice run, or get up earlier than you think the first day and go from there :D.

Keep us posted on how going back to work goes, and how the routine is :D!

Denna

[hez]

I get up darned early, that's how I make it work.

I'm up at 5ish. Completely dressed, hair dried, etc. by 5:45 or 6 (depending on if I snoozed 'til 5:15 ;)). I take the dog out and pack Payton's snack, and am in the car by 6:15.

DH is up as soon as I'm out of the shower. He's dressed and ready by 6 as well, and spends from 6-6:15 getting Payton dressed and in the car. We carpool-- take Payton to the sitter's and are to our buildings at work ~7 depending on traffic.

Many mornings Payton is in our bed. He has learned to sleep through my alarm if he's not ready to get up. Otherwise, if he wakes up, he either hangs out in the bathroom with me 'til DH gets up, or he and DH read a book.

Our sitter feeds Payton his breakfast for us, so that helps, as he can be a slow-as-molasses eater when he's having a toddler moment.

Coming home, we pick Payton up, get home, and then one parent takes the dog out while the other gets Payton a drink. Then it's dinner time, some kind of activity and bath/bed. Weeknights FLY by, especially if one of us has a meeting at church or softball or choir...

It took us awhile to get to this point-- it evolved and currently works. If something changes, we'll evolve again to something else that works. Good luck!

[denna]

Wow Heather your routine and mine sound SO similar. LoL! How's the sunrise there?!? ;)

[Zana]

Have to second the PPs on TV in the morning. I think the wake-up time depends on your commute time. We live about 15mins from work/daycare. So my days look mostly like this (DH leaves very early and comes in late so its mostly just me).

Mornings
6.30: Wake up DS, we cuddle in bed for about 10mins till he is fully awake :)
6.40: Get his face washed, teeth brushed, diaper changed
6.50 to 7: He plays around a bit with his toys while get his breakfast
7.10: He is put in his highchair in front of the TV where he eats his breakfast
7.10-7.35: I shower, get dressed and grab a quick bite (I'm very low maintenance on hair/make-up so that helps)
7.35-7.45: Wash his face/hands and put on his clothes (I make sure his daycare bag is packed the night before)
7.50: we are out of the door...DS is usually in daycare around 8 and Im at my desk by 8.30.

Evenings
5PM: Pickup. I the weather is good we go to the park for 45 mins
5.45-7: DS get some snacks like a few crakers or some fruit while he plays and I try get some dinner going.
7.15: DS has dinner (we eat later)
7.30: Bath
7.45: In bed for stories etc
by 8.00 we try and have the lights off.
8.15: I am collapsed on the couch while DH serves dinner and clears up any messes!!!

[pb&j]

>
>How do you both manage to shower, get dressed, style your
>hair, take care of the DC's needs and not get late to work?
>

I'm late to work a lot. ;) And my hair style tends toward the "turned the a/c fan on high in the car to make it dry" look.

DH is self-employed, and his schedule is ever-changing. I only work full days (8-5) two days per week, and I'm 11-5 or 12-5 the other three. Most of my long days, DH takes DS to day care. I'm usually the pickup person, as DH often sees clients in the afternoon/evening. The trick is to just get up earlier, sigh. When we had DS in the room with us, he'd always wake up to my alarm, which sucked. Now that he's in his own room, he'll often snooze until I'm dressed and have all my stuff together. Then I feed him, change him out of his jammies, and I'm ready to go.



-Ry,
mom to Emma, stillborn 11/04/04
and Max, 01/05/06

http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/user_files/32812.gif
http://b1.lilypie.com/aKGqm5/.png[/img] ([img)

[ohiomom]

My key is to have our clothes laided out and ready (meaning iron mine the night before if need be). DH helps a lot most days, but if I have to go it alone:

Up at 6
6-6:45 shower, get ready, get coffee going, feed cats
7:00 get DD up
7:10-7:45 get DD dressed and fed and in the car
7:45 travel to sitters
8:00 drop off
8:45 arrive at work

It seems ridiculous that I need 2 hours before official drop off time, but I do as it allows for whatever that WILL go wrong to go wrong and still be on time.

We have no set routine in the evening and meals have been a lot of carry out lately as DH often picks up and I don't get home until close to 6. If I get DD headed to her bath by 7:30 or in her jammies by 7:45 if no bath, than life is better.
Good luck!

[smilequeen]

On the days I work it goes something like this

6:30...I wake up and hop straight in the shower and start getting ready
7:00...Simon wakes up and DH wakes up, Simon comes to the bathroom and plays while DH and I finish getting ready. Usually DH is ready by 7:15 (men!) and plays with DS until 7:30 when he leaves. By then I have my hair and make up done.
7:30...Simon and I eat breakfast
8:00...get Simon dressed
8:15...Simon comes to my room and "helps" me get dressed
8:30...leave

I pick out clothes the night before and do any ironing, get Simon's daycare bag ready to go and I leave it by the door along with my purse.