• A  bit about my attempt of making some positive morning rituals •

Friday morning, and the first week of being back to everyday life and morning routines is almost over. The two weeks of vacation really slowed us down and getting back into days with a bit more hustle and bustle and many more plans hasn’t exactly been easy. Despite sleeping for 12 hours every night my daughters still feel tired when we walk to school in the morning, and yesterday was the first time my eldest was late during her whole time as a 1st grader.
Where the end of 2015 was full of energy for my youngest, 2016 has put her in a state of hibernation. Staying in bed, hiding under the blankets and being cozy on the couch seem to be her thing these days where the temperature is hitting way below zero, and just talking her into going to the playground seems like hard work.

It’s times like these, that positive morning rituals seems most important to me. With way too many tired people gathered under one roof, the mornings could easily end up in screaming kids and yelling parents, which is my worst morning nightmare. Here’s a few tips on how I like to try and make some positive morning rituals and keep this time of day as hassle free as possible.

Get up early
Getting up early is essential for making all the other positive morning rituals. Getting up just 20 minutes too late can ruin our morning routines and quite possibly make our whole morning end up in one big mess

Time for play.
I like to get up early enough for my girls to have a bit of time to play or draw in the morning. It adds a bit of creativeness to their morning, and gets them in a much better mood than if we rushed through it all.

Early to bed
To make sure we get up in time, and since both my girls have a need for a lot of sleep, I make sure they’re both in bed by 7pm. and sleeping by 7:30pm. That even counts for my eldest who will turn 7 in a few month. For us bedtime is everything, and I would rather have my daughter not finish her homework than get to bed too late.  →

Prepare
A bit of preparation makes the morning flow a lot easier. Even though I never pack my children’s lunches before the morning, I try and make sure I have all I need for it. We make sure the bags are packed, that gloves are not lost the day before and that we know what the next day will bring.

Picking my battles
I have learned that mornings are not the right time for taking fights unless it’s something that you simply can’t let go. I’ll save discussions and talk with my daughters about it after school or simply forget about it. I’m sure there’ll be another time for me to tell them the same thing.

Stick to the routines
I know doing the same things and in the same order morning after morning might seem unnecessary for you as an adult, but the fact is that for most kids it works. We always start out by eating breakfast, then the kids play a bit. They do their bathroom routine, get dressed and then we’re out of the door. And because we always do it like that, we never have to discuss if we’re going to get dressed before we eat breakfast or not.

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