3 most effective stress-free morning tips if you’re a working mum.

Does stress-free morning exist?

When you are a working mum with kids that go to school, the morning routine can be a rather stressful beginning of a long day ahead. Kids are not always waking up on a happy note which can add even more stress. As much as everyone has different circumstances (less or more kids, husband helping out, childminder/ grandma living with you) there are few simple top hacks that I have implemented in my household to reduce the level of stress (not only in for the morning but the whole day). Read on to find out what are my stress-free morning routine tips.

 

1. Start the morning routine the night before

Having prepared for the morning ahead gives you a head start and allows for possible delays that are likely to happen.

What I like to do is to get my kids clothes prepared (or instruct them to prepare if they are old enough to do it on their own). I also plan what I am going to wear even if I don’t have it out of my wardrobe, I think of the outfit I want to wear so I don’t have to waste my time matching my shirt to the trousers/ skirts etc (I can take forever deciding what to wear).

Clean up as much as you can after the dinner so that the dishes aren’t piled up in the kitchen and stuff isn’t laying around the worktops making the whole kitchen look a mess.

I often do this once kids finished their dinners before they get bathed as they usually sit in a living room watching some telly or playing in their bedrooms, whereas I can quickly just tidy up in the kitchen.

I also vacuum downstairs. This takes no longer than half an hour but it does make a difference in keeping my house clean.

Also as I am the last person in the house to shower (we all like shower-before-bed routine) so I spent 5 minutes just using my squidgy to get the tiles wiped, sink cleaned and put clothes in the washing basket if any was left behind.

This allows me to have the bathroom kept clean and I don’t spend hours cleaning it on the weekends, instead, I spend a bit more time after my weekend-relax-in-the-bath time where I clean it thoroughly.

 

2. Wake up early

I know it is not easy to wake up before you really have to and it’s so tempting to click that snooze button.

However, getting up early really gives you an advantage and ever since I have implemented this trick it has helped me to relax and start a day little more prepared for possible unexpected events.  And I am not talking about super early either (trust me- I am not an early bird myself).

I am waking up only half an hour before I wake my kids up. I go downstairs, get my favourite coffee ready and prepare mine and my daughters pack lunch (my middle child gets the free school meal).

If I want to do my work out too, I allow half-hour more so that I can also get a quick shower, although I prefer o exercise in the evening as I am really not an early bird.

I also have time to sit down and drink my coffee and check my social media account. I do not eat any breakfast as I have been following the IF for the last two years but if I was eating, I would have my brekkie now to eat it in peace before I go upstairs to wake the kids up. And here is the trick:

3. Wake your kids up GENTLY and SLOWLY

I remember when my grandma (whom I used to sleep in the same room with) used to wake me up by uncovering my duvet and shouting Wake up! Wake up! I used to hate it! It used to put me in such a bad mood and I am pretty sure this has impacted my whole day (although it was so long ago I can’t remember very well).

So I have not been practising this with my kids. This does not top my list of stress-free morning routine tips.

Instead…

I go to my daughter’s (10) room first and give her little kiss and just say “Good Morning Angeli, it’s time to wake up now”. I then open up her blackout curtains and give her 5 more minutes to just wake up as even I like to just spend two minutes more stretching on my bed after my alarm rings.

I then go to the boy’s room and I wake my eldest son (5) and I do the same, give him a kiss, let him wake up slowly and stretch a little.

I then ask him to go to the bathroom to do his brush once he’s ready. If by now my youngest one Jay (2,5) is still asleep ( which is not very likely as he usually wakes up first before the others) I let him sleep as he has a childminder looking after him (or my husband if it’s his day off) so I don’t rush him off the bed.

By now Angeli would be in the bathroom brushing up and I then go back downstairs to prepare their milk for the cereal (pancakes/ cheese toasties/eggs I leave for the weekend).

Then kids come downstairs, I give them their milk bawl and let them choose which cereal they want and get them to sit down and eat. If Jay is also downstairs I also give him cereal which sometimes means I help him eat, which takes a bit of time, but since I have started the day early I have this little extra time for such events.

At this point is around 8 am and I go upstairs to get myself ready.

But first I make up the beds…

Without a fail, every morning after everyone’s up I make up the beds. I dislike the site of a messy bed and it makes the whole room look a mess hence I always make them up.

I then sit down and get my makeup routine done and dress up in pre-planned clothes.

This takes me around 20-25 minutes at the max. I then go downstairs to get my stuff and help the kids to put their coats on and we are all ready to leave the house.

Don’t get me wrong, the mornings aren’t always this organised as sometimes kids misplace their water bottles, or forget something from their room, or even childminder is running late, so no matter how much you prepare ahead, there is always something that will cause a delay. But that’s just how it is when you have kids…

However, this is just 5 days in a week…

And on the weekends… We all like to wake up a little later (without the alarm ringing) and not rush with our morning routines.

As soon as the kids are up they like to jump into our bed and just cuddle up and mess around a bit before getting up to begin the day. And that’s what it all matters!!!

So these were my stress-free morning routine tips for you.

What are your morning routines hacks? I would love to hear from you.

Thank you for reading