Be a Better Parent Challenge - Day 30 - Find your system

Thanks for all the great book recommendations in the comments from yesterday's post. If you missed it, then head on back (scroll down!) and take a look! I tend to think that any book will make you a better parent because that means you're giving yourself a break, but these are definitely informative and educational.

Today is Challenge #30: Find your system - and I want you to tackle creating your own system of how you work your mornings and evenings, or everything in between.

I realize that you might use system and schedule in the same way, but I've come to realize that it's not really a schedule since it often happens at different times, but the method I use is the same.

For example, here's how our mornings run:

-Little kids usually wake up first, so I head down with them. Potty is required in order to get breakfast.

-They eat breakfast and then I put on a show for them while I do a quick check of email, twitter, and facebook (part of my job, actually) before the day gets going.

-Once Quinlan wakes up (usually within 20 minutes), I feed her and then we all begin our chore charts.

Here's how bedtime starts:

-Kids gather their bed clothes and place them on my bed.

-Bath (or shower) - I bathe them first, then they play.

-They come out, get lotioned, and then get dressed in my room. Then we go off to brush teeth and choose books for bedtime.

I know these are not brilliant revelations, but it's taken me this long to actually come up with a system that works. I really try not to deviate from it because it works so well and the kids come to expect it. And when there's that consistency, things just tend to run much better.

Of course, my husband travels - which means he's sometimes home when all this is going on, but I've learned to just continue doing what I do regardless of what he's doing (or not doing - sigh). This means fewer bumps for all of us.

Comments

[alice heath]

Why is that my systems always go wrong? I go to the trouble of trying to be an organised person, get the kids up, prepare breakfast, kiss hubby goodbye for work.
In reality the kids are causing world war 3, the dog is barking like crazy, the washer is spewing soapsuds...
I hate my life sometimes!

[caramama]

At one "fun" stage during the Twos, my daughter and I made a chart with pictures cut from magazines to illustrate the Morning Routine and Bedtime Routine. I helped so much to cut down on the fighting and refusals from her to tell her that we had to check the chart to see what was next. And then DO IT!