She wants to plan every minute of every day, and she feels a little off kilter if she doesn't know what's going on. This can be a challenge for me because while I like to plan some things, I am a little more relaxed and kind of prefer to take things as they come.
One of the areas that our difference had become quite difficult was during the morning routine. I would wake Addy for school, ask her what she wanted for breakfast, ask her what she wanted to wear, ask her if she wanted to pack or buy lunch, and ask her what snacks she wanted. Lots of decisions for a 7-year-old to make at 6:30am.
Most of these mornings resulted in lots of tears.
And Addy had a hard time too.
I was beginning to lose patience with all of it and wondering if boarding school was an option. My husband assured me it was not.
Then I spoke to a friend about our issue, and she encouraged me to have Addy make her decisions ahead of time so that we wouldn't have to think about things in the morning. Genius!
So we started by letting Addy check out the calendar on Sunday evenings. She could look ahead and see what was on the agenda for the week, and plan accordingly. She chose which meal she would buy at school that week, (we allow her to buy once a week..she packs the other 4 days). And each night before she went to bed, she started picking out her clothes, shoes, hair accessories etc. She also got to choose her breakfast for the next day, as well as snacks.
Well let me just say that it has made a WORLD of difference! Addy feels much better in the mornings because she doesn't have so many decisions to make, and she is happy with the choices because she got to make them herself.
And can I just say that mornings are MUCH BETTER for momma as well?! No crying, no whining, and no tantrums...I am behaving like a good momma should.
So if you and your kids are experiencing the morning blues too, try letting the kids plan ahead a little and it may help to make mornings happy again!
*** This post will be linked at http://wearethatfamily.com/ for the 'Works For Me Wednesday' (WFMW) Posts.
I always have my 6 year old daughter pick her clothes the night before as well, but I never thought about planning breakfast the night before too! That might help - there are lots of mornings I can't get her to eat anything because she doesn't like the choices and I get tired and grouchy. I'll have to try that out. :)
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