Nanny 911 by Deborah Carroll

Author:Deborah Carroll [Carroll, Deborah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2014-05-22T06:00:00+00:00

GETTING ORGANIZED FOR THE WEEK

On a quiet calm night when the kids are asleep, or on a weekend afternoon when they’re out at a playdate, mom and dad should sit down with either a pad of paper or their computer, and figure out a family timetable.

First, do a timetable of your life as it is now. Write the hours of the day on the left. Then write the activity on the right. Have each parent do a separate schedule, and one for each child. Put in all the unchangeable basics, such as school and work, with hours that are by nature inflexible.

Then, highlight the hours that don’t work. Break each hour down into minutes if you have to. Here’s one mom’s schedule.

6:45 A.M. Wake up.

7:00 A.M. Get out of bed. Make coffee.

7:07 A.M. Finish shower.

7:21 A.M. Finish getting dressed and applying makeup.

7:22 A.M. Wake up kids. Kids get dressed.

7:35 A.M. Finish cooking breakfast. Call kids to table.

7:50 A.M. Kids finish eating breakfast.

8:02 A.M. Kids at the door.

8:10 A.M. School bus pick up.

When you look at this timetable, you will immediately see that there just isn’t enough time for the kids to get ready. Their wakeup time needs to be earlier. Mom also needs to set her alarm for 6:30 if she wants to spend a few minutes in bed, waking up at her own speed.

In another family, dad was always late for work. He needed to be out the door at 8:00 a.m., yet he never quite makes it. His wakeup time needed to be pushed back an hour earlier.

Get out a new piece of paper or computer file, and write down the hours again. Now make a new timetable. Be realistic—and be ruthless. Give yourself more time than you think you may need. Once you get used to the timetable and organize yourselves properly, we guarantee it will take you much less time to get ready, and you will be able to redo the timetable for the last time.

It may help to go backward when you set up the timetable. If you have to leave the house at 8:15 A.M. on the dot, ask yourself how long it takes to do each step before that. If your children are school age, what do they have to do? Wake up, get up, brush their teeth, get dressed, make their beds, go to the bathroom, eat breakfast, get their backpacks, then leave for school. When you’re done, you’ll be at the time you need to wake up. And if you have trouble figuring out the precise times, clock yourself one morning. Give the kids a stopwatch and turn this into a game.

Starting the day without a huge rush makes the rest of the day that much nicer.

Whatever you decide, do not allow the children to participate in the making of the schedule. It is not their responsibility. If they want new activities, naturally they need to be discussed with you—but it’s up to parents to decide who does what, and when.

We are big believers in spots for your belongings.

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