I wish I could say I had some suggestions or that it's just an annoying skid behavior but my bios are the worst with this too ! and I am not a morning person !!!!!

I make everyone prepare for the next day before going to bed, and I know that takes FOREVER so we start very early. I repeat to them often and to the point they are annoyed by it that I do not like to be hastled in the am and they won't like me if I am.

I personally go thru each backpack and pull out papers, quiz each child on needed forms, signatures, and homework.
Backpacks and shoes by the door.
clothes laid out
breakfast out if possible, bowls, cereal on the table waiting

My goal is to get up early myself so that I am completely ready before I start to get anyone else up but I have not succeeded yet, not even once. I think it would lessen my irritation if I could.

I have noticed that when we have a good morning, if I praise them and draw attention to it that it helps motivate them in the future. for example, I'll say in the car "wow, wasn't it nice to get going without all the hastle and yelling, thanks guys for doing your part".

I just posted some ideas on another blog, but will be happy to repeat it.

My DH and I both have to be at work rather early and have had to ever since our kids remember. Our kids had to get up and go. I will say that for the most part, they were pretty good. Every once in a while...something happens and you really need to expect that. (Ex: SD woke up with a bloody nose one morning...it took a while to get her cleaned up, so DH ran a little late). These things happen. That brings me to my first rule--

Try to schedule a little wiggle room in the morning. If you have to have the kids up by 6 in order to get them ready and out the door on time...you also have to be ready for work when you leave the house...get up before the kids and give yourself enough time to be completely ready before you wake them up. However long it takes you to get ready...then add some extra time and wake up that much earlier before you wake up the kids. Ex: It takes me roughly 15 minutes to get ready--hair, makeup, teeth brushed and dressed. I wake up 30 minutes before I have to get my daughter up. This allows me to let the dog out, feed the cat, turn on the TV, make sure my lunch is out of the fridge and then I get ready. I am completely ready to walk out the door when I wake up my daughter. While she is getting up, I finish getting things done, make sure the dog has water, put dog's food outside, etc. I do have to say..I drop daughter off at DH house and she goes back to bed. I call her later and wake her up to get ready for school, so she really doesn't have to get ready before I get out the door..just get some shoes on.

Rule #2. Do as much the night before as possible. Lunches made, school work done (check all work and forms before it gets packed away to ensure nothing gets left for "last minute"), packed in the backpack and by the door-or already in the car, have cereal already poured into a sealed bowl and maybe have the milk in a smaller-more child friendly container so that they can "serve" themselves. Showers/baths the night before. Clothes ironed and laid out with the socks and shoes right next to them. Hair brushes and toothbrushes in the bathroom (I suggest a rule of having all these things in the same place every morning..this means no one saying "I can't find it") ready to go.

Procrasination is a hard thing to deal with, but I guess we just rolled right over it with our kids. It was either get out of the house on time, or risk losing the job!! I really don't have any ideas on how to work that aspect, but being a little more ready for the day can take some of the stress out of it!

Im with StepAbove. I am the biggest B in the morning! Any turmoil in the morning drives me off the deepend so I do as much as possible at night. I make the kids set out their bags, clothes and shoes the night before as well as anything they may need for sports practices, etc. (even all their snow things in the winter time). I sit down with each child in the evening and look over their assignemnts and ask them if there is anything they need from me in preperation for the next day. This seems to help us get around most of the morning issues.

I would give them an ultimatum. i.e. If you can't get up at 7 am and eat your breakfast and be ready to go without dawdling and screwing around, then I'll need to start waking you up at 6am so that we are not late....and follow through, even if it means that you have to get up early too.. a couple times of getting their butts up at the crack of ass will probably knockk some sense into their skulls.

good luck!

*duplicate*

I am just like AstepAbove. My BD is only 4 and she just started her second year of preschool. My SD8 is going into 3rd grade this year, But we only have her every other weekend. I don't have any insightful or helpful advice. lol But what I do with my bio daughter is have her bathe the night before, I do her hair the night before so when she wakes up all I have to do it brush it out and the parts or whatever are already there. I usually braid it to avoid tangles in the am. (Doesn't work lol) I have her clothes laid out. I wake her up after I've already had my coffee. She does the "I'm too tired thing and rolls over in bed" I tell her "I will not tell you again to get up" She usually whines and I end up picking her up out of bed lol and making her get dressed. This obviously doesn't work for teenagers or preteens. I either make her breakfast or get her ceral, I make her sit down in the living room to eat while I sit behind her doing her hair. the brush teeth Kills two birds with one stone =)Then its off to brush teeth etc.. Now, with my SD, my DH takes her to school the Monday mornings he has her. What we do is have her bathe the night before, he makes sure her homework is always done the night before, he checks her backpack for anything he needs to read over and or sign. He usually puts her backpack in the car the night before. He has her pick out her clothes for school before she goes to bed. By the time he wakes her up, he is already showered and dressed for work. He usually is the one who makes her breakfast because he wakes her up much earlier than I get up with my BD..most of the times he has to put it in a tupperware bowl to take with her to eat on her way to school( She's out of district so it takes 20-30 minutes to get her to school) But, we try to do as much as we can the night before because our kids love to procrastinate and move like a slug in the morning. My BD4 does the same thing every time we leave the house.

I'm with AstepAbove. I take care of as many things as possible the night before. I make sure backpacks are emptied, pick out clothes for the next day, put shoes by the door, and put bowls, spoons & box of cereal on the counter for breakfast. I also keep to a pretty strict routine in the morning so it doesn't allow the kids much time to lolly-gag. I wake up a 1/2 hour earlier than the kids so I can be ready by the time I wake them up. Then it's time to wash face, brush teeth, get dressed, go downstairs, eat breakfast, put shoes on and go. I have to hoover over them to make sure they don't skip a step, but it does help us get out the door quickly in the morning.

One other trick I have learned since having kids, I always try to leave 1/2 hour early for anything. If we need to leave by 8am, I tell everyone 7:30am so it gives us some extra time for those last minute trips to the bathroom or whatever.

I've heard of parents that struggled with this just telling the kids what time they are leaving and if they aren't ready, they go in whatever state of readiness they are in when it is time to go. I think a 9 and 11 year old can understand this. Take them in their pj's, hair a mess, unfed, whatever - do it once and they'll understand when it's time to go, if they wasted their time, they're going as is.

We don't really have a problem in the morning. I get up about the same time the kids do. My alarm is set for 30 minutes before theirs, but I usually hit snooze once or twice and get up when they do. I make sure there are signs of life on the other side of the house then I get in the shower. I check on them when I get out and usually, they're ready to go or eating cereal. If they need some direction I give it to them. They've started emptying the dishwasher while I finish getting ready I finish getting dressed, tell them to load up and we're out the door. They're 6, 9 and 11.

It hasn't always been this easy. Before the kids started waking up to an alarm, when we woke up SS6 we'd have to tell him "Feet on the floor" before we could walk away because he'd always go back to sleep. SD9 is just starting to be able to get her morning routine down. She's a little ADD and gets very easily distracted. The last two school years pretty much had us always yelling at someone at least one or two mornings a week. But after two years of weekly yelling, I think they discovered they much prefer getting dressed quickly, and then goofing off. I agree, it's no way to start the day frazzled because the kids were farting around and you're nearly late.

The most important thing has already been said....do as much as possible the night before. I have backpacks by the front door completely ready to go before we go to bed. All notes signed, homework put away, library books found, etc.... I only have one child still young enough to need help with that. My teenagers obviously get their stuff together without my help. But they still do it the night before because that's how they've always done it.

I get up before everyone else so that I have a few minutes to drink my coffee and watch the news. I get DH up first. Then my youngest (he leaves earliest), then the high school kids. I put breakfast on the counter and just let everyone grab what they want. Stuff like pop-tarts, bagels, cereal bars, cereal..... quick and easy.

DH leaves first. Then my youngest and I ride our bikes to his school. I am home just in time to say good-bye to my high schoolers (they drive themselves).

I don't work outside the home except for a couple of hours twice a week. So once I get everyone out the door, I come home, sit down, and drink another cup of coffee before jumping into my day.

Even though I posted my usual routine above, I also wanted to say that now..my kids are in junior high. DH and I are at work early (me between 4:30 and 5:00, him by 6:30). We call the kids around 7 to wake them up and they have to get themselves ready. In the years before, we had a "Gift from God" of a daycare owner who lived nearby. She allowed us to drop our kids off at her house and she would get them to school. Starting last school year, SD started complaining about having to be dropped off at jr high in a daycare van. I guess I could understand, so I changed my schedule so that I could take off a little time in the a.m. to take them to school and then be off in the afternoon to pick them up. ANYHOW..all that to say that when we first started this new routine, I told them "I call at 7 to wake you up. I arrive around 8 to take you to school. If you are late (and make me late getting back to work), whomever has the problem will start going back to the daycare person." I think I have had only one problem...and it wasn't even major!! So, threatening the kids with a consequence they really would hate seems to have helped!!

I also think it helps to tell them ahead that there will be no more of the 'frogging around' as I call it and that they will get a 5 min warning then I am leaving.

I find the 5 min warning works well. And after 5 min I head to the car. They know I'll leave them if need be so they pick it up.

My mom left us once. I guess my brother and I were being too slow and she had warned us repeatedly that she'd leave us. I loved school and was terrified of being 'tardy' or missing school and the consequences. My brother didn't want to be late either or he'd be in trouble by 'coach' at middle school. Anyway, one day she just left. We were in shock. My dad was there to take us but we didn't run late anymore. Maybe try that or I like the idea of taking them as they are. How old are they? A preteen/teen would be devastated to have to go to school without fixing their hair or whatever. If they're teens then maybe take away 'time'. For every time you have to tell them to hurry they owe you a minute on a Friday night...? Idk, don't have teens. For younger ones, I get ready before waking them then have a routine set each morning. I also let the kids watch a kid show while combing hair or eating breakfast or getting dressed to help speed things up.

Spunki you've got it going sister! I envy your house... My swins don't ever eat breakfast, takes DH 15 minutes to wake them up, nothing's ready (homework's never done, always forgotten) - DH grabs bookbags & loads them & carries to car. Its depressing to be there & hear all the b.s./threats that will never be enforced/"it's not fair" being chanted over & over by swins b.c. DH won't let them stay home.