By Claralynn Schnell of ContemporaryVa
The hectic pace of summer has come to a close as schools across the country have or are starting their school year. This means early bed times, homework, schedules, sports, extra activities and stress. The stress of trying to spend time as a family while still accomplishing all of the items on your to do list. The stress of taking your kid to school for the first day, the stress (and joy) of a quiet and peaceful house.
This is the first year that I will experience the 1st day of school, as my oldest starts preschool. It is an exciting and anxious time in our household. I have to figure out how to get my non-starters up in the morning, fed, dressed and looking like humans in time for preschool. This ensures that my level of stress will rise. Here are a few simple things that I have starting doing to ensure that mornings start out well, because we all know, when you have a bad morning, the rest of your day typically follows suit.
- Lay out clothes the night before. Sounds simple right, but I don’t mean just for the school kid. WE all have to be dressed and out the door to arrive at school. By simply laying out our clothes in the living room the night before, I know I am one step ahead.
- Figure out breakfast the night before. Doesn’t matter what you are going to have, if you have prepped it, things will go quicker and smoother.
- Get up on time. My kids are still young, so they get up when they want, however, with school starting, I will get my kids up at 7am so that they are ready to go by the time we need to leave at 8:45am.
- Relax. Enough said.
This is not a fool proof list. Some morning are going to be terrible, awful, no good days! But with these 4 tiny things, that take less than 10 minutes combined, I have helped to lower the stress level in my home each day.
How will you lower the stress level in your home with the start of school?