5 Rules to beat the morning blues

 I tell you, for me it was worse than a nightmare – I would pray to God for the weekend to come sooner or that my daughter should grow up sooner so that she gets ready by herself. I really felt the pressure and there came a time when I was simply desperate for a solution, anything to ease my situation. I started trying out different things and in the end the following rules worked out for me – oh, what a relief it was; such a big relief that I would like every mom in a similar situation to get the same relief. It is quite simple actually – end the day well to start it well… Try these out and let me know how it goes…

Rule 1. Dinner on time – Make sure to feed your child at least an hour before bed time. Just before bedtime, give them a warm cup of milk. This will calm their minds and induce sleep. Do not allow your child to loiter around doing nothing, especially watching television or playing games on any gadget. Big no-no! When it is bedtime, it is sleep time. Reading together could be an exception – it is a good habit; helps the mind to relax and fosters the parent-child bond.

Rule 2. Advance planning – Put in place a non-negotiable routine for your child to get all things ready for school by a certain time, let’s say 7 pm (before dinner). Preparing the school bag, putting the uniform in place, shoe polishing, morning toiletries all in place, so on and so forth. When all this is not done, there is a certain anxiety or stress. The sooner you get all this out of the way, the sooner your child will relax and prep up for bedtime.

Rule 3. Bed time – The usual before-bedtime scene is that you keep telling your child to sleep and s/he keeps resisting. Have you ever wondered why most children dread bedtime? It is obvious – the day and play ends and the bed seems like such a boring place! So what will really help is to do something that makes your child look forward to bed time – finish all your domestic chores and make sure to spend time with your child, think out some special bed time games and stories – make sure these activities are reserved ‘only’ for bed time – the exclusively will make your child look forward to these activities.  

Rule 4. Wake right – Don't be in a hurry when you wake up your child. The first few minutes set the tone for the rest of the morning and the day. If you want to wake your child to be up by 6 am, do not wake up him/her up at 7 am and insist that s/he gets up right away. Even we need those 5-10 minutes to rise and shine, so give it to your child. Wake the kid at 6.45 am and s/he will definitely want some more snooze time. Get into bed with your child and cuddle up, tickle a bit, have some fun. Your child will resist but will eventually respond with energy. These 10-15 minutes every morning have worked out great for me and my daughter!

Rule 5. Morning stars – Let your child maintain a chart; here’s how it works: Get a calendar or make a month’s calendar on a chart. Every day when you go to bed, ask your child to make a star if s/he woke up on time that day. So if it is Tuesday, and your child woke up on time on Tuesday, then s/he will make a nice big star next to Tuesday. Your child will get excited by this – and will want to get more stars and so will make an effort to wake up on time. The mornings that didn’t go so well, ask your child to put a big black dot. You know this is going to work! Do this little exercise every night and see the results in the morning.

So the above five rules really worked well for me – and I endorse them to every mom friend I meet or talk to… Give yourself a start too after you have won the morning battle. I look forward to receiving your comments and also would love to know your morning or night routine with your child. So write in!