How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

I hate mornings like this!

Emily wakes up with an hour and 15 minutes to get ready before she has to get on the bus.

Yet we are still rushing around and there is always an issue.

She isn't a breakfast person, and doesn't want to eat in the time she has to eat. In past years (before Kindergarten) she always ate 2 hours or so after she woke up, now she has to eat pretty quickly after waking up.

So it ends up being a rush, she doesn't want anything I've made for her and she barely eats before school. And I'd love for her to be one of those kids that can just function on no food, but her lunch isn't until 1 o'clock and she can't do that...she gets hungry by about 10 oclock and then she's compllaining that her stomach hurts.

To make matters worse now that we fully know about her allergy issues she has to take more medication in the morning...rotating between clarity, allegra and zyrtec. This morning was an allegra morning and it was only available in swallowable pills, and she has such a hard time swallowing them. So we went through 3 pills this morning trying to get her to swallow them and by the time the bus was coming we were both super frustrated and she hadn't even gotten her allergy med in. I finally gave her a quick zyrtec before she went on the bus since that is chewable.

It just makes me feel so bad on these frustrating mornings. I want to send her off on the bus with a hug and a kiss and wishes for a good day, not all of this stress!

I am going to walgreens to get the liquid allegra today, so that the swallowable pills aren't an issue on other days, but still...it doesn't change that I have this pit in my stomach because I feel bad that she had to go off to school after we were both so frustrated.

I think I'm gonna send my wishes out into the universe for some good smooth mornings where everything goes as planned. Maybe one day it will happen!

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

I have had those mornings more than I care to count with my DD. My DD does not like to eat breakfast at home, but luckily I drive her, so I give her breakfast to eat in the car.
Since your DD takes the bus, what about a yogurt shake in the morning? She can sip it while she's getting ready or what not.
I'm sure she can't take food on the bus, so I'm not even going to suggest that.
I find that if I make breakfast something fun, my DD will eat. For example, I make her mini "panwiches". I use mini pancakes and make sandwiches out of them. Sometimes I put just jelly in them, other times I'll put banana slices or sometimes cream cheese. She LOVES them. Whatever it is, I make it the night before so I'm not rushing in the morning to get her breakfast ready.
Does your DD have snack in the morning at school? If not, I really would complain. That's insane to not have lunch until 1pm and not have snack.
I usually pack my DD a big snack for the morning time. That helps, too.
And just know that it's ok to have a rough morning every now and then. It's part of life. Just talk to DD when she gets home about it. I find that asking my DD if she wants to have a good morning or a bad morning works too. Hang in there!

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

Thank you --- she does have yogurt smoothies sometimes. She was actually doing *great* with breakfast for so long and I thought this year might just be a better year. I was getting her to drink a yogurt smoothie AND eat a pancake or french toast or something like that...I was a lucky Momma I guess! Lol...

I even made shape pancakes this weekend and froze them....made the pancake batter and piped them into the pan as butterflies, hearts and flowers. I reheat them and she doesn't like them, yet she loves them when the yare fresh on the weekend. It is just hard to make them fresh everyday during the week KWIM?

She does have a working snack at 12 every day, when they get back from their prep. I usually try to send something like a breakfast bar, crackers with a few cheese slices, something like that so that I feel like it might hold her over until lunch...but even at that, if she leaves the house without eating anything, 12 is still a long time to go!

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

We all have bad mornings. My goal (and I'm not always successful) is to be patience as much as I possibly can.

I have one kid that is not a morning person; the other a morning person (which annoys the non-morning kid). One kid that power eats breakfast; another just wants something light & brings a heavier snack to school.

Sometimes if they're having a particularly bad morning, I'll blast music that we all like. This morning, I had one kid that was particularly grumpy, so I declared we were all trapped in the 80s & went with 80s music. I'm sure my kids are both stuck with hearing "867-5309" for the rest of the day but it lifted their spirits slightly.

I'll also say, "Ok, let's try to start the morning over." & give them a hug if they seem like they need it. I think some kids aren't morning people & need a little more coddling without kowtowing to the kid.

One thing that makes my mornings significantly less stressful is if I am dressed & ready before them. If I helped them lay out their clothes the night before, even better.

As for the pill thing, it's something they get used to. It's pretty impressive to get a 5 year old to swallow a pill. We were told to try M&Ms or something small (and that they like) first.

While I never had it as a kid, my DH swears by it - we've given the non-eater Carnation Instant breakfast, which fills her up a bit more.

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

Luckily one thing that is done every morning is that I'm awake and dressed and fed before Emily wakes up. Lol...I'm up at 5:20 every morning. I shower, get dressed and start the coffee, and then the little girl I watch gets dropped off at 6:15-6:20. She chills on the couch for a bit and I make breakfast around 6:45, and I'm done eating by about 7:10. Emily's alarm clock goes off at 7:15 and she comes downstairs by 7:20 most mornings. (Aside from those mornings where she hits the OFF button and crawls back into bed! This morning was one of those mornings! )

B -- you make it sound like you have every trick up your sleeve! And some mornings I do have plenty of them myself. I guess this morning was a miss and I ran out of tricks and the patience to use them!

Luckily we have until Monday morning to get it right again....thank goodness for long weekends!

I am also going to try Carnation Instant Breakfast, that's one we haven't tried before!

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

I go through the same thing everyday with my 7year old in 2nd grade. he get up 45 minutes before we have to leave!! thats it. and in that time he has to get dressed, brush teeth, eat, and take his two asthma meds. So im right there with you. I find granola bars are the easiest things in the morning for him.

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

I ask myself the same question

Re: How do you deal with frustrating mornings?

My God, I could have written this word for word. Our mornings are SO ROUGH. It starts out with me CARRYING her down the stairs to the couch. I cannot get her out of bed if I don't do this. She then sleeps on the couch while I prepare her breakfast, make her sandwich and make my coffee. I then have to sit with her and spoon feed her each bite of her pancake or waffle. I HAVE to do this because she is the worst eater in the world. She cannot go off to school without eating..she doesn't register hunger at all. So that takes about a half hour. Then time to get dressed, she whines throughout the ENTIRE process. Then comes her clothes issue..she will ONLY wear socks from payless (doesnt feel the lines across the toes from there) so if I dont have them all washed and clean, an outburst ensues. We race to get a go gurt in her before walking out the door..where another meltdown ensues about getting buckled into the car. She whines that her shirt is bothering her, its too cold or too hot, the sun is in her eyes and I could go on. Thank God by the time we get out of the car, she is wide awake and ready for school. I on the other hand have lived an entire day by that point and I am ready for BED. I dread the mornings..I have no advice but sometimes being able to connect with someone who is going through the SAME thing is just as good. So you have my sympathies.